ghgtools

ghgtools is designed to make greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting more accessible and standardized. Tracking, measuring, and reporting GHG emissions is essential to understand risks and identify opportunities related to climate change and the transition towards a renewable energy economy. The goal of this package is to advance the practice of GHG accounting with tools rooted in uncompromising transparency, rigorous data quality, and purposeful versatility.

The Basics

The GHG inventory of any entity can be summarized as follows: Assets, such as buildings, vehicles, and equipment, engage in Activities, such as electricity consumption, travel, or purchasing, which each have a specific Emission Factor that tells us the rate at which that activity generates GHG emissions. These three variables - assets, actives, and emission factors - compose the underlying calculation methodology. ghgtools uses a set of standardized data templates to match each record of activity data to an emission factor using information about your assets. Our methodology is built on the best practices set forth by the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard.

The following data sets are required to use ghgtools and calculate GHG emissions. When you library(ghgtools), these data sets are available.

Emission Factor Library - EFLibrary - The catalog of emission factors for a variety of activities. Our team consolidates emission factors from a collection of reputable sources, such as the EPA’s Emission Factor Hub. Unless you want to add your own custom emission factors (which you certainly can, these tools are open source after all!), you don’t need to worry about the emission factor library. It is pre-populated and ready to go.

Asset Portfolio - AssetPortfolio - The list of all your assets. This likely includes buildings and vehicles. You may also designate an Enterprise asset to calculate scope 3 emissions for purchasing, business travel, and other supply chain related activities.

Activity Data - ActivityData - The record of energy consumption and other GHG-producing activities across each of your assets.

Data and Templates

First, we need to load ghgtools

library(ghgtools)

The emission factor library, EFLibrary, is loaded from the ghgtools package. There is a row of data for each greenhouse gas produced by the activity. For example, burning natural gas will generate CO2, CH4 and N2O. EFLibrary is loaded when you library ghgtools. An example of the emission factors for Aviation Gasoline is provided below. Check out the Emission Factor Library article for more guidance and information.

ef_source	ef_publishdate	ef_activeyear	service_type	unit	emission_category	service_subcategory1	service_subcategory2	supplier	emission_scope	country	subregion	ghg	ghg_unit	source_emission_factor	unit_conversion	conversion_factor	ghg_perunit	V19	V20
EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	2023-09-12	2023	Aviation Gasoline	gallons	Mobile				Scope 1	United States		CO2	kg	8.31	1	kg_per_kg	8.31000
EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	2023-09-12	2023	Aviation Gasoline	gallons	Mobile				Scope 1	United States		CH4	kg	0.00036	1	kg_per_kg	0.00036
EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	2023-09-12	2023	Aviation Gasoline	gallons	Mobile				Scope 1	United States		N2O	kg	7e-05	1	kg_per_kg	0.00007

ghgtools comes with templates for activity data and the asset portoflio. You can use create_templates() to write these templates to excel files in your working directory. create_templates() also writes the full emission factor library to an excel file in your working directory.

create_templates()
#> [1] "Success! Check your directory for ActivityData.csv, AssetPortfolio.csv, and EFLibrary.csv"

See below for some example data from the templates.

Activity Data Template - See ActivityData reference documentation for more information about the activity data template.

asset_id	supplier	account_id	meter_number	date	year	cost	service_type	service_subcategory1	service_subcategory2	unit	usage
B1456					2023		Electricity			kWh	31231.91
B1457					2023		Electricity			kWh	19389.59
B1458					2023		Electricity			kWh	185862.41
B1458					2023		Natural Gas			therms	2569.69

Asset Portfolio Template - See AssetPortfolio reference documentation for more information about the asset portfolio template.

asset_id	asset_name	asset_description	address	city	state	zip	country	sqft	region	business_unit	asset_type	asset_subtype	year_built
B1456				Bellingham	Washington	98226	United States	342	West Coast	Operations	Building	Office	1993
B1457				Bellingham	Washington	98225	United States	3280	West Coast	Operations	Building	Office	2005
B1458				Bellingham	Washington	98225	United States	20142	West Coast	Operations	Building	Office	2003

Running ghg_inventory()

The core function of ghgtools is ghg_inventory(). This function requires activity data, an asset portoflio, and a GWP selection.You may choose to provide an emission factor library, otherwise ghg_inventory() will default to the internal emission factor library EFLibrary

• Activity Data must be a data frame following the structure of the activity data template.
• Asset Portfolio must be a data frame following the structure of the asset portfolio template.
• GWP choose a global wamring potential to use for the GHG inventory calcualtions. Choices are “SAR”, “AR4”, “AR5”, or “AR6”. If you have no preference for GWPs, we recommend following UNFCCC guidelines, which require the use of GWP values from the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5).
• Emission Factor Library must be a data frame following the structure of EFLibrary. You may have custom or unique emission factors that you wish to use in ghgtools, in which case you can load your own emission factor library into r studio. You may also append additional emission factors onto the default EFLibrary.

