Identifying your carbon "hotspots"

National, regional and local governments as well as individual departments are reviewing their operations, purchase spend amount and local situation (e.g., existing energy sources used, infrastructure, product distribution options in the region, etc.) to determine the areas of spend that produce the most carbon emissions. The areas of spend producing the most emissions are often called “carbon hotspots”.

Carbon hotspots are determined by assessing a range of information sources including lifecycle-based studies, market and scientific research, expert opinion and stakeholder concerns. Many public sector entities and departments have completed hotspot analysis and have used the output of the analysis to prioritize procurement actions and to identify potential solutions to support low-carbon spending.  Goods and services commonly selected for procurement actions include: IT equipment, paper, office furniture, vehicles, street and indoor lighting, water services, building and building services including reconstruction, renewable energy, water services, road and other infrastructure services.

Every entity is different and therefore will have different carbon hotspots. Here are a few examples:

• If you are the health authority, food selection and edible food waste reduction may be one of your carbon hotspots.
• If you are a school division, a hotspot may be fuel consumption for buses.
• If you are a government department looking after infrastructure, it may be transportation planning and road repair.
• If you are a records management office, it may be the transition to paperless records and the purchase of paper with lower carbon emissions.

By identifying carbon hotspots and supporting low-carbon procurement for goods and services defined as hotspots, you can significantly reduce your organization’s carbon footprint and better support Manitoba’s Climate and Green Plan.

Below are some tools to caluclate carbon emissions for specific goods:

Computers and Laptops

1. Review product environmental attribute reports (e.g. Environmental Product Declaration, Eco-Declaration) for existing equipment located on the manufacturer’s website.
   • Look for the product carbon footprint in the report (expressed in CO2e). The disclosure includes both the embodied carbon and an estimate of the operational emissions associated with the lifetime of the product.
2. Determine the number of units within your organization.
3. Multiply the carbon footprint of product by the number of units to determine total emissions associated with the purchase.

Example: If your organization has 1,000 HP EliteBook 840G6 Notebooks in the finance department, the average carbon footprint of each notebook is 375kg CO2e over the lifetime of the product (four years). Therefore, the carbon footprint for these computers is approximately 375 metric tons of CO2e (1,000 Units*375kg CO2e/1,000 = 375 metric tons of CO2e).

Paper Products

1. Review the specifications (i.e. post-consumer waste content percentage) and the amount of each paper type (e.g. copy paper, janitorial paper, cardboard, etc.) purchased for your organization on an annual basis.
2. Use the Environmental Paper Network’s Paper Calculator to determine the carbon emissions associated with the amount and type of paper used.

Example: Your organization used 40,000 reams of 8.5x11 copy paper in 2018. The paper was purchased without post-consumer waste content. Using the Paper Calculator:

• name your paper;
• select the grade of paper from the dropdown menu;
• convert reams to weight;
• insert recycled content;
• press "Calculate Impacts";

Review the calculated GHG (carbon) emissions associated with the paper, which will be expressed in pounds of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalents). Convert pounds to metric tons to determine the emissions associated with this purchase. In this case, 40,000 reams results in a carbon footprint of 1,800,000lbs of CO2e, which is 818 metric tons of CO2e.

 

 

Fuel

• Review the types and volumes of fuel your organization purchases on an annual basis.
• Review the carbon emissions per litre of fuel using emission factors provided by Natural Resources Canada. Below is a table of emission factors for different types of fuel (Natural Resources Canada, 2017):

Fuel Type:	Emission Factor (CO2e kg/L)
Gasoline	2.29
E10	2.21
Diesel	2.66
B5	2.65
B10	2.62

Note: Visit the Natural Resources Canada website to obtain the most recent emission factors.

• Multiply the appropriate emission factor by the volume of fuel used and convert to metric tons CO2e.

Example: If 1,000,000 litres of diesel fuel is purchased annually, the carbon footprint associated with the fuel purchase is 2,660 metric tons CO2e (1,000,000L*2.66kg/L CO2e/1,000 = 2,660 metric tons CO2e)

Food

1. Using invoice information, determine the weight of each food commodity purchased within your organization.
2. Use Clean Metrics Food Emissions Calculator to estimate the emissions associated with each food commodity.  
   • Please note Step 3 of the emissions calculator uses a default transport distance of 1,400 miles. This default should be used unless actual distance is known (see the FAQ section of the calculator for more information).
3. Calculate the total emissions for the annual food purchase.

Example: If a small deli purchases a variety of meats totaling 127,000kg per year, the carbon footprint associated with each meat commodity and total emissions associated with meat purchased is presented below:

Meat type	Total KG Purchased	Production GHG emission factor (kg CO2e per kg)	Transportation GHG emission factor (kg CO2e per kg)	Total GHG Emissions for 2018 (metric tons)
Chicken	53,619	3.73	0.21	211.3
Turkey	4,504	4.67	0.21	22.0
Beef	32,823	17.59	0.21	584.2
Pork	24,375	5.45	0.21	138.0
Sausage	1,032	9.34	0.2	9.8
Pepperoni	800	13.06	0.2	10.6
Ham	1,866	9.31	0.2	17.7
Eggs	8,004	1.85	0.2	16.4
Lamb	25	24.89	0.21	0.6
Total	127,047			1,010.7

 

 

Construction Materials

1. Search the “Find and Compare Materials” section of The Embodied Carbon in Construction Calculator (EC3) tool to determine if the embodied carbon for the existing materials in your building has been listed on the website.
2. If the manufacturer has listed the material on the website, obtain the Global Warming Potential (GWP) for the declared unit of measure.
3. Determine the total units of existing material within your building and multiply with the GWP to calculate total carbon emissions associated with the construction material.

Example: An office building has 19,400ft² of carpeted area. The carpet installed was Interface FLOR modular carpet with a pile weight of 41oz/yd² and made of Nylon 6.6 material. The listed GWP per ft² for this material is 1.07kg CO2e/ft². The total emissions associated with the existing carpet material is 20.8 metric tons CO2e (19,400ft²*1.07kg CO2e/ft² / 1,000 = 20.8 metric tons CO2e).