Resource

Climate Change

September 15, 2005

The Big Picture

An increase in human-created activities and industries that release greenhouse gases may be leading to an alarming rise in heat-trapping gases. Scientists say the Earth’s average global surface temperature could rise 1.6°F to 6.3°F by 2100, with significant regional variation. Warmer temperatures, increased frequency of storms, hurricane, floods, and droughts, insect proliferation, rising oceans, and shrinking polar ice caps support the theory that human economic activity affects the global atmosphere.

The Context

Certain gases accumulate in the Earth’s atmosphere, trapping heat much like a greenhouse. Most greenhouse gas emissions, about 82%, come from carbon dioxide, created by burning fossil fuels to generate electricity and power vehicles. Nitrous oxide, methane, and carbon dioxide come from wastes in landfills, livestock, agriculture, mining, natural gas pipelines, coal, industrial chemicals, and other sources. Human activity is also eradicating carbon-absorbing “sinks” such as trees and ocean plankton.

Most scientists agree that human activity releases more greenhouse gases than can be naturally regulated by the Earth. However, less consensus has been reached on how much the climate is changing and how much of that change we can link to human activity. Regulations and government-led action are beginning to address the issue, suggesting that countries work with industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Industries have responded by becoming more energy efficient, creating energy-efficient products, and inventorying emissions to get a clear picture of problem activities. Climate change, however, is not a quick-fix problem. Emerging technologies and proactive activities such as forest replanting and cogeneration eventually will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but drastic reduction requires drastic change in our manufacturing, consumption, and transportation systems.

Getting Down to Business

Fossil fuels processed for energy and vehicle fuel generate the largest percentage of greenhouse gases. Major corporate efforts to curb global warming start with energy-efficient practices and changes to transportation habits. Manufacturers and industry can adopt more specific and specialized practices such as cogeneration or boiler efficiency, to reduce greenhouse gases, reuse the gases, and save energy. Additionally, technology changes in automobiles, airplanes, agriculture, manufacturing processes (such as using lasers to cut logs and using electron beams to sterilize food product containers) create ways to do and make things without emitting as many greenhouse gases.

Kodak’s Digital Video Camera gives an alternative to fossil-fuel-burning business travel trips. The camera allows users to shoot still pictures or motion video, as well as have live teleconferences, using home or office computers. This camera is priced lower than most airline tickets ($169).
Farmers in Iowa practiced no-till or conservation till techniques and, in 1998, saved one to two gallons of diesel fuel per acre. This translates into 35,000 to 70,000 MTCE (metric tons carbon equivalent) reduction. Conservation tillage also reduces soil erosion and promotes soil carbon storage.
Fred Meyer stores in Portland, Ore., instituted three employee vanpools in 1997. The store leases the vans, covering the cost of gas and maintenance, and the local public transportation agency absorbs a portion of the cost. Store employees are responsible for recruiting vanpool members. Vanpooling saves employees nearly 800,000 commute miles each year, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 100 MTCE annually. Vanpooling also saves employees more than $50,000 in gasoline costs each year and earned the store an award in 1999.
The 200,000-square-foot IKEA retail store in Renton, Wash., upgraded 78% of its lit area to energy-efficient lights, and estimates that the investment will pay for itself in less than two years. The company estimates that the changeover will reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide by 16.5 tons per year, nitrogen oxides by 6.5 tons, and carbon dioxide by almost 2,000 tons.

Key Players

Government programs, such as the ClimateWise partnership through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, help business and industry to assess GHG emissions and take steps to reduce those emissions. The U.S. created the Climate Change Action Plan to encourage voluntary GHG emission-reduction actions by offering tax incentives and breaks for energy-efficient measures, grants for energy-efficient technology, and other assistance.
Industry role models must set the mark for which other companies reach. The move to reduce greenhouse gas emissions presently must come from within the company and in response to popular trends, until government regulation is firmed. For example, car makers such as Ford recently vowed to make more fuel-efficient sports utility vehicles.
Greenhouse gas emission inventory programs quantify emissions and give benchmarks for measuring successful emissions reduction programs. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sets standards for national GHG emissions inventories. Private industry companies can use software, internal resources, or consulting firms to assist in conducting their own inventories.
Private-sector investors can support sustainable “climate-friendly” projects in developing countries. Several programs (World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Development Program) support these sustainable development efforts. The U.S. government-sponsored Joint Implementation projects help developing countries sequester carbon or develop energy-efficient projects.