You may prefer to use excel to overwrite the activity data and asset portfolio data templates with your own data. This is why create_templates() writes an excel file in your working directory. Once you add your data to the templates, you can use the fread() function to create global environment variables for use in ghgtools. If you decide to make any changes to the emission factor library, again use fread() to create a global environment variable.

library(data.table)
My_ActivityData <- fread("ActivityData.csv")
My_AssetPortfolio <- fread("AssetPortfolio.csv")
My_EFLibrary <- fread("EFLibrary.csv")

With the variables created above, you can run ghg_inventory().

GHG_rawdata <- ghg_inventory(My_ActivityData, My_AssetPortfolio, "AR5", My_EFLibrary)

Let’s take a look at the ghg inventory that was calculated:

asset_id	asset_name	asset_type	asset_subtype	asset_description	address	city	state	zip	country	region	subregion	business_unit	year_built	sqft	service_type	unit	supplier	account_id	meter_number	date	year	cost	usage	emission_category	service_subcategory1	service_subcategory2	emission_scope	co2_kgperunit	ch4_kgperunit	n2o_kgperunit	otherghgs_kgco2eperunit	gwps_ar	co2_gwp	ch4_gwp	n2o_gwp	kgco2e_perunit	kg_co2	kg_ch4	kg_n2o	kg_co2e	mt_co2e	ef_source	ef_publishdate
B1456		Building	Office			Bellingham	Washington	98226	United States	West Coast	NWPP	Operations	1993	342	Electricity	kWh					2023		31231.907	Indirect Energy			Scope 2	0.2731025	0.0000254	3.60e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.2747756	8529.5111	0.7932904	0.1133718	8581.7668	8.5817668	USEPA eGRID2022	01/30/2024
B1457		Building	Office			Bellingham	Washington	98225	United States	West Coast	NWPP	Operations	2005	3280	Electricity	kWh					2023		19389.588	Indirect Energy			Scope 2	0.2731025	0.0000254	3.60e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.2747756	5295.3445	0.4924955	0.0703842	5327.7862	5.3277862	USEPA eGRID2022	01/30/2024
B1458		Building	Office			Bellingham	Washington	98225	United States	West Coast	NWPP	Operations	2003	20142	Electricity	kWh					2023		185862.407	Indirect Energy			Scope 2	0.2731025	0.0000254	3.60e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.2747756	50759.4835	4.7209051	0.6746805	51070.4592	51.0704592	USEPA eGRID2022	01/30/2024
B1458		Building	Office			Bellingham	Washington	98225	United States	West Coast		Operations	2003	20142	Natural Gas	therms					2023		2569.690	Stationary			Scope 1	5.3060000	0.0001000	1.00e-05	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	5.3114500	13634.7751	0.2569690	0.0256969	13648.7800	13.6487800	EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	09/12/2023
B1564		Building	Office			Woodinville	Washington	98072	United States	West Coast	NWPP	Operations	1990	3636	Electricity	kWh					2023		47302.603	Indirect Energy			Scope 2	0.2731025	0.0000254	3.60e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.2747756	12918.4580	1.2014861	0.1717084	12997.6024	12.9976024	USEPA eGRID2022	01/30/2024
B1564		Building	Office			Woodinville	Washington	98072	United States	West Coast		Operations	1990	3636	Natural Gas	therms					2023		1382.843	Stationary			Scope 1	5.3060000	0.0001000	1.00e-05	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	5.3114500	7337.3650	0.1382843	0.0138284	7344.9015	7.3449015	EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	09/12/2023
B1662		Building	Office			Portland	Oregon	97202	United States	West Coast	NWPP	Operations	2007	4821	Electricity	kWh					2023		106760.001	Indirect Energy			Scope 2	0.2731025	0.0000254	3.60e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.2747756	29156.4206	2.7117040	0.3875388	29335.0461	29.3350461	USEPA eGRID2022	01/30/2024
B1662		Building	Office			Portland	Oregon	97202	United States	West Coast		Operations	2007	4821	Natural Gas	therms					2023		3541.052	Stationary			Scope 1	5.3060000	0.0001000	1.00e-05	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	5.3114500	18788.8219	0.3541052	0.0354105	18808.1206	18.8081206	EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	09/12/2023
B1663		Building	Office			Portland	Oregon	97229	United States	West Coast	NWPP	Operations	2015	4316	Electricity	kWh					2023		74746.451	Indirect Energy			Scope 2	0.2731025	0.0000254	3.60e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.2747756	20413.4408	1.8985599	0.2713296	20538.5029	20.5385029	USEPA eGRID2022	01/30/2024
B1663		Building	Office			Portland	Oregon	97229	United States	West Coast		Operations	2015	4316	Natural Gas	therms					2023		1793.131	Stationary			Scope 1	5.3060000	0.0001000	1.00e-05	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	5.3114500	9514.3531	0.1793131	0.0179313	9524.1256	9.5241256	EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	09/12/2023
