SUSTAINABILITY SIMPLIFIED
on the environment. These initiatives are a good place to start if your goal is to limit climate-change impacts. Electricity. Some of the best emission reductions with the highest return on investment, as well as the greatest government incentives, are reductions in electric usage accomplished through efficiency projects. For example, replac - ing fluorescent lighting with LED lighting often produces an almost immediate ROI as well as a noticeable reduction in your Scope 2 emissions. Other efficiency projects that are cov - ered in the United States by a federal tax incentive program include heating and cooling as well as improvements to a building’s envelope (through insula- tion and repairs). Businesses within the United States can also look to the U.S. Department of Energy for grants, loans, and financial assistance (see “Resources” sidebar, opposite page, for links to more information).
are typically calculated by weight, so it is most impactful to eliminate the heaviest aspects of your waste stream first—this is typically food waste, as it is often wet and dense. The most common and impactful way to eliminate food waste from your waste stream is by establishing a com- posting process. This will have an imme- diate and significant imact. Composting, a form of food waste recycling where leftover food is turned into usable soil, is available in many areas, both rural and urban, and it can be cheaper than hauling waste to a landfill. In addition to the emission reduction, a three-stream waste system—landfill waste, recycling, and composting—is often viewed favorably by guests. There are a few different types of com - posting, so it’s important to research what your local composting facility can accept. For example, while some indus- trial facilities can accept meats, oils, and dairy, others cannot.
tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent).
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), among other sources, offers an online Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies calculator (see “Resources” sidebar, opposite page, for a link to the calcula- tor) to help you convert units like kWh, gallons of gasoline, or therms of natural gas (1 therm is equal to 100 cubic feet of natural gas) into MTCO2e. This stan - dard of calculation includes all green- house gas emissions, such as methane and ozone as well as CO2, and will allow you to measure which parts of your business are contributing most to your emissions and to climate change. The Low-Hanging Fruit Even without calculating your MTCO2e, there are still a number of straightfor- ward initiatives you can undertake to begin reducing your operation’s effect
Composting. Another place to start is waste reduction. Waste emissions
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