Refrigerant Gas Reporting Also Involves Calculating All Related Carbon (CO2) Emissions

In many countries, carbon emissions are required by law to be reported across an organization's entire footprint; hence the coined term "Carbon Footprint. Carbon data and detailed records of energy, fuel, and refrigerant gas consumption fall under regulatory compliance rules and must be reported in paper, and increasingly, electronic format - Globally.

Refrigerant systems use high levels of greenhouse gases, so the EPA established the Climate Registry Protocol for calculating carbon emissions on a regular basis. The international equivalent of this requirement is outlined in the Montreal Protocol and Kyoto Protocol. The main purpose for calculating carbon emissions is to begin reducing the damaging effects that refrigerant gas has on the environment.

Commercial refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) systems or heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems operate on refrigerant gas, which is made up of hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and perfluorocarbons (PFCs). When broken down, these substances contain carbon, chlorine, fluorine and hydrogen. Refrigerant gases are made up of certain chemical compounds that cause them to be ozone depleting substances. By calculating carbon emissions, government environmental agencies will be able to better understand the situation. Companies who fail to report their carbon emissions will be issued a substantial fine.

Various carbon emissions reporting protocols have emerged from the EPA, ISO, World Resource Institute, and Climate Registry protocols. All of these documents define in great detail how organizations must collect data, calculate carbon emissions, and report the results. In short, the monitoring, tracking, and reporting requirements mandate that all locations where refrigerants are being used or serviced must collect, organize, and calculate as part of an enterprise's carbon emissions.

Some volume of carbon is released into the environment by any company with a refrigerant system. Trying to determine how much carbon is emitted is an intricate process. Conducting a carbon audit or a carbon footprint across an organization begins with collecting data related to each location, the assets being used, and identifying high global warming potential gases. From there, a determination on how much of each gas is released must be made. Then various reports that include tracking methods need to be completed and submitted.

Refrigerant management programs can best handle the tedious process of calculating carbon emissions. With so many components involved, a computerized refrigerant management program is much more effective than manually handling and reviewing paper reports. A refrigerant management program that includes a Refrigerant Tracker and a Carbon Calculator was developed by Verisae to easily handle calculating carbon emissions for all AC/HVAC systems operated by a company.

Many research studies and much scientific debate lead international agencies the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to mandate that organizations to monitor, track, and calculate carbon emission for annual reports. It is an important step to define your organizational boundaries, where you do business, and to identify the refrigerants you own or other sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Equally important is to establish a tracking mechanism for determining how much harmful gases are released at any given time. The information and data collected for the emerging refrigerant management programs will enhance and improve atmospheric conditions with specific requirements for reducing carbon (CO2) emissions.

By calculating carbon emissions, companies will be able to recognize the extent of their carbon footprint. For companies with multiple locations using refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) systems or heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, the task becomes even more critical.

There are many solutions emerging to help these challenging problems. Emerging web-based applications help organizations catalog CO2 emissions throughout an organization down to the asset level so companies can have an integrate strategy to report carbon for years to come.

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