B1866		Building	Office			Sacramento	California	95816	United States	West Coast	CAMX	Operations	1999	6074	Electricity	kWh					2023		85928.162	Indirect Energy			Scope 2	0.2256363	0.0000136	1.80e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.2264968	19388.5135	1.1686230	0.1555300	19462.4504	19.4624504	USEPA eGRID2022	01/30/2024
B1867		Building	Office			Sacramento	California	95825	United States	West Coast	CAMX	Operations	2004	3959	Electricity	kWh					2023		44956.454	Indirect Energy			Scope 2	0.2256363	0.0000136	1.80e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.2264968	10143.8084	0.6114078	0.0813712	10182.4912	10.1824912	USEPA eGRID2022	01/30/2024
B1868		Building	Office			Sacramento	California	95825	United States	West Coast	CAMX	Operations	2004	8070	Electricity	kWh					2023		106728.394	Indirect Energy			Scope 2	0.2256363	0.0000136	1.80e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.2264968	24081.8011	1.4515062	0.1931784	24173.6355	24.1736355	USEPA eGRID2022	01/30/2024
B2074		Building	Office			Indio	California	92203	United States	West Coast	AZNM	Operations	2010	3543	Electricity	kWh					2023		49348.000	Indirect Energy			Scope 2	0.3520039	0.0000231	3.20e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.3534934	17370.6908	1.1399388	0.1569266	17444.1947	17.4441947	USEPA eGRID2022	01/30/2024
B2074		Building	Office			Indio	California	92203	United States	West Coast		Operations	2010	3543	Natural Gas	therms					2023		25.981	Stationary			Scope 1	5.3060000	0.0001000	1.00e-05	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	5.3114500	137.8552	0.0025981	0.0002598	137.9968	0.1379968	EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	09/12/2023
LS101		Equipment	Mobile	Landscaping equipment		Bellingham	Washington	98226	United States	West Coast		Operations			Motor Gasoline	gallons					2023		708.000	Mobile			Scope 1	8.7800000	0.0003800	8.00e-05	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	8.8118400	6216.2400	0.2690400	0.0566400	6238.7827	6.2387827	EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	09/12/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Capital Goods	USD					2023		22219.240	Capital Goods	Manufacturing	Electronic Computer Manufacturing	Scope 3	0.0821375	0.0002905	1.22e-05	0.0063312	AR5	1	28	265	0.0998362	1825.0331	6.4551114	0.2710747	2218.2850	2.2182850	US EPA Supply Chain Emission Factors	04/20/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Capital Goods	USD					2023		424731.110	Capital Goods	Manufacturing	All Other Miscellaneous General Purpose Machinery Manufacturing	Scope 3	0.2016023	0.0006110	2.48e-05	0.0050865	AR5	1	28	265	0.2303679	85626.7491	259.4975415	10.5333315	97844.4285	97.8444285	US EPA Supply Chain Emission Factors	04/20/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Purchased Goods and Services	USD					2023		533840.640	Purchased Goods and Services	Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services	All Other Legal Services	Scope 3	0.0407606	0.0001567	4.60e-06	0.0017602	AR5	1	28	265	0.0481355	21759.6808	83.6549637	2.4716822	25696.6934	25.6966934	US EPA Supply Chain Emission Factors	04/20/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Purchased Goods and Services	USD					2023		130615.220	Purchased Goods and Services	Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services	Human Resources Consulting Services	Scope 3	0.0605687	0.0002976	8.60e-06	0.0043348	AR5	1	28	265	0.0755089	7911.1956	38.8659955	1.1206786	9862.6153	9.8626153	US EPA Supply Chain Emission Factors	04/20/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Purchased Goods and Services	USD					2023		988346.400	Purchased Goods and Services	Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services	Landscape Architectural Services	Scope 3	0.0933181	0.0003284	1.83e-05	0.0034681	AR5	1	28	265	0.1108301	92230.5825	324.5472608	18.0867391	109538.5704	109.5385704	US EPA Supply Chain Emission Factors	04/20/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Purchased Goods and Services	USD					2023		154157.660	Purchased Goods and Services	Administrative and Support and Waste Mgmt. Services	Facilities Support Services	Scope 3	0.1602254	0.0006920	2.41e-05	0.0039080	AR5	1	28	265	0.1898948	24699.9684	106.6712427	3.7151996	29273.7389	29.2737389	US EPA Supply Chain Emission Factors	04/20/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Purchased Goods and Services	USD					2023		42621.180	Purchased Goods and Services	Administrative and Support and Waste Mgmt. Services	Janitorial Services	Scope 3	0.1091645	0.0005265	2.46e-05	0.0232457	AR5	1	28	265	0.1536699	4652.7215	22.4381333	1.0484810	6549.5943	6.5495943	US EPA Supply Chain Emission Factors	04/20/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Purchased Goods and Services	USD					2023		160131.340	Purchased Goods and Services	Administrative and Support and Waste Mgmt. Services	Office Administrative Services	Scope 3	0.0772075	0.0003372	1.62e-05	