Your carbon footprint includes a number of Greenhouse Gases and can be difficult to interpret
Summary
When calculating your emissions there are a number of different GHGs that we need to consider and include. This is a lot of information to present and can be difficult to interpret. To help with this, the GHG Protocol identifies a widely accepted unit that we use to blend them all together; CO2e or Carbon Dioxide equivalent.
What is CO2e?
Once calculated, we present your emissions in kgCO2e; Kilograms of Carbon Dioxide equivalent. We use an equivalent figure because Ecologi Zero includes emissions from six of the seven GHGs identified in the GHG Protocol (with the additional GHG to be captured by the platform in the third quarter of 2022).
How is CO2e calculated?
Each of the GHGs captured by Ecologi Zero, Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous Oxide (N2O), Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC), Perfluorocarbons (PFC) and Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6), has a CO2 equivalency factor, based on their Global Warming Potential (GWP), which allows us to present you with a single consistent figure.
GWP was created to allow comparisons of the global warming impacts of different gases. Specifically, it is a measure of how much energy the emissions of 1 ton of a gas will absorb over a given period of time, relative to the emissions of 1 ton of carbon dioxide (CO2).
For example, the GWP for Methane is 25 and for Nitrous Oxide 298. This means that emissions of 1 million metric tonnes of methane and nitrous oxide respectively are equivalent to emissions of 25 and 298 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide.