Methodology for Carbon Footprint Calculation Towards Sustainable Innovation in Intangible Assets

Edurne Loyarte-López,Mario Barral,Juan Carlos Morla

doi:10.3390/su12041629

Abstract

Calculating the carbon footprint is fundamental to understand how an organization’s activities impact global sustainability. The main challenge is how to calculate it when environmental aspects are intangible assets. The present paper investigates in what ways the environmental effects of 13 aspects in relation with R&D activities in an applied research center could contribute to sustainable development. For this purpose, we described methodology to routinely measure greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and calculate the carbon footprint (CF) of all research activities related to intangible assets (R&D projects, researchers’ knowledge and software libraries) with real-time data being provided. Selection of conversion factors to express all GHG emissions are described, in particular those related to air travel on account of its greatest contribution to CF. In addition, these data were used as a factor in assessing the environmental impact of the center, under ISO 14001. As a result, our center can manage its CF and make decisions about how to enhance sustainability awareness at all levels of the organization and gradually improve CF data, of which the main contributors were transportation and travel (66.4%) and electricity (33.1%) in 2018.

Highlights

The results of surveys requested by the European Commission, in 2012, [1] indicated that approximately 52% of European citizens believe that companies have a positive influence on society, with 71% thinking that, compared with large companies, small and medium size enterprises (SME)s make efforts to behave responsibly
The decline in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 182,400 kgCO2e in 2017 to 174,536.9 kgCO2e in 2018, and showing a downward trend in 2019, resulted from remedial actions, such as purchasing an LPG vehicle for employee use, replacing fluorescent with LED lighting, increasing the consumption of renewable energy, encouraging the use of videoconferences as an alternative to travel, and communication actions, with environmental awareness messages addressed to all staff
This article presents carbon footprint (CF) calculations generated by intangibles carefully described, in such a way that it can be directly implemented in other organizations

Summary

Introduction

The results of surveys requested by the European Commission, in 2012, [1] indicated that approximately 52% of European citizens believe that companies have a positive influence on society, with 71% thinking that, compared with large companies, small and medium size enterprises (SME)s make efforts to behave responsibly Regardless of their size and sector, companies and organizations can play a meaningful role in building a more sustainable planet. Collaboration among heterogeneous actors (e.g., informal collaborations, strategic alliances, joint ventures, partnerships, R&D consortia, associations, clusters, and networks) facilitates knowledge diffusion and learning to be applied in cross-cutting issues, such as the management of climate change [5] Within this framework of environmental awareness, any responsible action, even at small scale, might help pave the way towards large-scale changes in global sustainability.

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