Carbon footprinting

With its expertise in calculating and managing emissions data, CERC offers a range of services to assess greenhouse gas emissions, from determining the carbon footprint of a single industrial process, to compiling a greenhouse gas inventory for a whole geographical area.

CERC uses methods and emission factors laid out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Emissions from transport, industrial, heating and agricultural activities are calculated and stored using the EMIT software package.

For example, a recent client wished to understand the impact on their carbon footprint of using different raw materials in the concrete batching process. CERC considered greenhouse gas emissions from the entire supply chain, including the production and transport of the raw materials, batching of the concrete and transport to the point of sale.

CERC's emissions inventory expertise is also applied to greenhouse gases. In 2001, CERC compiled an inventory of greenhouse gases for Cambridgeshire County Council, covering emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases with national targets set by the Kyoto Protocol. The inventory formed a key part of an Environmental Strategy for the development of future policies to reduce carbon emissions, and will be a dynamic source of information for years to come.