The Challenge
All companies, big and small, have an impact on the environment. This impact can come from the energy and resources they consume through ongoing operations or simply from their staff’s daily commute to and from the office. Accordingly, many companies are becoming increasingly aware of their carbon footprint and the potential negative impact their footprint has on the environment. In September 2013, a major global cloud computing company based in San Francisco, California, needed a utility management solution to help them gain insight into their carbon footprint through a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory.
As one of the top performing cloud computing companies, the client implemented an environmental sustainability program which covers its 61 offices and data centers across the globe. This sustainability program ensures that the impacts of its services and business operations on the environment, as well as that of its clients, are reduced—including GHG emissions. Each year, the company prepares its GHG Inventory as a part of its CDP disclosure. This annual report aids the client in increasing awareness of their GHG emissions hot spots, enabling them to plan and strategize for its reduction.
The challenge that the client needed to address was that the collection, standardization, analysis, and verification of the necessary records from its global office and data center locations were complex and time consuming tasks. For instance, in order to accurately calculate GHG emissions and assign the corresponding emissions factors, the client needed access to all of their office and data center utility consumption data — an enormous amount of data. To ensure that this large amount of data was accurately collected, standardized, analyzed, and verified, this client needed the help of a professional, reliable, and experienced team of experts with a proven track record in handling multiple-process requirements.
Our Solution
ADEC ESG Solutions conducted numerous consultations with the client’s San Francisco-based sustainability team to determine the scope of the project and the best plan to capture and analyze the GHG data.
Applying the various forms of indirect emissions, within one week, our team formulated an appropriate plan that mapped to the client’s required management process work flow—across 13 countries. The initial step was to set up a dedicated project and data repository platform to monitor and track all collected data, and to track the correspondence between ADEC ESG Solutions, the client, and its building managers. In order to gain access to the various utility data needed, we contacted the client’s building managers directly and, in several cases, verified information where the facility contacts were no longer updated. Our team analyzed the data and conducted a gap analysis between available and missing data. Prior to uploading to the project and data repository, ADEC ESG Solutions conducted a full-scale quality check for anomalies and analyzed all data received based on the specifications of the client’s preferred GHG management system.
The ADEC ESG Solutions Advantage
ADEC ESG Solutions provided a completely outsourced solution to GHG data collection and processing, allowing the client to focus on running its business while proactively driving cost savings and facility efficiencies. Our solution provided the client with full insight into its GHG inventory that allowed management to make smart business decisions and identify potential avenues to reduce GHG and waste. We provided expert and comprehensive data capture and troubleshooting, robust reporting, and best-in-class analysis capabilities.
Backed by our years of experience helping global organizations improve their CDP performance, ADEC ESG Solutions assisted the client in the completion of their GHG Inventory requirement on time for their CDP response. Our team’s experience as CDP’s accredited Global Scoring and Sustainability Outsourcing Partner from 2011-2019 also assisted the client in understanding the data management requirements associated with their disclosure. The ADEC ESG Solutions team that worked on this project included some of the most experienced and knowledgeable energy consultants and program managers. Only ADEC ESG Solutions fully integrates energy consulting services with software, program management, and unmatched expertise in back office data processing to put our clients on the path to sustainable profitability.
ADEC ESG Solutions provided a completely outsourced solution to GHG data collection and processing, allowing the client to focus on running its business while proactively driving cost savings and facility efficiencies.
Deliverables and Results
- Reduced the time needed to collect GHG data from multiple offices and data centers across the globe by 50%
- Analyzed, standardized, and verified GHG data from a number of disparate data sources around the globe
- Completed the company’s GHG Inventory in time for their annual CDP response
