Inventory Items in ESP CSR represent a quantifiable list of all GHG Emission Sources and Data across an organisation and its supply chain. Inventory Items are the focal point for measuring and managing a organisation's carbon footprint.

In addition to the above, the following items are considered to form part of a broader inventory:

  • Resources or inputs to an organisation;
  • Providing flexible resource management options;
  • Finished goods or services that an organisation generates, providing the functionality to measure and manage relative carbon footprints, i.e., carbon intensities, if required.

On the Inventory page, a suite of menu options allows a user to create, maintain, view and run reports on a broad collection of inventory items related to:

  • locations at all levels in your organisation;
  • specific products;
  • projects and events;
  • value chains.

Using inventory items

In CSR, the term inventory is used broadly to describe a quantifiable list of:

  • Resources
  • Carbon Assets
  • Production items

Together these sub-groups:

  • Capture all emission sources and assets relevant to an organisation and its projects, value chain and products;
  • Provide flexible resource management options;
  • Provide flexible emission source management and reporting options vis-à-vis absolute and/or relative emissions

Inventory items can be one of three inventory types:

  •  Resources: All activities related to generating, distributing, or using the goods or services an organisation produces. Resources may also include items such as labour force, revenue, target data, employee metrics, electricity, gas, paper etc.

    Resources may be consumed or used either directly within a n organisation and/or indirectly either upstream or downstream.

These resources can be attributed to specific organisation items and locations, such as facilities, assets, suppliers or customers.

Examples of resources, their place in the value chain and scope are as follows:
 

Resource
Point in Value
Chain
Scope
Gas used in producing raw materials
Upstream
3
Fuel used in transporting raw materials using
organisations vehicles
Within
Organisation
1
Purchased Electricity used in the production process
Within
Organisation
2
Electricity used by a consumer to power the end
product
Downstream
3

 

CSR is primarily focused around GHG emissions. However, the system also allows management of any resources.

Inventory can be viewed and managed from the Inventory Tab, the Inventory Page or the Smart Excel Templates.

  • Carbon Assets: comprised of the potential of greenhouse gas emission reductions that the organisation is able to generate and sell. These can also appear on the location overview page if set up correctly.
  • Production: This inventory item type contains all goods and services generated by an organisation as well as any emission sources considered to be an output.  Storing goods and services in the production sub-group provides the functionality for quantifying emissions relative to those goods and services.

    The Production sub-group is also used to store inventory items related to production output emission sources such as waste outputs from raw material or finished good production and consumer use of a product and product disposal.

Inventory terminology

In the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard (Revised Edition):

The term inventory represents a quantifiable list of an organisation's GHG emissions and sources which include:

  • Direct emissions from sources owned and controlled by the organisation such as fuel combustion or organisation owned vehicles. For GHG Accounting and Reporting purposes direct emissions are known as scope 1 emissions.
  • Indirect emissions that are a consequence of operations but occur at sources owned and controlled by other organisations. Examples of indirect emissions include purchased electricity, the production of purchased materials, product use and disposal.

For GHG Accounting and Reporting purposes, indirect emissions associated with the generation of electricity, heating, cooling or steam for an organisation's own consumption are known as scope 2 emissions. All other indirect emissions related to the value chain are known as scope 3 emissions.

Further explanation of these terms can be found in Chapter 4 of the GHGP -www.ghgprotocol.org/standards/corporate standard

In CSR:

  • The term inventory has a broader meaning than that contained in the GHGP, incorporating resources, carbon assets and finished goods and services as well as a quantifiable list of all emissions and sources. Refer to 'About Inventory Items' for a more in-depth discussion on these terms.
  • Direct and indirect emissions are represented as scope 1, 2 or 3 emissions.
  • Out of scope resources are represented as scope 0

The identification and classification of emission sources occurs within the organisational and operational boundaries established by an organisation. Collectively, they are known as the Inventory Boundary.