Carbon Impact Measurement for Auctions

Overview

In 2022, CA Global Partners and MyCarbon set out to establish the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the 15 categories of broadcast equipment that CA Global Partners had sold at auction between 2020 and 2022. The purposes of this report was to understand the carbon emissions avoided by buying a second hand item over purchasing new, so both buyers and sellers of equipment at auction could establish a measurement of this impact.

The report set out to achieve five principles of reporting as follows:

• transparency
• relevance
• accuracy
• consistency
• completeness

We are seeking to be open and transparent about our methodology, recognise the shortcomings (but not allow these to hinder our progress of measurement) and continue to improve the accuracy with periodic reviews.

Why is this important?

GHG emissions are contributing to global warming and climate change and have been recognised as a key sustainable development issue. Many governments through local and international efforts are taking steps to reduce GHG emissions through national policies that include the introduction of emissions trading programs, voluntary programs, carbon or energy taxes, and regulations and standards on energy efficiency and emissions. As a result, companies must be able to understand and manage their GHG risks if they are to ensure long-term success in a competitive business environment, and to be prepared for future national or regional climate policies.

Quantification of GHGs associated with individual products/categories is an important tool used by stakeholders to recognise their indirect impact and take actions to reduce this.

Methodology

The methodologies used to research relevant emissions factors consisted of initial in-depth research of each category to understand potential products represented by them. Following this, corresponding emissions factors were identified based on relevance and representativeness of the product category.

The emissions factors for this research were sourced directly from the UK’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in 2019. This was the most reliable and up-to-date resource identified. The emissions factors used were spend-based, assigning GHG emissions to a product based on its cost. This allows for a broader application of the emissions factors across an entire category, where varying materials and manufacturing processes are accounted for by a single emissions factor.

MyCarbon adjusted the emissions factors for inflation to ensure spend-based data from 2019 remained relevant to the cost of products in 2022. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) was used as a measure of inflation. The inflation rate used by MyCarbon was 12.86% between July 2019 and July 2022 (ONS, 2022).

Reporting Standards

As this process sought to estimate the GHG emissions associated with product categories, there are no specific reporting standards which specifically align. However, this research has been conducted in alignment to the principles of the “Greenhouse Gas Protocol – Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard” (GHG Protocol, 2011) developed in a partnership of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the World Resource Institute (WRI).

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) also produced the ISO14064 specification series, detailing specification and guidance for the organisation and project levels, as well as for the validation and verification of emissions. As above, this standard does not specifically apply to our methodology, however it has been conducted to align with its principles.

The emissions factors used in this report quantify all six Kyoto Protocol GHGs, where applicable, and are measured in terms of tonnes carbon dioxide (CO₂) equivalence, or tCO₂e, where equivalence means having the same warming effect as CO₂ over a period of 100 years. The six Kyoto Protocol gases are CO₂, methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆) and perfluorocarbons (PFCs).

The global warming potential (GWP) of each GHG is listed in Table 1.

Table 1

Remaining Life and Reduced Utility

The methodology of spend-based emissions factors establishes a broad measure for an asset category, and we have sought to apply this across a range of items sold (usually a large quantity of items in a single auction) rather than to create a single item measure. The measure applies to new products however, it does not factor in the reduced utility and remaining life of second-hand items sold at auction. In short, we feel an item bought at auction and used for a short period of time before reaching end of life should not receive the equivalent measure of a brand-new item.

MyCarbon and CA Global Partners sought to establish a method of reflecting this reduced utility, and we propose that the second-hand market value of an asset (i.e. the price sold at auction) is a reasonable proxy of the remaining utility of an asset. Therefore, this second hand sales value (which by definition is readily available after an auction) is being used in place of the new product price of an asset.

Methodological limitations

Spend-based emissions factors attribute emissions solely based on the economic value of the products. This allows for a generic emissions factor to be used across a broad category, however, it can decrease accuracy. Spend-based emissions factors do not account for the value of technology within the product.

In the broadcasting equipment researched, this technological value is likely to account for a large proportion of the overall product value. Therefore, these emissions should be used as an estimation only, and do not constitute a product GHG inventory.

As detailed above, there are no specific reporting standards related to the process we have outlined. In addition, our application of market value over new equipment cost is not generally recognised as a method (although we are aware similar approaches have been applied in other industries). We will continuously seek to develop this methodology and align it with any standards that are introduced.

For these reasons, we have utilised this information for larger quantities of assets, rather than individual items.

References

1. Office for National Statistics, “Consumer price inflation, UK: July 2022”, 17 August 2022. [Online]. Available: Consumer price inflation, UK – Office for National Statistics [Accessed 19 August 2022]
2. Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, “UK and England’s carbon footprint to 2019” Last updated 3 August 2022. [Online]. Available: UK and England’s carbon footprint to 2019 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) [Accessed 19 August 2022]

Dan Main
CA Global Partners
[email protected]