Columbia’s Carbon Accounting Project will study current methods that quantify and measure carbon emissions, and investigate the potential for new methods to create greater accountability and carbon emissions reductions across full product life cycles and major sectors of the economy.
The project will focus on the framework for carbon emissions accounting standards provided by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the most comprehensive and widely-used global standard for companies to measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions. The Corporate Value Chain Scope 3 standard measures indirect emissions that result from activities and assets not controlled or owned by the reporting organization across its value chain. This project will study and build on existing methodologies to account for value chain emissions reduced or eliminated by innovative products and services, including the role that materials and sustainable applications can play in achieving emissions reductions.
Drawing on input from key stakeholders representing environmental groups, industry, academia, and data and accounting firms, the project will investigate the potential for new accounting methods to calculate the environmental benefits of products and technologies that reduce or eliminate harmful greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, as well as developing new tools for decision-makers to accelerate global progress towards 2030 and 2050 emissions targets.
Dow (NYSE: DOW) and The Nature Conservancy are early supporters of this work, bringing significant global climate-related expertise and capabilities in their respective fields.
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