The Seville -based company provides technological solutions to foster sustainable development in the energy and environment sectors.
In 2008, it commissioned the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission allowance inventory, a system of accounting for the GHG emissions from all its processes of production of goods and services, for all activities it may be engaged in and throughout the geographies it may be present in, which allows it to define and meet yearly reduction goals.
Abengoa says that in measuring the emissions of the company, the activity variation -- a factor with a significant misleading effect on the results -- has been taken into account.
The activity variation was developed to acknowledge the fact that a company company that did a lot more work this year than last year will also have increased its emissions. Therefore, in the plans for reduction, success centres on ensuring that the increase in emissions remains below the increase in activities.
To eliminate such distorting effect, Abengoa did not carry out a comparative study between the emissions of one year and those of the previous year, but instead looked at the difference between ratios: CO2 tons/activity.
This formula is used to obtain the exact figure of the reduction in the emissions of the company, exclusively applying the emission reduction plans.
Abengoa’s analysis incorporates the three scopes included in the Kyoto Protocol: direct emissions, associated with sources controlled by the company (scope 1); indirect emissions, associated with the generation of electric or thermal energy acquired (scope 2), and indirect emissions associated with a chain of production of goods and services acquired by Abengoa (scope 3).
The company has also signed agreements with over 17,000 suppliers worldwide, which oblige them to reveal their emissions or manifest their intention to introduce a system of reporting their emissions within a period of six months.
Together with the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), the Environmental Sustainability Indicators (ESI), the system of certification and Abengoa’s Sustainability integrated management system, the greenhouse gas allowance inventory is part of a tool that allows real-time management of the global footprint (social, economic and environmental) associated with the activities of the company.
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