Greenhouse gas emission calculation device, greenhouse gas emission calculation method, and greenhouse gas emission calculation program

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The greenhouse gas emission calculation device addresses the challenges of accuracy and complexity in supply chain emissions by using original unit data to calculate emissions, ensuring a simple and precise assessment across suppliers.

JP2025016867AActive Publication Date: 2025-02-05HITACHI HIGH TECH CORP

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Patent Information

Application Number: JP2023119629
Authority / Receiving Office: JP · JP
Patent Type: Applications
Current Assignee / Owner
Filing Date: 2023-07-24
Publication Date: 2025-02-05
Estimated Expiration: 2043-07-24

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Abstract

To provide a greenhouse gas emission calculation technique with a simple calculation procedure and higher emission precision than a basic unit method.SOLUTION: A greenhouse gas emission calculation device receives a total purchase amount of items purchased by a supplier in a business, regards a value obtained by multiplying an emission basic unit of the items by the total purchase amount as the greenhouse gas emission of a scope 3 on the items in the supplier, and simply calculates the total greenhouse gas emission in the supplier by adding the greenhouse gas emission of each of a scope 1 and a scope 2 of the supplier.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

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Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a technique for calculating greenhouse gas emissions in a supply chain. [Background technology]

[0002] It is desirable to understand greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the operation of a business, not only by the business itself, but also by taking into consideration greenhouse gas emissions throughout the entire supply chain in business activities. According to the emission calculation method proposed by the Ministry of the Environment, greenhouse gases are divided into the following three types:

[0003] Scope 1: Direct greenhouse gas emissions by the business itself Scope 2: Indirect emissions associated with the use of electricity, heat, and steam supplied by other companies Scope 3: Indirect emissions other than Scope 1 and 2 (emissions of other companies related to the activities of the company)

[0004] Scope 3 is further divided into 15 categories. Category 1, in particular, is emissions from purchased products and services from other companies that are related to the activities of a business. There are two methods for calculating Scope 3 Category 1: the intensity method and the primary data method. The intensity method calculates emissions by multiplying the purchase price from other companies by the intensity of GHG (Green House Gas) emissions by item published by public institutions such as the Ministry of the Environment. The primary data method calculates by aggregating GHG emissions related to products and services sold by suppliers to a business.

[0005] Patent Document 1 aims to provide an information processing system that supports the derivation of emissions in a company's supply chain emissions based on the Scope 3 standard defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and describes the following technology (see abstract): "In an information processing system 10, an information processing device 18 stores unit emissions, which are GHG emissions per unit sales amount for each of a plurality of credit card member stores, acquires from a credit card company device 16 payment data relating to the purchase of a product or service using the company's corporate card, the payment data including information on the member store that sold the product or service and the purchase amount, derives GHG emissions relating to the purchase based on the unit emissions and purchase amount for the member store indicated in the payment data, and provides GHG emission information relating to the purchase to a corporate device 12" (see abstract). [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0006] [Patent Document 1] JP 2022-133512 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0007] The intensity method makes it possible to grasp the direct and indirect emissions associated with the production of all goods and services that exist in society. On the other hand, it has the characteristic that detailed analysis is difficult because it uses the average intensity of multiple products and services included in one item. The primary data method is highly accurate, but it is characterized by the fact that it is not easy to collect comprehensive GHG data from all suppliers because there are suppliers for whom it is difficult to calculate emissions in-house. The method of calculating emissions by multiplying the purchase price and intensity, such as the conventional emission calculation method in Patent Document 1, is simple but does not provide sufficient accuracy in the amount of emissions.