0.0028183	AR5	1	28	265	0.0937597	12363.3406	53.9927650	2.5941277	15013.8729	15.0138729	US EPA Supply Chain Emission Factors	04/20/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Purchased Goods and Services	USD					2023		15929.275	Purchased Goods and Services	Administrative and Support and Waste Mgmt. Services	Security Systems Services (except Locksmiths)	Scope 3	0.0603046	0.0002553	7.80e-06	0.0019502	AR5	1	28	265	0.0714570	960.6086	4.0668076	0.1234519	1138.2589	1.1382589	US EPA Supply Chain Emission Factors	04/20/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Purchased Goods and Services	USD					2023		321181.500	Purchased Goods and Services	Educational Services	Professional and Management Development Training	Scope 3	0.0915574	0.0005185	1.03e-05	0.0031904	AR5	1	28	265	0.1119962	29406.5286	166.5428856	3.3081694	35971.0919	35.9710919	US EPA Supply Chain Emission Factors	04/20/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Purchased Goods and Services	USD					2023		1795761.130	Purchased Goods and Services	Information	Wireless Telecommunications Carriers (except Satellite)	Scope 3	0.1276521	0.0004146	1.57e-05	0.0073369	AR5	1	28	265	0.1507596	229232.6470	744.6105568	28.1934497	270728.2735	270.7282735	US EPA Supply Chain Emission Factors	04/20/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Business Travel	vehicle-mile					2023		15000.000	Business Travel	Ground Travel	Passenger Car	Scope 3	0.3130000	0.0000080	7.00e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.3150790	4695.0000	0.1200000	0.1050000	4726.1850	4.7261850	EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	09/12/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Business Travel	vehicle-mile					2023		500.000	Business Travel	Ground Travel	Light-Duty Truck	Scope 3	0.4670000	0.0000130	1.20e-05	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.4705440	233.5000	0.0065000	0.0060000	235.2720	0.2352720	EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	09/12/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Business Travel	passenger-mile					2023		37000.000	Business Travel	Rail Travel	Intercity Rail - National Average	Scope 3	0.1130000	0.0000092	2.60e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.1139466	4181.0000	0.3404000	0.0962000	4216.0242	4.2160242	EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	09/12/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Business Travel	passenger-mile					2023		60000.000	Business Travel	Air Travel	Air Travel - Short Haul	Scope 3	0.2070000	0.0000064	6.60e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.2089282	12420.0000	0.3840000	0.3960000	12535.6920	12.5356920	EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	09/12/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Business Travel	passenger-mile					2023		110000.000	Business Travel	Air Travel	Air Travel - Medium Haul	Scope 3	0.1290000	0.0000006	4.10e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.1301033	14190.0000	0.0660000	0.4510000	14311.3630	14.3113630	EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	09/12/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Business Travel	passenger-mile					2023		73000.000	Business Travel	Air Travel	Air Travel - Long Haul	Scope 3	0.1630000	0.0000006	5.20e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.1643948	11899.0000	0.0438000	0.3796000	12000.8204	12.0008204	EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	09/12/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Employee Commuting	vehicle-mile					2023		70000.000	Employee Commuting	Ground Travel	Passenger Car	Scope 3	0.3130000	0.0000080	7.00e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.3150790	21910.0000	0.5600000	0.4900000	22055.5300	22.0555300	EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	09/12/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Employee Commuting	passenger-mile					2023		84000.000	Employee Commuting	Rail Travel	Transit Rail	Scope 3	0.0960000	0.0000080	1.10e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.0965155	8064.0000	0.6720000	0.0924000	8107.3020	8.1073020	EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	09/12/2023
Enterprise		Enterprise							United States	West Coast					Employee Commuting	passenger-mile					2023		3000.000	Employee Commuting	Ground Travel	Bus	Scope 3	0.0550000	0.0000063	1.10e-06	0.0000000	AR5	1	28	265	0.0554679	165.0000	0.0189000	0.0033000	166.4037	0.1664037	EPA CCCL Emission Factors for GHG Inventories	09/12/2023

ghg_inventory() has merged our AssetPortoflio, ActivityData, and EFL to generate a GHG emissions inventory report. This data can now be used for a variety of climate disclosure needs.

Visualize your GHG Inventory

Using ggplot2() we can begin to visualize the inventory created by ghgtools.

Visit ghgtools.io for updates and more information!