subject: Carbon Emissions Management Is Much Like Managing Cash Flow [print this page] We are entering what has been termed by some to be the "carbon age." This is determined by a growing revelation and an awareness of the need to become sustainable in everything that we do, both individually and collectively.
For organizations, this means the creation of a whole new line of thought, dedicated to the impact that carbon can and will have on the business operations as carbon emissions management becomes more commonplace.
The traditional measurements deployed and maintained through IT systems and asset management programs will be clearly insufficient in the new carbon age. Although it is an entirely new concept for most, carbon emissions management will be compulsory for most organizations. Asset performance in a corporation has not been measured that much relating it to the actual energy consumption, but rather in terms of energy efficiency related to the cost of the energy upon purchase.
Carbon emissions management requires an asset owner to calculate the associated greenhouse gas emissions created as a consequence of the assets being used. At this point in time, carbon may itself not have a direct and tangible cost, but we are seeing a trend toward this outcome in many areas of the developed world.
With the 'cap and trade' scheme, carbon emissions management becomes a key component among business organizations as the curtailment of greenhouse gas emissions will be a priority. In this case, an organization is judged according to the amount of energy that is recorded against it and by simple calculation a volume of carbon emissions associated is revealed. An overall nationwide cap on the amount of carbon emissions that can be emitted means that suddenly, carbon has itself become a commodity to be traded.
When carbon has a value on the balance sheet, suddenly the organization must obtain a means for gauging the ultimate efficiency of each of its assets. This will be the sole way by which carbon emissions management could take flight in order to make organizations achieve improvements. Carbon emissions management will work from a calculated baseline and will help to ensure that the company is now much more highly efficient in the use of energy.
Carbon emissions management will be a very important addition to the indispensable tools of business executives. At the very least, it will help to pinpoint inefficiencies in asset use and consequent energy consumption and as energy is always one of the largest costs of any business, operating costs will be driven down.
It will then be a primary rule of the officers of the organization to be able to educate in a timely fashion. A baseline situation needs to be established first before any carbon emissions management scheme could take place. A trading scheme is already being introduced in the UK and organizations will be forced to trade carbon emissions caps as a necessity in conducting business in a few years. Many imagine that this kind of trading scheme will be introduced by other principal governments around the world.
Whether you believe the carbon age is real, implied or imaginary, you cannot discount the need for increased attention when it comes to saving and sustainability. Our traditional forms of energy represent a finite resource and as we are far from a position of being able to turn to alternative energy, prudence is advisable.
