Sustainability & Risk / Green Building / Carbon Footprint - Background Data

Managing Carbon Footprint Protocols

To calculate the carbon footprint for your buildings, the application uses conversion factors, emission factors, and consumption factors referenced in specific protocols. Archibus ships with a protocol that computes greenhouse gas (GHG) equivalents for Scope 1 (direct emissions) and Scopes 2 and Scope 3 (indirect emissions). You can elect to employ the included protocol and its methodologies, or you can define your own fuel compositions and consumption standards through the background data definition tasks for the Carbon Footprint- Background Data process.

The carbon footprint tasks in Archibus Green Building follow the framework documented by the World Resources Institute/World Business Council for Sustainable Development's (WRI/WBCSD) GHG Protocol Corporate Standard.

If you require further modification of computational methods, the Green Building application encapsulates the computations in Java-based Archibus workflow rules that may be edited according to established Archibus procedures.

The built-in unit conversion process enables you to configure conversion values and enter data in any units desired. See Defining Units.

Selecting pre-defined data for fields that contribute to the primary key for new records

When adding new records from the Carbon Footprint Background Data tasks, several views have a Select Value button that enables you to select from existing values to enter a field that contributes to the primary key for the new record. This is helpful when adding records for a new protocol version, as it enables you to select a preexisting value ensuring that it is correctly entered without having to type it in the form. However, the value for the field must be unique for that protocol version; if you select a value that already exists for that protocol version, you will need to modify the value. Alternately, you can type the value for the new record into the form.

The following tasks include this feature:

Task	Field that contributes to the primary key and that uses the Select Value button
Global Warming Potential	Gas/Refrigerant Name
Mobile Factors	Vehicle Type
Aircraft Factors	Aircraft Type
Refrigeration Factors	Refrigeration/Air-Conditioning Type
Solid Waste Factors	Waste Name
Wastewater Factors	Treatment System ID

Task Overview

Use the following tasks to review the emission, consumption, and conversion factors for the protocol versions included with the application by default. The application uses this data to calculate the carbon footprint for your buildings based on the consumption and source data you enter in the Carbon Footprint - Track process. Alternatively, you can use these tasks to document a different protocol version.

The following table describes the background data tasks and the consumption data for which it is used to calculation emissions.

Background Data (Click a task to learn more.)	Description	Used to calculate emissions for this source consumption data
Energy Grid Emissions	Energy grids provide the information necessary to compute greenhouse gas emissions for electricity generated from particular areas.	Purchased Electricity, Heat and Steam Outsourced Activities Off-Site Servers
Fuels	Use the Fuels task to add Fuel Base Codes (fuel types), and specific fuels or fuel technologies for the fuels for which you want to calculate greenhouse gas emissions. Fuels are used in the following background data, so you should define fuels before adding this information: Fuel Density Heat Content Oxidation Factors Carbon Content Emission Factors Aircraft Factors	On-Site Stationary Fuel Consumption Company-Owned Transportation (Air)
Sectors	You define sectors that you associate with emission factors for methane and nitrous oxide. These emission factors vary by type of sector. See Emission Factors (Non-CO2)	On-Site Stationary Fuel Combustion (Methane and Nitrous Oxide Emissions)
Fuel Density	Fuel Density relates the volume of fuel to the mass of the fuel.	On-Site Stationary Fuel Combustion Company-Owned Transportation (Air)
Heat Contents	Heat content measures a fuel's energy content per unit mass. To calculate emissions, fuel consumption data in mass or volume units must first be converted into the energy content of the fuel.	On-Site Stationary Fuel Combustion Company-Owned Transportation (Air)
Oxidation Factors	Oxidation factors measure the percentage of carbon that is actually oxidized when combustion occurs. The oxidation factor is used to calculate the amount of the fuel that is contributing to carbon dioxide emissions.	On-Site Stationary Fuel Combustion (carbon dioxide emissions)
Carbon Content	The Carbon Content task enables the application to configure the carbon dioxide (CO2) emission factor.	On-Site Stationary Fuel Combustion (carbon dioxide emissions) Company-Owned Transportation (Air)
Emission Factors (Non-CO2)	Using the Emission Factors task, you add emission factors for methane and nitrous oxide by fuel, by sector, or by technology.	On-Site Stationary Fuel Combustion (Methane and Nitrous Oxide Emissions)
Global Warming Potential	Global Warming Potential (GWP) is the ability of one unit of a greenhouse gas to trap heat in the atmosphere as compared to one unit of carbon dioxide over a given time period. The GWP is a way to compare emissions from different gases.	Archibus calculates total emissions for a source by calculating carbon dioxide equivalents for methane and nitrous oxide for the following sources of emissions: Refrigerant and Air-Conditioning On-Site Stationary Fuel Combustion (Methane and Nitrous Oxide Emissions) Company-Owned Transportation (Road) Purchased Electricity, Heat, and Steam Wastes (Liquid) Employee Transportation (Road) Employee Transportation (Rail) Employee Transportation (Air) Off-Site Servers Contractor-Owned Vehicles
Mobile Factors	Mobile factors are sources of data for emissions from the combustion of fuels in rail and road vehicles.	Company-Owned Transportation (Road) Employee Transportation (Road) Employee Transportation (Rail) Contractor-Owned Vehicles
Aircraft Factors	Aircraft factors are sources of data for company-owned aircraft fuel consumption by fuel and aircraft type.	Company-Owned Transportation (Air)
Refrigeration Factors	Refrigeration factors are emission factor data by type of refrigeration or air-conditioning equipment.	Refrigerant and Air-Conditioning
Solid Waste Factors	Solid waste factors calculate emissions from solid waste for which you enter the Amount Disposed , and the Amount Recycled.	Wastes (Solid)
Wastewater Factors	Wastewater emissions estimate emissions from wastewater collection and treatment systems.	Wastes (Liquid)
Commercial Aircraft Factors	Commercial aircraft factors measure greenhouse gas emissions by commercial aircraft seat class and type of flight.	Employee Transportation (Air)
Manage Factors Versions	From this task, you can add, review, edit, or delete version names for all the different Carbon Footprint Protocols from one location. The version names you enter are used by the above background data tasks to define factors data.	The protocols you enter are used to calculate each type of source emissions data.
Define Units	The Define Units task enables you to customize the standard units included with Archibus. Using this task, you can add, edit, or delete units for use with protocols or source consumption values.