3-Levers of Emission Control-Modeling Framework: Modeling GHG Emissions When Direct Measurement is not Possible

Abstract

The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) requires the measurement and reporting of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of companies and products in CO2-equivalent, considering all stages of their Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) where scopes 1, 2, and 3 emission categories are included. The GHG Protocol Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard distinguishes between the “direct measurement” and ”indirect measurement”, i.e. activity-based measurement. The most accurate method would be to directly measure the GHG emissions. However, in many companies, this is not possible due to the unavailability of adequate measurement sensorics. For the activity-based LCA, the ISO14000 family of standards constructs an environmental management system by using a “technical” terminology. In contrast to that, the “E-Liability Accounting System” from Kaplan/Ramanna is casted in the language of financial and cost accounting. Accordingly, it presents the LCA of products GHG emission in a well-established and familiar theoretical foundation. The E-Liability Accounting System is constructed mainly at the conceptual level, as the activity-based GHG measurement and the distinction of scopes 1, 2, and 3 are not really operationalized. In this paper, these limitations are addressed by operationalizing the E-Liability Accounting System within the “3 Levers of Emission Control (3-LoEC)-modeling framework”. This framework allows the explicit specification of activity-based GHG measurement metrics all over the product’s life cycle. Due to the CSRD compliance, the 3-LoEC-modeling framework possesses practical validity. This carries over to its derived metrics. The applicability of the 3-LoEC-metrics is demonstrated in a use case, where a “food-bowl” is produced via injection molding technology.