[0008] The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned problems, and aims to provide a greenhouse gas emission calculation technique that has a simple calculation procedure and provides more accurate emissions than the unit consumption method. [Means for solving the problem]

[0009] The greenhouse gas emission calculation device of the present invention receives the total purchase price of items purchased by a supplier in its business, multiplies the emission intensity of the items themselves by the total purchase price, regards the result as the supplier's Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions for the items, and further calculates the supplier's total greenhouse gas emissions by adding the supplier's Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions. Effect of the Invention

[0010] According to the greenhouse gas emission calculation device of the present invention, the calculation procedure is simple and the greenhouse gas emission can be calculated more accurately than the basic unit method. Problems, configurations, advantages, etc. other than those described above will become clear from the description of the embodiments below. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0011] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a greenhouse gas emission calculation device 1. [Diagram 2] The configuration of the basic unit data 121 and an example of the data are shown. [Diagram 3] 1 is a flowchart explaining the procedure for calculating Scope 3 emissions related to items delivered by a supplier to a business. [Figure 4] 1 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for calculating greenhouse gas emissions attributable to a business entity's operations. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0012] <Embodiment 1> 1 is a configuration diagram of a greenhouse gas emission calculation device 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The greenhouse gas emission calculation device 1 is a device that calculates the amount of greenhouse gas emitted as a business operator carries out a business throughout the supply chain of the business. The greenhouse gas emission calculation device 1 includes an input unit 11, a storage unit 12, and a calculation unit 13.

[0013] The input unit 11 is an interface through which a supplier inputs data to the greenhouse gas emission calculation device 1. For example, GHG data, total purchase amount, etc., which will be described later, can be input. The memory unit 12 stores unit intensity data 121. An example of the unit intensity data 121 will be described later. The calculation unit 13 uses the data received by the input unit 11 and the unit intensity data 121 to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions attributable to the business of the enterprise.

[0014] 2 shows the configuration of and an example of the intensity data 121. The intensity data 121 describes the emission intensity of greenhouse gases for each item. The intensity data 121 may be prepared in advance and stored in the memory unit 12, or may be acquired at an appropriate time via the input unit 11. The intensity data 121 may be created based on, for example, the Environmental Load Intensity Data Book (3EID) based on Input-Output Tables provided by the National Institute for Environmental Studies.

[0015] The unit of emission described in the unit of emission data 121 is not the unit of emission of each component that constitutes the item, but the unit of emission of the item itself. Therefore, when referring to the unit of emission data 121, the unit of emission of the item itself that the supplier delivered to the business operator is referred to.

[0016] For example, suppose a supplier delivers a certain product to a business. If there are five components that are purchased or procured from other companies that are necessary to manufacture the product, in the conventional intensity method, the intensity of each of the five components is multiplied by the purchase price of each component to calculate the supplier's Scope 3 (or a simplified value such as the average intensity of the five components may be used). Therefore, the intensity is defined for each component. The supplier's Scope 3 emissions can be calculated by multiplying the intensity data 121 of the product by the purchase price, without multiplying the total purchase price of each of the five components of the product by the supplier.

[0017] FIG. 3 is a flowchart explaining the procedure for calculating the Scope 3 emissions related to items delivered by a supplier to a business. This flowchart can be implemented by the calculation unit 13. The greenhouse gas emission calculation device 1 is a device for calculating the greenhouse gas emissions attributable to the business's business in principle. However, in the process, it is necessary to calculate the Scope 3 emissions. Since the Scope 3 emissions are attributable to the supplier, the supplier itself calculates them and provides them to the business, or the business calculates the emissions attributable to the supplier. This flowchart (i.e., the greenhouse gas emission calculation device 1) can be used in either case. In particular, it can be used as a method for easily calculating the Scope 3 emissions. When a business does business with multiple suppliers, this flowchart can be used for each supplier.

[0018] (Figure 3: Step S301) The calculation unit 13 obtains the emission intensity of the item itself to be delivered to the business operator from the intensity data 121. That is, in this step, the emission intensity of the item itself that the business operator purchased from the supplier when carrying out the business is obtained. The business operator here refers to the business operator that is going to calculate the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in relation to the business by the greenhouse gas emission calculation device 1.

[0019] (Figure 3: Step S302) The calculation unit 13 obtains the total purchase price of raw materials purchased by the supplier to produce the item in S301. The total purchase price here is not for a specific business operator, but is the total purchase price of all raw materials purchased by the supplier to produce the item in question. However, this purchase price does not include items provided free of charge or for a fee. The calculation unit 13 multiplies the obtained total purchase price by the basic unit obtained in S301. This makes it possible to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions of category 1 in scope 3 for the item in question emitted by the supplier.

