The creation of the GHG Protocol then allowed companies to quantify and report their greenhouse gas emissions. It even came with a step-by-step guide on how to classify an organization’s emissions into categories called ‘scopes.’
In this episode of Shaping Sustainable Places, we talk to Pankaj Bhatia, the Director of GHG Protocol, about how scopes 1, 2 and 3 became an important global tool for reducing emissions: ”You can’t manage what you don’t measure,” he says. “So measurement or calculations are a very basic step for us to manage the impacts of global emissions. Using the GHG Protocol standards and guidance across the three scopes gives organizations a complete assessment of the GHG emissions which they cause and which they can influence.”
And how do you turn that concept into action? When building a new office building in Karlskrona, Sweden, the Skanska construction team transported 300 square meters of used concrete superstructure from another building, in another city, which another construction company was knocking down. In this way they could reuse components of the superstructure and reduce emissions.
Anders Edvardsson, Sustainability Manager Hus Syd, Skanska, recalls: “How do you safely transport 300 square meters of hollow-core slabs 250 kilometers? There’s a lack of standards, we didn’t know, so we worked it out together. There have only been a few examples all over the world of this kind of reuse of heavy materials.”
Ivan Cusini, Sustainability Specialist, Skanska, adds: “We have saved about 30 tons of carbon dioxide when reusing these old hollow-core slabs. And we also have a very low carbon intensity connected to the transportation of the materials to the final destination.”
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This episode’s guests:
Pankaj Bhatia
Director of GHG Protocol
Sustainability Manager, Skanska
Sustainability Specialist, Skanska