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Reports from ISAUK Research & Consulting
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The Scottish Parliament's Footprint
 The carbon footprint and Ecological Footprint of the Scottish Parliament in the three areas energy, paper and waste was calculated for the financial years 2005/06 and 2006/07, as well as for targets set until 2008/09. A novel Hybrid Life-Cycle-Analysis approach has been employed which is described in the Methodology section of the report. The carbon footprint includes direct (on-site) as well as indirect (from suppliers and other sectors in the economy) emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The Ecological Footprint includes direct and indirect impacts for seven land types. This short report presents the footprint results for energy consumption (electricity and natural gas), paper consumption and waste.
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ISAUK Research Report 08/01
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A Comparative Carbon Footprint Analysis of On-Site Construction and an Off-Site Manufactured House
This report explores one of the key issues related to climate change: achieving low greenhouse gas emissions in the housing sector. The report provides an understanding of the carbon footprint from house building (the production of materials used in construction) and the direct energy requirements of housing. This is calculated for an average house in the UK. A scenario is presented that documents the future greenhouse gas emissions of the housing sector for both traditional construction techniques (on-site) and the "Off-Site Manufacturing" (OSM) of a house.
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Research Report 07/04
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Companies on the Scale: Ecological Footprint of Businesses
Calculating the Ecological Footprint of a company ought to fulfil certain requirements. It has to take into account the direct Footprint impacts such as direct land appropriation and emissions from vehicles and premises. And it also must take account of indirect impacts that are embodied in all the purchases the company makes. As companies and individual (final) consumers are not at the same place in the life-cycle of production and consumption, different calculations and conversion factors have to be applied, otherwise there would be double-counting and non-comparability of Footprints. This report presents an extended input-output approach to calculate Footprints of companies that are truly comparable and discusses the implications for sustainable chain management and sector sustainability.
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ISAUK Research Report 07/03
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Unravelling the Impacts of Supply Chains
The research question of this report is "How can corporate sustainability performance be quantified and compared in practice, whilst taking into account the responsibility sharing nature of trading and avoiding double-counting of impacts?". The report a) describes the analytical approach to measure the indirect impacts of a comprehensive Triple Bottom Line account of a producing entity, b) presents a quantitative concept of shared responsibility as a solution to assigning responsibility to both producers and consumers, in a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive way, and c) demonstrates practical applications in examples of quantification of indirect impacts, supply chain contributions and shared responsibility.
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ISAUK Research Report 07/02
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A definition of 'carbon footprint'
The term ‘carbon footprint’ has become very popular over the last few years and is now in widespread public use. With climate change high up on the political and corporate agenda, carbon footprint assessments are in strong demand. Despite its ubiquitous public use however, the scientific literature is surprisingly void of clarifications, let alone definitions of the term 'carbon footprint'. This report explores the apparent discrepancy between public and academic use of the term ‘carbon footprint’ and suggests a scientific definition based on commonly accepted accounting principles and modelling approaches. It addresses methodological questions such as system boundaries, completeness, comprehensiveness, units and robustness of the indicator.
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ISAUK Research Report 07/01
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Reports from the Centre for Integrated Sustainability Analysis
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Carbon neutral - sense and sensibility
Businesses offering to make you or your company carbon neutral are proliferating on the internet. The term carbon neutral is being defined by common usage. There are no standard ways of measuring your carbon emissions. This report examines eleven websites offering carbon neutrality. It compares online calculators, their results and the costs of offsetting calculated on the strength of those results. It traces two offset projects from the online carbon offset retailer to the actual project on the ground in order to compare the online rhetoric with the time consuming and difficult work of developing community based projects in Third World countries. The report offers a definition of carbon neutral based on the ways in which the term is being used. It also uncovers a range of issues for further discussion.
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Sustainable island businesses: a case study of Norfolk Island
The case studies from Norfolk Island presented in this work show that conservation, efficiency and reductions of the overall material metabolism of economic activity can be as effective as purely technologically-driven changes. The case studies demonstrate exceptional sustainability performance in terms of material flow, and greenhouse gas emissions. The income growth scenarios show that - from a sustainability point of view - increasing tourist yield rather than tourist numbers is preferable for coping with price hikes and a finite resource base, and is also more likely to keep within bounds the strain on the island’s people and infrastructure.
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Assessing the impacts of a loaf of bread
This paper provides detailed information about on-site and supply chain ‘costs’ of producing a loaf of bread, in terms of indicators across the social, economic and environmental bottom lines. Both on-site and supply-chain viewpoints help to tell a story. Both are necessary components of ‘the true cost of a loaf of bread’. But the real decision about what to do with this information ultimately rests with people. What an integrated sustainability analysis of bread can offer are metrics and results, underpinned by a transparent philosophy, that can lay bare the intricacies of an interdependent and infinite supply chain.
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Sydney Water and the Ecological Footprint
Sydney Water is Australia's largest water and wastewater service provider. Sydney Water has developed 29 ESD indicators to assist in identifying overall cumulative environmental and social impacts and is moving towards integrated ecological, social and financial reporting (triple-bottom-line reporting). Measuring performance against the ESD indicators assists the Corporation in assessing whether strategies and plans are effective and provides feedback to decision-making processes. A pilot Ecological Footprint calculation using input-output analysis was undertaken to establish its suitability of report combined progress towards sustainability. The results of the pilot Sydney Water Ecological Footprint were reported in the Corporation’s 2001 Towards Sustainability Report.
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Integrated Sustainability Analysis
sustainability research
sustainability accounting
consulting
triple bottom line
corporate sustainability
sustainability reporting
corporate responsibility
Ecological Footprint
carbon footprint
footprint
sustainable companies
ISA UK
ISA consultancy
ISA consulting
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isa-research.co.uk