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14 PalletCentral • July-August 2022 palletcentral.com e CDP was launched over twenty years ago to house its members' GHG emissions status and future reduction plans. Today, most members utilize the GHG Protocol to inventory their GHG emissions and strategies for future reductions. We will examine the GHG Protocol later in this discussion. Members can require key suppliers to develop and submit their reduction plans into the CDP repository on the corporation side. e CDP members also focus on water use. In addition to its role as a keeper of GHG emissions data, it also functions as a forum for developing best practices and broadcasting them. e financial influence of the members is immense; the institutional investors control over one $110 trillion. Another pressure point is a supply chain special interest group whose members spend over $5 trillion annually. The GHG Protocol e GHG Protocol has become a de facto standard and was released in 2000, with an extension in 2007. e extension to the protocol covered the value chain (supply chain + post-production and life cycle) and was developed collaboratively with the International Standards Organization (ISO). Because its development was collaborative and inclusive, it has experienced rapid adoption. Part of its appeal is that its structure is readily understood by those with accounting and general ledger experience. ere are three major types of entities that are covered in the GHG Protocol, and they are called scopes. Scope 1 is designed for the enterprise with complete management or financial control, and it establishes a boundary of responsibility. ere are also rules governing joint ventures and other unusual agreements. Scope 2 covers the purchase of electrical energy from external sources. Scope 3 covers the value chain and is the biggest challenge. Until now, Scope 3 has been optional, but there is pressure for it to be reported since the upstream part of it, the supply chain, covers the majority of GHG emissions for the most finished products. e GHG Protocol uses the concept of inheritance. e GHG emissions generated to make an item are passed on to the buyer of the article, and the emissions generated by the buyer processing that item are added to the cumulative ledger. One way of looking at it is that carbon emissions are continuously embedded or entered in the register as they are processed to completion. Illustration 2 (left), despite being about water, is a good illustration because it uses a methodology similar to embedded emissions but is centered on consumed water. e amount of water consumed cumulatively in this example will surprise you. https://sandiego.ascm.org/ Eco_Sustainability The Water Emergency Since climate change is a significant contributor to the seemingly endless drought for the Western U.S. and many other regions worldwide, a discussion on the water is essential. Traditional methods of measuring water consumption obscure the actual consumption. ey measure only direct water use and don't include the cumulative water consumption for any product. Illustration 2 highlights how misleading the traditional method of only being concerned about direct water consumption is. It is essential, but it is misleading without measuring the indirect, cumulative consumption. An excellent example is the United Kingdom; it's a stormy wet place. Despite that, it is a net importer of water via the products it imports. e genuine concern is from what regions If your company hasn't started doing a Green House Gas (GHG) inventory, I recommend getting your act together and putting it on the corporate agenda. It's better to be ahead on the power curve than behind. Illustration 2. Source: Water Footprint Network (WFN).

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