Energy diagnosis for your business with iProd
In economics and energy engineering, the term sustainable energy (or green energy) refers to methods of producing and using energy that support sustainable development. This concept has three key components: production (related to renewable energy generation), utilization (focused on efficiency and energy savings), and environmental impact (minimized, controlled, or zero pollution).
This approach goes beyond energy production, encompassing its entire usage, and aligns with a broader vision of sustainable development and the green economy.
ESG in iProd
To effectively meet today’s challenges, comply with regulations, and secure bank funding, a company must conduct an in-depth analysis of its energy system. By monitoring the amount and type of energy consumed, businesses can more easily identify areas for improvement, boost energy efficiency, and increase their competitiveness.
In modern industrial business environments, it’s crucial to understand how energy is dispersed into the atmosphere as CO2 emissions. iProd helps generate the documentation to certify energy efficiency and manage your company’s energy diagnosis, fully integrated with other system features. iProd calculates the CO2 emissions directly (scope 1) and indirectly (scopes 2 and 3) from your business processes.
Emission management is facilitated through two apps available on the iProd App Store:
- GHG Supplier Lite
- GHG Inventory
GHG Supplier Free is completely free. It allows you to prepare energy documentation for a single facility or production site, detailing activities that result in emissions (e.g., electricity consumption, gas leaks, transportation, waste, etc.). However, it does not include the option to associate LCIA (Life Cycle Impact Assessment), meaning you cannot independently calculate the CO2 emitted. Once the documentation is completed, you can share it via iProd with your client, who will then be responsible for completing the energy documents with the necessary LCIA and determining the final CO2 emission data.
GHG Inventory goes a step further. In addition to preparing energy documentation as with GHG Supplier Lite, it enables you to complete it independently by associating LCIA, allowing you to calculate your CO2 emissions autonomously. You can then share this data with your client, with no option for them to alter it.
This app requires an annual fee, determined by the number of facilities or production sites you want to manage, the number of suppliers from whom you plan to receive data, the number of clients you want to share data with, and the number of LCIA configurations required.
Terminology Used:
| ESG: Environmental, Social, Governance. The acronym ESG (introduced in 2005), increasingly recognized outside of finance and sustainability circles, stands for three core areas: Environmental, Social, and Governance. These are critical dimensions used to verify, measure, control, and support a company’s or organization’s commitment to sustainability. |
| GHG - Greenhouse Gases. Greenhouse gases (GHGs) "trap" heat in the atmosphere. The greatest impact from these gases, which are responsible for climate change, comes from human activities that release GHGs into the atmosphere. Examples include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6). It's important to note that while water vapor is a major contributor to the natural greenhouse effect, it is not directly influenced by human activities and is thus not included in this category (Source: Kyoto Protocol). |
| GHG Inventory - The full version of the iProd AppStore component for emission calculations and LCIA attribution. |
| GHG Supplier Free - The free, limited version of the iProd AppStore component that does not include LCIA attribution capabilities. |
| LCI - Life Cycle Inventory, a component of the Ecoinvent database that provides information on the total impact, energy, and resource use for the development and utilization of various industrial materials. |
| LCA - Life Cycle Assessment, a standardized methodology for evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with a product, process, or system throughout its life cycle, from raw material extraction to end-of-life. |
| LCIA - Life Cycle Impact Assessment, a value or numerical index that quantifies environmental impacts by multiplying the results of the LCI (environmental loads per mass/functional unit) with impact factors (environmental impact/environmental load). |
| Scope 1 - As defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, Scope 1 emissions refer to direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from a company’s owned or controlled sources. |
| Scope 2 - Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the production of electricity, steam, or heat generated at a different location but directly attributable to the company. |
| Scope 3 - Scope 3 emissions include greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from business activities that are not directly owned or controlled by the organization, such as supply chain operations, transportation, product use, and disposal. |
| Ecoinvent - The most reliable and transparent international database for Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). It enables global environmental assessments of goods and processes. Approximately 4,500 people across more than 40 countries use Ecoinvent , which includes data on energy, resource extraction, material supply, chemicals, metals, agriculture, waste management, and transport. |
| Ton - Unit of measurement in metric tons. |
| MWh - Megawatt-hour. A watt-hour is the total energy delivered by one watt of power over one hour. |
| GJ - Gigajoule. A joule is the unit of measurement for energy, work, and heat (for heat, calories are also often used), and is dimensionally expressed as kg·m²/s² = 1 N·m = 1 J. The unit is named after James Prescott Joule. |