Clim'Foot

Continuous improvements to your action plan

Shaping an action plan

Since the beginning of the GHG inventory (and maybe even before), you should look for the consent of your top management. At each step (collecting data, calculating, restitution of the result, action plan elaboration, actions implementation, renewing the calculation process, etc), involving the top management is needed to ensure the pursuit of the project and the involvement of all the organization.

In order to convince, you should start by identifying the overall strategy of the organization, in order to present associated opportunities. For example, preparing for progression in energy prices, reducing operating costs or improving image.

Examples of reasons for carrying out an action (from the ADEME's guide to the contruction, implementation and monitoring of GHG emission reduction action plans)

As for the GHG accounting, you need to designate a single responsible person for the management of the whole of the action plan (the “pilot”). It will be easier if its the same person who has managed the calculation. The pilot should be introduced in a document available to all the employees.

The next steps are:

• identifying what has already been done: GHG evaluations, applicable regulations, voluntary commitments, already existing actions…
• define the organisational and operational scopes to which the action plan will apply
• define an overall objective of reduction of the carbon footprint
• define a time frame.

For each action, you should identify means and resources, then decide the schedule and assess technical and financial feasibility. If you have to choose, build some criteria : financial investment, cost of functioning, financial savings, potential for GHG reduction, ease of implementation, need to raise employee awareness, benefit for image, etc.

For each action, you should define responsible persons, validated by an executive committee.

You can find a guide for the construction, implementation and monitoring of GHG emission reduction action plans beside. You can also evaluate the impact of an action ex ante, using the ADEME’s methodology for Quantifying the impact of an emission reduction action on GHGs, downloadable beside.

Impact of an action on GHGs

Your objective should always be to set up long-term actions, in order to impact the overall strategy of your organization.

Focus on the ADEME’s method :

In 2016, ADEME produced the second version of its method for quantifying the impact of an emission reduction action on GHGs. This method enables the impact on GHGs to be quantified ex ante, midway and/or ex post. It provides environmental managers, liaison officers, elected officials and decision makers with every element they need to establish their GHG emission reduction action plan in the process of identifying, prioritizing, monitoring and measuring effort, and the reporting and making any adjustments necessary.

This method is accompanied by some tools, in particular 52 concrete actions sheets, applying the method and showing the results of the method, that you can download beside.

Be careful : When evaluating an action plan, you will surely calculate “avoided emissions”, as the difference between your reference and your current emissions. You must not deduct avoided emissions from the total of your emissions. You may recognise them and report the results of your efforts, but it is not “negative” emissions.

Management system

In order to help you to manage your action plan, ABC has created the GHG Management System (GHG-MS). It allows the organizations to set up their GHG emission reduction strategy, facilitating the reduction action management. It is in the form of a guide, with tools and trainings. It is compatible with the management systems of the environment (ISO 14001), energy (ISO 50001) and quality (ISO 9001).

You can find more about it on the website of the association.

To see the answer of the quizz, just move the mouse over the picture!

You can download beside:

• A guide for the construction, implementation and monitoring of GHG emission reduction action plans
• A methodology for quantifying the impact of a reduction action on GHG emissions
• A tool which helps you for the quantification.

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If you are an organisation (end-users), click here to see how to assess the maturity of your carbon strategy.