As you know, measurement enables management. So if you want to start decarbonising your operations, the first step is to set up reports.

Smart Power has the emission factors as published by the Ministry of the Environment or Australian NGERS equivalent loaded into our system. So any utility recorded by us automatically has its greenhouse gas emission calculated.

For most clients, this will be electricity, gas and LPG on a monthly basis. Other utilities can also be loaded, such as petrol, flights, taxis, coal, wood, waste water, refrigerants. Some clients give us these annually and these are input so reports can be provided. Other utilities can be input monthly as well, depending on how regularly the client wishes to monitor total emissions.

As a Smart Power client, you can select which emission factors to use. This is most relevant for electricity, which changes considerably in New Zealand due to the amount of rain feeding into hydro lakes.

The MFE factors are often published several years behind. Thus for accuracy some clients prefer a quarterly factor.

The second area where Smart Power can assist is reporting the emissions on the basis of the MFE voluntary guidelines for business. These guidelines are based on ISO 140641.

This is more a more complex exercise as it requires the organisational boundaries to be agreed. A base year must be established with systems ensuring the accurate collection and accounting for all the emissions. A detailed report can then be provided with breakdowns of the emissions.

The key to success here is to improve the collection process so that the following year it is a much simpler piece of work.  

Smart Power has two staff members who have been trained in assisting organisations to do this. Please contact us if you would like to know more.