Take a comprehensive approach to understanding greenhouse gas emission accounting, reporting, and minimization by consulting Carbon Footprint, a free publication in the IFMA Foundation’s Sustainability How-To Guide series.
Carbon impacts energy management, waste handling, and air quality, among other sustainability issues. In the U.S., about 40% of carbon emissions can be attributed to building construction, operation, and maintenance. The guide provides tools to understand carbon footprinting, analyze results, and plan for the future.
Recommendations include creating an inventory management plan to document your carbon footprint. It should include partner information, boundary conditions, emissions quantification, data management, base year, management tools, and auditing and verification. Once data gathering is complete, set emissions reduction goals, such as becoming carbon neutral. A credible goal is corporate-wide, forward-looking, long-term, and aggressive.
The publication, available at www.ifmafoundation.org, also makes the business case for reducing emissions.
