Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a key part of many companies’ sustainability strategy and, depending on the size and type of your facilities and where they are located, can be required by regulators, including those in California and the European Union.
What are greenhouse gases? Simply put, they are gases that trap heat in the atmosphere. And, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency explains, “this heat trapping causes changes in the radiative balance of the Earth — the balance between energy received from the sun and emitted from Earth — that alter climate and weather patterns at global and regional scales.” Exacerbating the warming is the fact that many greenhouse gases are long-lived, “some remaining airborne for tens to hundreds of years after being released,” according to the EPA.
Natural factors, including volcanic eruptions, can increase greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere but the majority are the result of human activity, including manufacturing.
You’re probably familiar with the most common greenhouse gas: carbon dioxide, or CO₂, which, the EPA says, made up 79.9% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2022. Carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels, solid waste and biological materials like trees. Chemical reactions like cement production also send the gas into the atmosphere.
But there are other greenhouse gases, too:
Methane (CH4)
The production and transportation of fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil emit methane, as does livestock. Methane also can come from decay within solid waste landfills. Methane makes up about 11.1% of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the latest numbers from the EPA.
Nitrous oxide (N2O)
Like carbon dioxide and methane, nitrous oxide is emitted by agricultural and industrial activities, as well as during the treatment of wastewater. It makes up 6.1% of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EPA.
Fluorinated gases
This large group of compounds makes up 3.1% of greenhouse gas emissions and includes hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3). As the EPA says, fluorinated gases are “emitted from a variety of household, commercial and industrial applications and processes” and, while they are emitted in smaller quantities than the others mentioned above, “they are potent greenhouse gases.”
Reduce Business Emissions: Scope 1, 2, and 3 Greenhouse Gases
Regulators, researchers and industry have coalesced around a system to help classify the sources of greenhouse gases from industrial activities. This gives companies common ways to measure and control their emissions — and allows stakeholders to gauge their success. Definitions can vary slightly but, in general:
Scope 1 emissions
These are “greenhouse gases a company puts into the atmosphere with its own property,” says Jeremy Gregory, executive director of the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “For instance, when a company burns oil or gas to heat its buildings, these heating fuels create greenhouse gases.”
Scope 2 emissions
These emissions mainly come from electricity that companies buy from the electric grid. While Scope 1 emissions are considered direct, Scope 2 emissions are considered indirect. “Still, as with Scope 1 emissions, the company is clearly and solely responsible for them: If it used less electricity, there would be less demand for coal, gas and other climate-polluting energy sources,” Gregory says in an explainer on MIT’s Climate Portal.
Scope 3 emissions
This broad category includes all other sources of greenhouse gases that result from a company’s operations. Scope 3 emissions are broken down into upstream emissions (indirect emissions related to goods and services a company purchases) and downstream emissions (indirect emissions related to goods and services a company sells). For a mattress manufacturer, upstream Scope 3 emissions could include the manufacturing of steel used in its pocketed coil units and the transportation of mattress fabrics into its facility. Downstream Scope 3 emissions could include the shipping of boxed beds to consumers’ homes and used mattresses decaying in landfills. (See sidebar on page 11 about the greenhouse gas-related benefits of mattress recycling.)
“Scope 3 emissions sometimes raise knotty questions about who is ‘really’ responsible,” Gregory notes. “… But the point of counting these emissions is to outline the many ways companies can make a difference on climate change.”
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