Ryan Galiotto

Posts Tagged ‘carbon’

Included in the general verification protocol of the Climate Registry is a materiality definition that allows for a threshold of 5%, under or over statement, relating to direct or indirect emissions of gas. When referring to direct emission, this relates to a gas emission on site or during a leak. Indirect emission classifies a discharge during production from goods or resources.

Greenhouse gases lead to global warming, which will cause an adverse change in our climate. There are six main gases being tracked by The Climate Registry. They are hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons, which are commonly found in refrigerants, carbon dioxide, methane, sulfur hexafluoride and nitrous oxide.

Confusion initially surrounded the materiality definition issued by the Climate Registry. The term “absolute value basis” was very confusing and has since been replaced by a clause which allows for a 5% over statement or understatement threshold allowance.

The materiality definition in The Climate Registrys verification standards addresses emissions reported by entities located in North America. However, since North American and worldwide emission reports are geographically different, the registry requires separate, stand alone verification statements for both regions. The documents must include the materiality threshold plus the threshold for emissions calculated using simplified methods for each area.

Organizations are permitted to specifically define their gas emissions in respect to which emissions could be classified as insignificant within their particular operation. The 5% materiality definition is classified to represent the amount of insignificant emissions allowed, and is a standard within financial accounting practices.

The materiality definition has been included to address simple errors or mistakes with regard to greenhouse gas emissions. The 5% is intended to allow for rounding errors, uncertain emission factors, numerical mistakes or other miscalculations. Any difference between true emissions and stated emissions is inaccurate if the variance is larger than 5%.

Established in 2007, the Climate Registry provides a standardized method for companies located in North America, i.e. the United States, Canada and Mexico. This nonprofit agency aims to get a better understanding of the harmful effects of greenhouse gases by asking companies to report their emissions. Whilst the Registry was established to assist in voluntary reporting, it does support policies that involve mandatory reporting and regulatory oversite of greenhouse gas emissions.

The materiality definition is one of several reporting protocols required by the Climate Registry. Reporting of indirect and direct emissions on an operational, facility, geographical and company level is another level of protocols. Many companies are turning to refrigerant management programs to help them to automatically track and report emissions from refrigeration and air conditioning systems or heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems.

Within The Climate Registry, there are organizational boundaries that define requirements for the accounting and reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. They specifically define which emissions an entity is tracking and reporting. A number of companies throughout North America are voluntarily providing this information on an ongoing basis in an effort to reduce the potential for global warming.

By definition, organizational boundaries determine an entitys operation and whether it is owned or controlled by the reporting company. The reporting can be based on either the equity share or control consolidation approach.

One of the means of defining organizational boundaries is the equity share approach. This accounting method is used to report greenhouse gases emissions for each operation based on its sheer of the economic pie. The percentage would determine the extent of ownership that an entity has based on a simple profit and loss share of the entire operation.

Organizational boundaries can be defined using the control approach. This approach determines an accounting method where an entity will report 100% of its GHG emissions, irregardless of ownership.

The Climate Registry is a nonprofit, non-government organization that distributes information aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The registry has developed standards to be used by businesses and governments throughout North America to calculate, verify and report their greenhouse gas emissions in one, unified registry. Currently, over 330 corporations representing most industry sectors, government entities and nonprofit groups are members of the registry.

Organizational boundaries must be reported in full under the greenhouse gas emissions registry. Reports are required for revenue and nonrevenue services, administrative buildings, leased or owned stations and facilities, services provided under contract to another company, privately operated services, van pools and paratransit.

It has been known for a long time that greenhouse gases leads to global warming. Several environmentally damaging gases are found in refrigeration and cooling systems, and known villains include hydrochlorofluorocarbons, chlorofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and carbon dioxide, methane, chlorine, bromine, nitrous oxide, methyl bromide, methyl chloroform, sulfur hexafluoride, hydroxyl, halons, carbon tetrachloride, fluorine, and the fluorinated gases hydrofluorinated ethers and nitrogen trifluoride.

In the Climate Registrys inventory management plan, facilities need to indicate whether they are reporting based on either the control approach with equity share using operational control criteria; control approach with equity share using financial control; control approach based on operational control; or control approach based using financial control criteria. The inventory reporting document also includes a facilities and association emissions section in which a master list of all the buildings under an entitys organizational boundaries must be listed, along with their addresses, percentage of ownership or control, types of emissions and type of equipment or source. Because of the complexity of emissions tracking and reporting, many facilities equipped with refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) systems or heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are using refrigerant management programs to automatically track and report the information.