Climate performance

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The term carbon performance generally describes the quantitative emission of greenhouse gases that affect the climate , as well as measures and processes to reduce emissions from the air.

Definition approaches

Term in a business context

Climate performance is understood to mean greenhouse gas emissions that are caused by the production of company services, products, services and other business activities, as well as measures to reduce greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gas emissions as an environmental aspect can be described in the context of the concept of environmental performance by environmental management systems according to EMAS or DIN EN ISO 14001 and thus made measurable.

Term in the context of natural processes

In order to counteract the greenhouse effect caused by humans, in addition to the possibility of emission restrictions and emissions reduction by companies and households, there is also the possibility of natural greenhouse gas absorption from the air through biomass production. This natural process of greenhouse gas reduction can be described as the climatic performance of the environment and in particular of the forests. In this context, the term describes in particular the greenhouse gas reduction through forests, as well as through the cultivation of other biomass producers to assess investments in reforestation, preservation of existing natural ecosystems and the sustainable use of natural raw materials.

Inductive definition of the term climate performance

Another attempt to describe the term climate performance should be made by considering the sub-terms climate and performance. Definitions of the term climate cannot be used in the context of describing climate performance. The term climate should be interpreted with the English term “carbon” (from carbon performance ), which means something like carbon . This term is also not very clear when describing air conditioning performance. What is meant are emissions ( carbon emissions ) which can have an impact on the climate. These include carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane (CH 4 ), nitrous oxide (N 2 O), fluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride (SF 6 ).

Under operational performance the result of operating the production process within a certain period of time is meant. As a result, climate performance can be understood as the result of factors that affect the climate, such as the emission of greenhouse gases, which are generated by operational production processes within a certain period of time.

Classification of the climate performance in the environment of the environmental performance

According to DIN EN ISO 14031, the environmental performance describes the measurable results of the environmental management system of an organization with regard to its environmental aspects. Under an environmental aspect, EMAS II understands an "aspect of the activities, products or services of an organization that can have an impact on the environment." Accordingly, the climate performance describes those measurable results of the environmental management system of an organization with regard to those environmental aspects that have an indirect or direct impact the climate can have. In particular, this includes pollutant emissions that have an impact on the climate caused by business activities, products or services of an organization. Thus, all aspects that affect the climate and their results can be described in the context of the term environmental performance by the term climate performance.

Climate performance indicators and their measurement / evaluation

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) creates guidelines for corporate sustainability reports. If companies base their sustainability reports on the GRI standards, for example, the climate performance of two companies can be compared. The aspects of climate-relevant emissions are set out in the indicators in section GRI 305: Emissions of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards (2016). These are based on the GHG Protocol and its scopes and are divided as follows:

  • Disclosure 305-1: direct greenhouse gas emissions, i.e. those that arise in the company (Scope 1)
  • Disclosure 305-2: indirect greenhouse gas emissions from the use of energy (Scope 2)
  • Disclosure 305-3: other indirect greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 3)
  • Disclosure 305-4: emission intensity (e.g. emission quantity per production unit)
  • Disclosure 305-5: Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Pressures and measures to improve climate performance for businesses

  • And pressure receivable by stakeholders ( stakeholders )
  • Compliance with international and national legal regulations (e.g. EU emissions trading )
  • Voluntary measures for emissions-reducing investments
  • Efficiency increase
  • Use of renewable energies and sustainable resources
  • Further training and sensitization of employees to ecologically oriented behavior

literature

  • G. Weber, E. Günther, M. Nowack, S. Arndt: Climate reporting, disclosure of climate performance in the context of environmental and sustainability reporting in the energy and cement industry . In: Scientific journal of the TU Dresden 58 Issue 3–4, 2009
  • Standards Committee Basics of Environmental Protection (NAGUS) at DIN German Institute for Standardization e. V. (Ed.): DIN EN ISO 14031: 1999. Environmental performance assessment. Guidelines . Berlin 2000a
  • Standards Committee Basics of Environmental Protection (NAGUS) at DIN German Institute for Standardization e. V. (Ed.): DIN EN ISO 14001: 2004. Environmental management systems. Requirements with instructions for use . Berlin 2005
  • EMAS II: Regulation (EC) No. 761/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of March 19, 2001 on the voluntary participation of organizations in a community system for environmental management and environmental auditing (EMAS)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Art. 2f EMAS II. See also Gabler Verlag (editor): Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon , keyword: environmental aspects
  2. ^ Edeltraud Günther and Kristin Stechemesser: Carbon Controlling . In: ZfCM Controlling & Management . tape 50 , no. February 1 , 2010, doi : 10.1007 / s12176-010-0016-0 .
  3. ↑ Global Reporting Initiative (Ed.): Emissions (=  GRI Standards . No. 305 ). 2016, ISBN 978-90-8866-068-9 ( globalreporting.org ).