From a business perspective, rights to emit greenhouse gases are an asset and emissions are a liability. Greenhouse gas emission trading is a market-based regulatory instrument. Consequently, emissions can impact financial performance. It is important to understand how your business is situated with respect to the following climate change issues:
- What emerging statutes and regulations for GHG management will impact your business activities and operations?
- What are the risks or opportunities for your business activities and operations?
- How does your business compare to industry peers or other industry sectors?
- Is carbon or GHG management identified as part of your business model?
MEMS recommends implementing a step-by-step framework for reducing carbon footprints (reducing liabilities) that drives business outcomes and good environmental performance. The framework reflects continual improvement within which new practices and technologies are reviewed as they emerge. Benefits of the framework are:
- Reduced Input Costs
- Improved Reputation
- Improved Market Opportunities
- Reduced Business Risk
Services MEMS offers include:
- estimating greenhouse gases for new construction applications, as well as verifying assertions of overages, which ensures that clients are only paying for overages they are responsible for. MEMS will provide:
- guidance on emissions sources to include in a corporate or plant-site inventory; and
- quantification and verification of emissions;
- researching best practice in your industry to see what others are achieving and undertaking any opportunities for assessment (audit) to assist in objective setting;
- summarizing regulatory and voluntary carbon targets that may affect your business and estimate the financial implications given the price of energy, price of carbon, cost of compliance and voluntary commitments, which lead to stronger, more rational decision making;
- assisting in establishing a list of emission avoidance alternatives and the benefits and cost of each;
- calculating the energy use and GHG emission reductions from co-generation as well as estimating the financial savings;
- assisting in establishing facility-specific targets for reducing GHG emissions from oil and gas facilities, landfills and waste-water treatment facilities;
- providing full environmental and permitting support for waste to energy facilities;
- identifying natural sequestration opportunities to offset a portion of industrial GHG emissions and determine their cost; and
- providing a complete package of support for CCS, including all environmental and permitting requirements for power generation, carbon pipelines and injection.
If you are not meeting your emission reduction objectives, are there opportunities you have overlooked? Are your decision criteria appropriate? MEMS can help you review your residual emissions by offering:
- guidance or verification services on sourcing and purchasing offsets, or actively facilitating the creation of carbon credits from valid projects; and
- complete regulatory filing of emissions and in the review/update of offsets.
Please contact us if you have any questions about the services we provide.