The Upside

Companies reducing their greenhouse gas emissions can derive a number of benefits. For example:

Greenhouse gas emission reduction measures go hand in hand with energy- and resource-efficient practices, leading to cost and energy savings. Businesses that improve processes and buildings efficiency can reduce carbon emissions by 25% to 50% while lowering energy costs.
Climate protection is good public relations, especially as consumers begin to notice the effects of global warming and act to respond.
Halting or slowing global warming most obviously benefits the environment: soil vitality, ocean levels, climate, and organism health will stabilize as greenhouse gases decrease.
Businesses that are flexible and responsive can alter products with the development of climate change regulations and/or offer new products and services that address or satisfy climate change issues.
Companies that examine their operations to inventory and regulate greenhouse gases are likely to find other ways to streamline and improve operations, saving money and increasing productivity.

Reality Check

Many consumers and businesses are overwhelmed by the concept and scope of climate change, and don’t know what they can do or how their small action can reduce global warming.
Uncertainty exists regarding the nature, scope, and timing of government regulations. The Kyoto Protocol, which has not yet been ratified by the United States or other developed countries, sets binding emissions targets for many countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; the U.S. target is reductions to 7% below 1990 levels. Most states have inventoried greenhouse gas emissions and some have voluntary programs working with businesses to reduce emissions. However, emissions reduction programs can vary by jurisdiction, leaving the private sector to wrestle through climate change issues on its own.
In the future, industry may face carbon taxes or constraints on operations.
Manufacturing process, equipment, and industries based on unlimited and inexpensive fossil fuels will be vulnerable to future climate regulations.
Actual climate change could increase business operational costs, affect suppliers, employees, and consumers, and cause large climate and weather changes, which could affect business health.

Action Plan

To address climate change issues, a business can take several different routes: Implement general “climate-friendly” practices; do an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions to prepare for future legislation; and make significant modifications to manufacturing processes, operations, and facilities. To start, businesses should identify how it emits greenhouse gases, identify which operations would be affected by climate change; and begin to identify methods to reduce emissions.

General practices:

Energy efficiency: use energy-efficient appliances; implement energy efficient building or remodeling techniques; develop energy efficient lighting, heating, and cooling practices.
Alternative energy: use passive and active solar for heating and cooling; obtain power from a provider that offers power generated from wind, sun, hydrothermal, and other renewable sources.
Transportation: use fuel-efficient or alternative fuel vehicles; avoid driving or travel by walking, biking, using public transportation; do business meetings by teleconferencing rather than traveling.

GHG emissions inventory:

Understand the uses of emissions inventory (for internal gauging, external reporting, financial benefit); decide which emissions to include in the inventory; be flexible, honest, and innovative when conducting the inventory. Obtain software or other outside help to conduct the inventory.

Some specific manufacturing action steps:

Process heating energy efficiency measures such as insulation, combustion air control, and burner adjustment.
Steam efficiency measures: steam trap maintenance, leak repair, insulation.
Waste heat recovery and cogeneration.
Use of alternative fuels to power machinery.

Leads

Business and Climate Web site, sponsored by GEMI (Global Environmental Management Initiative, One Thomas Circle NW, Tenth Fl., Washington, DC 20005; 202-296-7449; 202-296-7442 (fax); gemi@worldweb.net) has a wealth of resources: an overview of the issue; steps in the planning process to address climate change; practical steps such as facility design, energy efficiency, management initiatives; and more.
Climate Change Action Plan lists the federal government’s voluntary partnerships between private sector and government that address climate change. Includes Climate Wise, Climate Challenge, Energy Star Buildings, Green Lights, WasteWise, Natural Gas Star, and more.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (P.O. Box 260124, Bonn, D-53153 Germany; 49-228-815-1000; 49-228-815-1999 (fax); secretariat@unfccc.de) is the 1992 agreement that recognizes the dangers of greenhouse gases and the human creation of those gases and encourages ratifying countries to reduce GHG levels to 1990 levels by the year 2000. A 1997 addition to the convention, the Kyoto Protocol, is a legally binding agreement to reduce GHG emissions roughly 5% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. No industrialized nation has signed the Kyoto Protocol.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Climate Wise program Industry Query tool helps companies identify cost-effective methods to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It gives case studies of projects that require minimal capital investment, have a high return on investment, and result in cost savings and additional benefits for the companies.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ClimateLink gives users access to educational and outreach materials on climate change. Useful for company education programs.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Change Information Web site provides a very comprehensive overview of the climate change problem.

Bottom Line

Industry does not exist in vacuum but creates waste that harms the natural world in increasingly predictable ways; the byproducts of most businesses — nitrous oxide, methane, carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gases — threaten the weather and the long-term outlook for the climate of our planet. To be a good neighbor among stakeholders, and improve your bottom line, act for the climate. Not against it.