Environmental Metrics
- 02:22
Explores the key metrics used for measuring environmental risk.
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Environmental Risks ESG SustainabilityTranscript
Environmental Metrics. When we're conducting benchmarking analysis of environmental risks, we use various metrics, so it's important to be familiar with the most commonly used metrics, and let's take a look at those now. Now, the key environmental risks are carbon emissions, that's greenhouse gas or GHG emissions, energy efficiency, waste, and product life cycle. And here are some of the metrics that are used to measure these risks. For GHG emissions, the total volume of emissions in millions of tons is a key metric. The emissions are classified based on their source, scope one, scope two, and scope three. Scope one emissions are direct emissions produced by the operations of the company itself. Scope two emissions are indirect emissions produced during the generation of electricity that's then purchased by the operations of the company. Scope three emissions are indirect emissions produced by related operations in the supply chain, so that would include emissions produced during the manufacturer of components or ingredients used as inputs by the company. Typically, investors focus on scope one and scope two emissions, as these are most controllable emissions for the company. Clearly, when comparing companies of different size, emissions will be very different, and therefore, to make it easier to compare, we usually look at emissions intensity. That's the emissions produced per unit of product, or per dollar of revenue. For energy efficiency, we usually look at the energy used by the company's operations in megajoules, and again, to facilitate comparison, we often convert this to energy intensity, and that's the energy consumed per unit of product or per dollar of revenue. For waste, we usually look at the total volume of waste generated, although some companies present data on the percentage of this, which is sent to landfill versus recycling. Again, waste intensity metrics compare the waste produced to the number of units of product, or per dollar of revenue. For the product lifecycle risks, one of the key issues is recyclability of materials. So typically the focus here is on the percentage of product made from recycled materials and the percentage of product or packaging which is recyclable or compostable at the end of its life. Hopefully, you can see here, that for many environmental metrics, we use intensity metrics to help us to compare what the companies consume between companies of different size.