Scope 3 Greenhouse Gas
- Scope 1 greenhouse gas is direct emissions, largely the impact of fuel burning in company operations. Scope 2 greenhouse gas is indirect emissions, largely the impact of fuel burning used to produce electricity used in company operations. Scope 3 is everything else, all indirect impacts up and down the value chain.
- I assumed leadership of the Kohler Co. Scope 3 greenhouse gas metrics collection project and worked towards setting a Scope 3 strategy in the last nine months before retiring. I can help your company understand and take action to reduce your Scope 3 greenhouse gas impacts.
- Established a collaborative network of associates that crossed functional, business unit, and geographic boundaries. This network included three vice presidents (monthly update meetings for each), cross-functional teams in multiple business units, multiple data analysts in India, and several engineering co-ops. The team collaborated on data collection, greenhouse gas impact calculations, internal reporting processes, and aligning on impact reduction strategies.
Several Kohler Co. customers requested that EcoVadis evaluate Kohler Co. ESG performance. I managed the collection and reporting of ESG information to EcoVadis. In 2023, we increased the EcoVadis score from the 40th percentile to a Silver Medal (76th percentile).
We ask for explanations for the biggest changes in operational footprint.
Often we find the change is
normal – the production level or product mixture changed, a machine failed and needed to be fixed, product sales went up or down with associated
changes in manufacturing efficiency, etc. But sometimes we find that the data change was a short term error that could be easily remedied. Our policy is to be able to explain the reasons for 80% of the change in environmental footprint.
We look for similar operations
so we can compare performance internally. How can one plant use 1 liter of water to
make a widget when another plant needs 6 liters of water per widget? Once we are
assured the data is correct,
we know where to look for future reduction opportunities.
We look for missing data. Most
organizations will have a list of all business properties for insurance purposes. We make sure that we either have (a) utility bills for all locations or (b) that we confirm there are no company paid invoices and (c) estimate any missing utility bills.
- This process required careful study & interpretation of the GHG Protocol, benchmarking with external companies, and frequent communication & alignment with company and business unit leadership.
- We use activity-based data wherever possible, such as the number of hotel nights used by employees while on business travel or supplier reported GHG data. When activity-based data is not available, we use economic-based measures. For example, we know from work done by others that purchasing one million USD of a certain good is likely to have a certain greenhouse gas impact.