At a time when regulations* and customer expectations are increasingly demanding in terms of the impact of companies, we are also convinced that measuring and managing our emissions is a guarantee of the long-term future of our business.
A carbon footprint is the first step towards understanding the structure of your GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions and taking concrete action to reduce them. It enables companies to take a strategic step forward in their development and build a sustainable future for the planet and their activities.
It was for these two reasons - controlling our impact and ensuring the sustainability of our activities - that we decided to carry out our first carbon audit. Here's how we carried it out, the results we obtained and the conclusions we drew.
Contents :
- What is a carbon footprint?
- How can we reconcile our desire for growth with controlling our footprint?
1. What is a carbon footprint?
Created by the FrenchEnvironment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) in 2002, and now developed by theBilan Carbone Association, the carbon footprint uses data on a company's activities to convert them into greenhouse gas emissions, using emission factors and a single unit: CO2 equivalent.
In order to draw up the most relevant balance sheet possible, it is essential to clearly define the company's emissions measurement perimeter.
Thescope of the study
There are 3 perimeters:
- the temporal perimeter determining the period observed ;
- the operating perimeter delimiting the activities taken into account;
- the organizational perimeter, defining the number of company entities accounted for.
Time perimeter
Lixo was created in October 2019 and has dedicated most of its first year of existence to studying its market and developing its technology. The commercialization of its solutions actually started in 2021. We have therefore decided to focus our time scope on that year.
Operating perimeter
In order to achieve the most comprehensive carbon footprint possible, we have decided to account for our scopes 1, 2 and 3*. This choice enables us to take into account all the direct and indirect emissions of our activities. This is a necessary requirement to establish the most realistic balance sheet possible.
Organizational scope
By 2021, Lixo comprised just one entity, its Paris office.
Data collection
The data collection phase is the "heart of the reactor" when it comes to drawing up a carbon footprint. It requires long and painstaking work, and is the most complex phase in drawing up a carbon footprint.
It involves gathering all the data on the company's activities. The difficulty lies in identifying all stakeholders (suppliers, employees, etc.), in order to gather information from them on greenhouse gas emissions (transport, energy, material purchases, etc.). The aim is to establish a database that is as complete and accurate as possible.
Two types of data can be used to measure the various greenhouse gas emissions:
Physical" ratios "physical
Whenever possible, a GHG emission is calculated on the basis of a physical emission factor:
GHG Quantity = Physical Emission Factor x Quantity Consumed
The physical emission factor specifies the quantity ofCO2 emitted per unit consumed. The quantity consumed is expressed in the unit of the product (liters of kerosene,m2 of heated surface, etc.).
Monetary" ratios
When a "physical" ratio cannot be calculated (for example, when we don't know the mode of transport used to deliver a product), we use a monetary emission factor, expressed in kgCO2e / k€ HT.
This makes it possible to estimate the quantity of GHG generated by a product or service, based on its price.
GHG Quantity = Monetary Emission Factor x Price
As is often the case with companies' first carbon footprints, we were unable to use the "physical" ratios as often as we would have liked, as some data simply wasn't available. For example, it is very difficult to know what mode of transport is used for the delivery of IT equipment (even reconditioned equipment), as most carriers do not make this information available to their customers.
Analysis
Once we had collected our data and established our scenarios, we worked with our buddies atAktio (💪) to analyze the data, draw lessons and put in place concrete actions to reduce our GHG emissions.
2. How can we reconcile our desire for growth with the need tocontrol our footprint?
90% of emissions are indirect
The results of our first carbon assessment enabled us to estimate our total footprint at 48.2 tCO2eq emitted in 2021. But above all, they revealed that 90% of our emissions were indirect, coming exclusively from our Scope 3.
This is due to our purchases and fixed assets, which account for 87% of our emissions, all of which are included in our scope 3. Our solutions incorporate the sensors (hardware) essential for collecting data on the waste flows to be analyzed. These sensors require the purchase of numerous electronic components, mainly from Asia. Yet the impact of manufacturing these components, extracting the raw materials they use, transporting them, etc. is very high. This is why they are our main source of greenhouse gas emissions.
What policies for a low-carbon development path?
This result prompted us to implement a sustainable purchasing policy. This includes a guide to help our employees choose the most responsible suppliers.
Although our direct emissions (scopes 1 and 2) account for only 10% of our footprint, we are also working to reduce them. We have implemented several actions:
- the use of a responsible cloud service(Qarnot) which recovers 96% of the heat produced by our software calculations by redirecting it to the heating systems of buildings and installations;
- implementing a soft mobility policy for home-to-work and business trips;
- sharing a guide to good environmental practices to reduce energy consumption and limit waste production.
Our challenge to maintain a sustainable business
But we're a fast-growing start-up, and as our business grows, so do our emissions. So our biggest challenge is to keep our ecological footprint under control, ensuring that our emissions don't grow as fast as our activities.
To this end, we have put in place an environmental strategy aimed at reducing the amount of CO2 emitted per euro of revenue, and we intend to enshrine this objective in our bylaws as a company with a mission.
*Carbon footprinting has been mandatory - since 2012 - for all companies with over 500 employees. Innovative young companies are also encouraged to take the plunge.
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