Water-energy carbon footprint of industrial processes

A carbon footprint of a product, process or service summarises the greenhouse gas emissions which arise directly and indirectly across the whole time span of the activity. For example, it takes into account direct emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels through the use of energy in the process, but also embedded emissions from the manufacture of input materials or their recycling at the “End of Life”.

The work would start with call or site visit to understand the nature of the business and its operations and processes involving the use of water and energy. This could be a cooling water system or water/wastewater treatment process for instance. We would then gather process specific data required for the carbon footprint. The carbon footprint can be expanded through a more comprehensive sustainability assessment, a Life Cycle Assessment, which would include other environmental impacts such as life-cycle water consumption, water scarcity impacts, ozone depletion, eutrophication, acidification or resource depletion and others you may be interested in.

The analysis can show the total overall footprint of a current process solution compared to a planned envisaged process change. And it can highlight the process parameters which contribute most to the environmental impact and which are worthwhile changing to increase the environmental sustainability of the process. Most of our expertise lies in the hospitality sector and food and beverage production industries, but we welcome businesses from any sector to explore the environmental impact of their water and energy use with us!

Previous work example

An example of Isabel’s previous work, completing a carbon and water footprint for Arbikie Distillery, Scotland.