News
dcarbon8 presents with Sainsbury's at London Business Conferences on Scope 3 emissions
11th August 2009
On July 20th 2009, dcarbon8 carbon consultant Charles-Eric Pigeot and Sainsbury’s Head of Sustainability and Innovation David Penfold (Store Development Group), presented Sainsbury’s sustainability actions within the supply chain and how the company manages its Scope 3 emissions at the London Business Conferences.
The definition of Scope 3 emissions is derived from The GHG Protocol, which is the leading international standard and guidance document in GHG quantification, reporting and accounting. The GHG protocol defines emissions in terms of three scopes. These scopes or boundaries are a framework for measuring the emissions associated with business operations and accounting for greenhouse gas emissions.
- Scope 1 (GHG emissions from owned sources)
- Scope 2 (Indirect emissions from the consumption of purchased electricity, heat or steam.)
- Scope 3 (Other indirect emissions not covered in scope 2 including paper use, waste and business travel in non-company owned vehicles)
Sainsbury’s recognizes that to accurately present their company’s carbon footprint, they must account for those emissions that they do not directly control - the emissions within their supply chain. This is also known as the embodied carbon footprint, which is in essence their supply chain’s operational carbon footprint.
Charles-Eric Pigeot, dcarbon8, discussed some of the implications of the embodied carbon footprint in construction. Nearly 40% of the annual UK carbon footprint results from buildings emissions, making the built environment, and the embodied carbon impacts of raw materials, an important target for emissions reduction. It is also important to note that embodied carbon is gaining importance because the significant reductions already required in low energy buildings mean that whilst the overall lifetime carbon footprint is lower than a conventional building, the embodied carbon to operational carbon ratio is increasing.
dcarbon8 has worked with Sainsbury’s to account for their scope 3 emissions, specifically assessing the raw materials in the supply chain of their buildings. As a leader in measuring and reducing carbon along supply chains in the built environment, dcarbon8 has studied the embodied carbon impacts of manufacturing, constructing and disposing of building products from cradle to grave.
Sainsbury’s worked with dcarbon8 on two of their buildings, located in Pineham and Dartmouth.
Sainsbury’s worked with ProLogis on the construction of their new distribution centre in Pineham, Northampton. dcarbon8 consulted all suppliers on reducing the carbon impacts throughout the supply chain with successful results: 20% reduction in embodied carbon emissions, 55% reduction in operational carbon, and created a Planet Positive supply chain.
The store in Dartmouth is Sainsbury’s first ‘eco-store.’ It was designed to reduce both its operational and embodied carbon footprint based on benchmarks calculated by dcarbon8 for the Oakley store near Cheltenham.
The embodied carbon footprint was reduced by using timber rather than a steel frame, high material recycle content and reduction of fit-out items (e.g. ceilings). Operational savings were seen by using a biomass boiler to heat the store, on-site renewables (wind turbine), roof lights to maximize daylight and good air tightness and insulation.
David Penfold and Charles-Eric Pigeot also discussed Sainsbury’s future environmental stores and the lessons learned and benefits in both Pineham and Dartmouth, as well as the importance of engaging their entire supply chain and creating best-practice relationships with these low carbon suppliers.