Organization carbon footprint - scope 3

Question

Hello

in the organization's carbon footprint calculation, I put electricity consumption in scope 2.

But I have a problem with energy related emissions to be shown in scope 3 category 3.

If I want to avoid double counting I should have the emission factor of electricity divided by phase, specifically:

- electricity use phase to be entered in scope 2

- upstream phase of electricity production at the facility where it is produced to be entered in scope 3

- T&D and grid losses to be entered in scope 3.

In Ecoinvent the process market electricity medium voltage IT contains in aggregate form all the contributions so I cannot divide the contributions into the different scopes.

So what can I do?

1. calculate the emissions of the electricity used and enter them only in scope 2

or

2. where to find the emission factors divided by stage of electricity production and distribution.

Thanks to those who can help me.

Answer 1

Hello Tarlon,

To answer the question, i will assume you are using ecoinvent.

It sounds like you are using the LCI database, which only gives you the processes in elementary flows.

If you access the UPR database, you will see the market process divided into several streams. If you calculate the UPR as a product system, you will be able to see the CO2 from each stream. It might be easier to export the results, and treat the data in excel.

OpenLCA was not set up for this type of calculation, and there are allocation choices made in each database that do not necessarily align with the GHG protocol or ISO 14064. Use with caution.

I hope this helps, good luck.

Comments

thanks.
I dowloaded the unit database but I can not see differences.
In Ecoinvent website I found that version 3.8 was developed to fullfil GHG protocol specially for scope 3 category 3, and they developed a spreadsheet with different emission factors for electricity, heat and steam but I can not find it.

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Hello Tarlon,
In the LCI database, a process should contain several elementary flows in the inputs and outputs, marked by the green symbols next to the name of the flow.
In the unit database, each process can contain both elementary, product, and waste flows. The unit database is what you are interested in.
I dont know this document you refer to. Have you tried to look at EcoQuery? This is EcoInvents online platform where you can find databases and documentation.

Good luck

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I'm searching inside Ecoinvent the processes which define:
upstream production of electricity (fuels used)
transmission and distribution losses
which are accounted in scope 3.
emissions in scope 2 are in ecoinvent.
If you check the Defra emissions factors spreadsheet 2023 these data divided by scope are available, but I'm searching the same for worldwide.

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Hello tarlon,
I have done some investigation for you. If you google the document you are referring to, you get a page from ecoinvent, saying you can download it from the files section of EcoQuery. The file should have the answers to your questions. The file is named electricity emission factors - scope 2 - 3 in ecoinvent v3.9.1.7z.
I hope this helps.

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Thank you very much.
I can not see Files section.
This is the problem.
Thanks again for your effort.