The impact of sustainable development approach on carbon footprint of the company

Abstract

Industrial activities are closely related to environmental issues which are displayed as frequent extreme weather conditions, natural disasters, and other intensive changes. European Green Deal is the latest European action plan to mitigate climate change and introduce sustainable development by policymakers. The environmental impact of companies is very important to meet future sustainability. One of the basic steps in the analysis of the environmental profile of the company is the identification of hot spots by using the carbon footprint methodology. The workflow and the tool for the carbon footprint methodology implementation were developed for the case of strategic planning for a medium-sized company following the standardized methodology given by the GHG Protocol. Relevant emission sources within the hot spots are identified and analyzed. The sensitivity analysis for different pre-defined scenarios is made to meet the company's mid and long-term strategic goals. Results show that the main contributors to the overall carbon footprint are purchased electricity, purchased heat, and combustion of fuels in company-owned/controlled vehicles. GHG emissions from purchased electricity and heat heavily depend on emission factors of electricity and heat sources. Also, changes in electricity and heat supply sources have a significant impact on GHG emissions.