10. Recommendations for Suitable Metrics and Monitoring

It is recommended that once the Carbon Management Plan is enacted, regular monitoring occurs, including an annual calculation of internal emissions to track progress against the 2015/16 baseline.

This would be aided by the development of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), for example normalised metrics against FTE, turnover or m², to continue to track emissions consistently despite changes that may be occurring to the ADC organisation or estate. These should be reported as appropriate through ADC’s governance structure.

Further data recommendations for monitoring of specific emissions categories are included below. These will help ensure ADC are able to track any changes in emissions. Priority should be given to those which help monitor the largest proportion of emissions, as these will provide the greatest insight. The energy analysis report³³ completed by NCC Energy Services for ADC analysed energy consumption across the highest consuming sites in the ADC estate, identifying actions related to each to investigate trends in energy consumption and to resolve data issues. Some general monitoring recommendations from this are also included in the table below. Improving energy consumption monitoring can help proactively identify anomalies, reduce over-consumption, and therefore emissions.

As with the overall carbon footprint, emissions metrics should be developed where relevant for each of these categories of emissions to help track trends over time. Some suggestions are included in the table below, subject to funding and available resources.

Data and metric recommendations

Targets

• Review and implement interim and end-year CMP targets to reach carbon neutrality for ADC
  • Priority: High

Fleet

• Consider emissions per total number of fleet vehicles as an ADC CMP KPI
  • Priority: High

Gas and electricity consumption (including downstream leased assets)

• For future energy management and control of utility budgets it is recommended that a similar analysis approach is used as throughout the Energy Analysis Report as part of a regular energy monitoring program using the latest available data (typically on a weekly or monthly basis) to supplement the existing monitoring software, either covering the whole ADC estate or a subset of the highest consuming sites as identified in the Energy Analysis Report. This would assist with identifying changes in consumption and trends, potentially reducing overspend, energy consumption and carbon emissions, and improving knowledge of the estate.
  • Priority: High
• It is recommended that half-hourly gas and electricity consumption data is obtained for a greater number of sites in the ADC estate. This allows for more accurate and responsive monitoring as well as allowing checks of the daily consumption patterns that may highlight further opportunities for energy and carbon savings. This would require the installation of smart meters/automated meter readings (AMRs) and discussions with the energy supplier to obtain the data on a regular basis.
  • Priority: High
• As discussed in Section 4 of the Energy Analysis Report, the accuracy of the energy monitoring would be improved if more regular data for on-site renewables or generation can be obtained – preferably at the same frequency as the metered gas/electricity data for the site. This is particularly important for the biomass boilers and solar PV arrays where only quarterly data is currently available.
  • Priority: High
• Consider emissions per m² as an ADC CMP KPI
  • Priority: High
• Consider undertaking an employee working from home survey to capture data related to net increases in an employee’s energy use whilst working from home during 2020-21³⁴.
  • Priority: High

Fugitive emissions

• Investigate and improve data for fleet air conditioning units and fridges (e.g. refrigerant type, charge).
  • Priority: Low

Procurement of Good and Services

• Increase and improve supplier-specific data for purchased goods and services (e.g. quantity or mass of units purchased), with specific data on upstream transport (e.g. vehicle & fuel type, distance travelled, number of products per order) and distribution (e.g. storage in warehouses and distribution facilities).
  • Priority: High
• Investigate the emissions that arise from the storage of goods coming into ADC in warehouses, distribution and retail facilities.
  • Priority: High
• Consider purchased goods and services emissions per procurement spend as an ADC CMP KPI
  • Priority: Medium
• Consider upstream transportation and distribution emissions per order as an ADC CMP KPI
  • Priority: Medium

Capital Goods

• Total cradle-to-gate emissions of purchased capital goods are all included in the year of acquisition. Major capital purchases in one year can therefore mean emissions from capital goods fluctuate significantly between years. It is suggested that a CO2e/£ spent on capital goods is used as an ADC CMP KPI.
  • Priority: Medium

Business Travel

• Consider business travel emissions per journey as an ADC CMP KPI. This may require further data for example the number of business mileage claims and train tickets booked.
  • Priority: Medium

Employee Commuting

• Conduct (bi)annual employee commuting surveys for a high proportion (>60%) of ADC employees, including fuel type, distance travelled and number of days commuting per week.
  • Priority: Medium

Investments

• Consider investment emissions per investment value as an ADC CMP KPI
  • Priority: Medium
• As the largest proportion of ADC’s emissions, consider undertaking a detailed analysis of investment emissions.
  • Priority: Medium
• If applicable to ADC, source data for the remaining categories of investments as defined in the GHG Protocol to provide a fuller estimate of the emissions from investments (equity investment & debt investment without known use of proceeds; project finance & debt investment with known use of proceeds; project finance where initial sponsor/lender).
  • Priority: Medium

³³ For further details please see ADC_EnergyConsumptionAnalysis.pdf

³⁴ Following an operational boundary, energy use as a result of employees working from home would be included in ADC’s emissions footprint.

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• 9. Carbon Management Plan Targets

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• 11. Disclaimer