A Carbon Footprint Management Program for Resource Consumption Cost Reduction

The Petroleum Institute's (PI) Occupational Carbon Footprint Management Program is a two-phase program that was initiated in 2008. Some of the major accomplishments of the first phase included:

• Developing a method to generate/calculate PI's carbon footprint

• Identifying strategies for reducing PI's carbon footprint

• Identifying major areas of energy/resource consumption to reduce costs

In 2009 (phase 2), some of the major accomplishments included:

• Developing and implementing strategies indentified in Phase 1

• Measuring the results of these strategies

• Improving estimates of PI's carbon footprint through enhanced data collection

• Increasing awareness among the PI on energy conservation and sustainability

This paper discusses the second phase of the program and details the various initiatives that were implemented to manage and reduce the Institute's carbon footprint and energy usage. One initiative in particular, of controlling building temperatures during business and non-business hours through HVAC adjustments, generated savings of 837,833 AED, representing a 23% savings over the previous year. Electricity use accounted for almost 90% of the PI's carbon footprint also making it the largest source of energy consumption. The greatest contributor to electricity consumption was the energy used to run the HVAC system. This paper will also detail the methodology used to develop PI's composite carbon footprint which totaled 13,253.5 metric tons of eCO₂ for 2009. This value was reduced to 13,241.4 metric tons of eCO₂ by an offset of 12.1 tCO₂e due torecycling. Other carbon footprint reduction strategies will also be discussed including a lighting and lunimaries analysis study, awareness and education on sustainability, a water conservation project and the ecnouraged use of public transportation.