[0020] (Figure 3: Step S302-2) The greenhouse gas emissions of the item calculated in S302 plus the supplier's Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions can be simply regarded as the supplier's total greenhouse gas emissions.

[0021] (Figure 3: Step S303) The calculation unit 13 multiplies the total greenhouse gas emissions of the item calculated in S302 by the ratio of sales recorded for the business out of the total sales of the supplier. This makes it possible to simply calculate the greenhouse gas emissions generated for the business out of the total greenhouse gas emissions of the item calculated in S302. The calculation unit 13 stores the calculation results and data used in the calculation (such as basic units) in the memory unit 12.

[0022] (Figure 3: Step S303: Supplement) The calculation results in this step can be regarded as the greenhouse gas emissions belonging to category 1 of a company's scope 3. Since category 1 generally accounts for the majority of scope 3, the greenhouse gas emissions calculated in this step can be regarded as the total scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions themselves.

[0023] Fig. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the procedure for calculating the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the business of a company. This flowchart can be executed by the calculation unit 13. The relationship with the flowchart in Fig. 3 will be explained in each step.

[0024] (Figure 4: Step S401) Suppliers (synonymous with the suppliers described in FIG. 3) from whom a business entity purchases products and the like when carrying out its business provide their own GHG data via the input unit 11. For example, items required for calculating GHG emissions (e.g., basic unit values, calculation formulas) are pre-populated in a spreadsheet of spreadsheet software, and the spreadsheet is provided to a supplier, which then receives the filled-in spreadsheet via the input unit 11. It is desirable for this spreadsheet to be configured so that GHG emissions can be automatically calculated by inputting activity amounts (e.g., energy usage, material purchase amounts) so that even suppliers who do not calculate GHG data themselves can calculate GHG emissions.

[0025] (Figure 4: Step S401: Supplement) In this step, when the supplier calculates the Scope 3 emissions for the business, the supplier may use the simplified procedure described in Fig. 3 and describe the result in the GHG data. Even in this case, since the GHG data also describes emissions other than Scope 3, it is necessary for the supplier to provide the GHG data to the greenhouse gas emission calculation device 1.

[0026] (Figure 4: Step S402) For suppliers who have difficulty in providing GHG data themselves, the calculation unit 13 calculates the GHG emissions of the supplier using the basic unit method. The basic unit method referred to here is not the simplified calculation procedure described in Fig. 3, but rather calculates emissions using the basic units for each component of an item (or the average value of these, etc.) as in the past. The calculation unit 13 stores the calculation results in the memory unit 12 for each supplier.

[0027] (Figure 4: Step S402: Supplement) Even if it is difficult for a supplier to provide GHG data by itself, there may be cases where the supplier is able to provide GHG data due to some trigger. When the calculation unit 13 receives GHG data from the supplier who calculated the emissions in this step, it replaces the calculation result with the contents described in the GHG data.

[0028] (Figure 4: Step S403) If the supplier that has received or calculated the emissions in S401 to S402 is a contractor, the following processing is required. The work performed by the contractor is divided into work performed within the contractor's premises (on-site work) and work performed outside the contractor's premises (off-site work). Since the emissions resulting from on-site work are included in the contractor's scope 2, only off-site work needs to be counted as scope 3. Therefore, for such suppliers, the calculation unit 13 keeps only the emissions from off-site work out of the emissions received or calculated in S401 to S402.

[0029] (Figure 4: Step S403: Specific calculation procedure) For example, for each supplier to whom work is outsourced, task ratio data describing the ratio of on-site work to off-site work is stored in advance in the storage unit 12. The calculation unit 13 multiplies the emissions of the supplier by the ratio to calculate the emissions attributable to off-site work.

[0030] (Figure 4: Step S404) The calculation unit 13 sends a check request to a supplier whose emissions obtained by the above steps deviate significantly from the previous result. The standard threshold for whether or not there is a deviation is determined appropriately. If corrected data is received as a result of the check, the processing returns to S401 and the same process is carried out again for that supplier. The check request may be sent to the business instead of or in addition to the supplier.

