Toward a Low-Carbon Economy: The Clim’Foot Project Approach …
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launched. Organizations that declared their interest signed an agreement for participating to the Clim’Foot project, and committed themselves to attend both on-line
and two-day on-site training.
In the second phase, the organizations collected data and calculated their CFO.
The layout of the CFO report is standardized and includes: information about the
organization, definition of the boundaries, description of the data collection, results
of the CFO calculation and hotspot analysis, which allows the identification of the
main sources of GHG emissions. Most of the end-users reached a good understanding
of the different aspects that have to be faced to calculate CFO, in particular how to
select EFs for activities under their direct control (e.g. the consumption of purchased
electricity) or relevant products/materials used in the production activities.
The third phase—reduction of the GHG emissions—is an important milestone of
the Clim’Foot approach. Based on the hotspot analysis, a plan of mitigation actions
has been defined—supported also by an economic evaluation—together with the
definition of targets and a timeline. Examples of hotspots identified by public organizations were the reorganization and control of employees’ travels, business travels
and purchase of new company cars. The mitigation actions identified by organizations
involved an increased use of renewable energy in combined heating and electricity
system, the improvement of energy efficiency, the updating of heating systems. The
actions for the transition to low-carbon organizations were classified into quick-wins
(short term), priority actions (mid-term) and strategic actions, and their prioritization
and the assessment of the results due to the action implementation were supported by
a technical committee. Moreover, the communication of the carbon footprint results
to several departments of organizations and to suppliers increased their environmental awareness and offered the opportunity to identify new possible mitigation
actions.
3.3 The Policymakers’ Involvement
The approach proposed suggests an early involvement of policymakers in Technical
National Committees, as they are in charge of implementing regulations and public
policies for the reduction of GHG emissions. Such an involvement has a twofold
advantage: on the one side, they can access training sessions from the beginning
of the process related to the approach and its objectives; on the other side they
can give feedbacks on the process and suggest future initiatives of replicability and
transferability, taking into considerations needs and wishes at policy level.
The final goal is to create a dynamic European network for carbon accounting,
able to answer the following expectations:
• raising awareness among policymakers at national, regional and local level;
• exchanging best practices;
• fostering replicability and transferability of the experiences.
85
launched. Organizations that declared their interest signed an agreement for participating to the Clim’Foot project, and committed themselves to attend both on-line
and two-day on-site training.
In the second phase, the organizations collected data and calculated their CFO.
The layout of the CFO report is standardized and includes: information about the
organization, definition of the boundaries, description of the data collection, results
of the CFO calculation and hotspot analysis, which allows the identification of the
main sources of GHG emissions. Most of the end-users reached a good understanding
of the different aspects that have to be faced to calculate CFO, in particular how to
select EFs for activities under their direct control (e.g. the consumption of purchased
electricity) or relevant products/materials used in the production activities.
The third phase—reduction of the GHG emissions—is an important milestone of
the Clim’Foot approach. Based on the hotspot analysis, a plan of mitigation actions
has been defined—supported also by an economic evaluation—together with the
definition of targets and a timeline. Examples of hotspots identified by public organizations were the reorganization and control of employees’ travels, business travels
and purchase of new company cars. The mitigation actions identified by organizations
involved an increased use of renewable energy in combined heating and electricity
system, the improvement of energy efficiency, the updating of heating systems. The
actions for the transition to low-carbon organizations were classified into quick-wins
(short term), priority actions (mid-term) and strategic actions, and their prioritization
and the assessment of the results due to the action implementation were supported by
a technical committee. Moreover, the communication of the carbon footprint results
to several departments of organizations and to suppliers increased their environmental awareness and offered the opportunity to identify new possible mitigation
actions.
3.3 The Policymakers’ Involvement
The approach proposed suggests an early involvement of policymakers in Technical
National Committees, as they are in charge of implementing regulations and public
policies for the reduction of GHG emissions. Such an involvement has a twofold
advantage: on the one side, they can access training sessions from the beginning
of the process related to the approach and its objectives; on the other side they
can give feedbacks on the process and suggest future initiatives of replicability and
transferability, taking into considerations needs and wishes at policy level.
The final goal is to create a dynamic European network for carbon accounting,
able to answer the following expectations:
• raising awareness among policymakers at national, regional and local level;
• exchanging best practices;
• fostering replicability and transferability of the experiences.