Scottish retail site Carbon Footprint Assessment

This customer site was found to be responsible for the direct and indirect emissions of 6,021 tonnes of CO2 annually comprising electricity (2,645 tonnes), gas (1,348 tonnes) and fuel (2,028 tonnes). Initial analysis showed that this site could be “carbon neutral” without using any form of external carbon offsets at a cost of between £3.1m and £4.5m depending on the technology chosen.

Short term but temporary improvements were found to be possible by moving to a 100% renewable electricity tariff. This would reduce the carbon footprint by 47% or 2,845 tonnes for a net cost of zero.

Other short term recommendations were  to reconfigure the fluorescent lighting system to replace other old lights with more efficient lighting.

Medium term solutions, such as the installation of a suitable wind turbine depended on local factors such as the forecast operational life of the site and other ROI criteria.

Payback on a “carbon neutral” solution was less than 5 years with the site thereafter being self-sufficient for electricity and heat.

We found that even an old warehouse could be made carbon-neutral within a reasonable payback period depending on availability of associated funds.