[0031] (Figure 4: Step S405) The calculation unit 13 multiplies the total emissions of the supplier by the ratio of sales to the business to the total sales of the supplier. This makes it possible to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions of the items purchased by the business from the supplier. The total sales of the supplier and the ratio of sales to the business may be provided by the supplier via the input unit 11, for example.

[0032] (Figure 4: Step S405: Supplementary Note 1) This step does not need to be performed for suppliers who have already received or calculated the Scope 3 emissions for the company. For example, in S401, a supplier who has simply calculated the emissions using the procedure explained in Figure 3 has already calculated the emissions as the Scope 3 emissions for the company, so there is no need to recalculate the Scope 3 emissions by multiplying them by the sales ratio for the company in this step.

[0033] (Figure 4: Step S405: Supplementary Note 2) Alternatively, S303 may be omitted in the procedure described in Fig. 3. In this case, S405 must also be performed for the supplier who used the simplified procedure in Fig. 3. In other words, the process of multiplying the supplier's total sales by the sales ratio to the business may be centralized on the business side.

[0034] <First embodiment: Summary> When a supplier calculates Scope 3 emissions for a business, the greenhouse gas emission calculation device 1 according to this embodiment can simply calculate the Scope 3 emissions of greenhouse gases for that item by using the basic unit of the item itself purchased for the business. The emissions for the business can be calculated by adding the supplier's Scope 1 and Scope 2 values to this value and multiplying the result by the sales ratio for the business. This value can be simply regarded as the business's Scope 3 Category 1 emissions. Since Category 1 accounts for the majority of Scope 3, a reasonable degree of accuracy can be obtained even with a simplified calculation. In other words, a simple yet accurate calculation result for Scope 3 emissions can be obtained.

[0035] When a business calculates Scope 3 emissions, the greenhouse gas emission calculation device 1 according to this embodiment receives GHG data from suppliers and obtains emissions based on the data in principle. For suppliers from which it is difficult to receive GHG data, the device provisionally calculates emissions by multiplying the purchase price of the components of the item purchased from the supplier by the intensity of the components (i.e., calculates using the conventional intensity method), and when it receives GHG data, replaces the provisional calculation result with the GHG data. This makes it possible to calculate emissions even for suppliers from which it is difficult to provide GHG data. Furthermore, the accuracy can be increased as much as possible.

[0036] <Modifications of the present invention> The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and includes various modified examples. For example, the above-described embodiment has been described in detail to clearly explain the present invention, and it is not necessary to include all of the configurations described. In addition, a part of an embodiment can be replaced with a configuration of another embodiment. In addition, a configuration of another embodiment can be added to a configuration of an embodiment. In addition, a part of the configuration of each embodiment can be added to, deleted from, or replaced with a part of the configuration of another embodiment.

[0037] The emission calculation procedures on the supplier side and the business side described in the above embodiment may be performed, for example, manually without using a calculation device (greenhouse gas emission calculation device 1).

[0038] In the above embodiments, the input unit 11 and the calculation unit 13 can be configured by hardware such as a circuit device that implements its functions, or can be configured by a calculation device such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) executing software that implements its functions. [Explanation of symbols]

[0039] 1: Greenhouse gas emission calculation device 11: Input section 12: Storage part 121: Basic unit data 13: Arithmetic section

Claims

1. A greenhouse gas emission calculation device that calculates greenhouse gas emissions in a supply chain composed of suppliers and businesses, a storage unit that stores data describing the greenhouse gas emission intensity of each item that the supplier delivers to the business operator; an input section for inputting the total purchase price of raw materials of the item purchased by the supplier in the supplier's business; a calculation unit which regards the value obtained by multiplying the basic unit by the total purchase amount as the scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions for the item at the supplier, and further calculates the total greenhouse gas emissions for the supplier by adding the greenhouse gas emissions for the scope 1 and scope 2 of the supplier; Equipped A greenhouse gas emission calculation device comprising:

2. The calculation unit calculates the greenhouse gas emissions emitted by the supplier in connection with the business of the business by multiplying the calculated total greenhouse gas emissions by a ratio of the supplier's sales to the business out of the supplier's total sales.