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01.01.2023: Special Data Update January 2023

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Written by Gemma - Plan A Support
Updated over a year ago

There is one special data update outside the cadence of our quarterly Data Update Policy to start the year 2023 with the latest and most up-to-date conversion factors, effective from January 31st, 2023. In the same update, we are also fixing some minor errors which are all outlined below.

Territory-specific updates

Changes affecting ALL 🌏 data

Type of Change

Module /
Emission category

Description

Expected Impact

Minor | Emission Factor Update

Waste (Glass)

Glass waste emission factor updated to align with a global methodology

Measured emissions might decrease up to 14%.

Minor | Calculation Model Update

Events (Virtual)

*No longer active on present version of Plan A

Upgrades to the model determining the energy use of personal computers

Measured energy-related emissions might decrease up to 20%.

Medium | Emission Factor Update

Energy (Work From Home)

Emission factor changed to align with a global model that excludes geographies that have a country-specific factor.

Measured emissions Emissions can be expected to decrease by up to 37%.

Medium | Threshold Update

Business Travel

Changes in short and long-travel thresholds for car, train and plane trips affect short- and long-haul-based business trip emissions.

These thresholds are generated from internal data and they are no longer geographically specific. The use of kilometre or destination-origin methods is encouraged over using the unit-based method due to improved accuracy.

Thresholds in km:

Train: 200
Car: 30
Flight: 1000

Which values are used for calculations?

Short train: 158
Long train: 476

Short car: 10
Long car: 110

Short flight: 678
Long flight: 2975

Changes affecting Swiss🇨🇭market data

Type of Change

Module /
Emission category

Description

Expected Impact

Minor | Emission Factor Update

Electricity

Update to electricity grid factor due to Switzerland adding more renewable capacity to its grid.

Measured emissions Emissions can be expected to decrease by up to 14%.

Medium | Emission Factor Update

Vehicle Fleet

Vehicle fuel emission factors have been updated to align with COPERT and Switzerland’s Federal Office for the Environment (BAFU).

Measured emissions may decrease as much as 32%.

Minor | Calculation Model Update

Waste (Paper)

Paper waste emissions might rise some, but will remain very small due to the high paper recycling rate in Switzerland.

Small increase in emissions expected.

Changes affecting UK 🇬🇧 market data

Type of Change

Module /
Emission category

Description

Expected Impact

Medium | Emission Factor Update

Electricity

Update to electricity grid factor due to the UK adding more renewable capacity to its grid. Changes mainly due to the latest release of the emission factors published by the “Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy”.

Measured emissions may decrease as much as 30%.

Minor | Calculation Model Update

Waste

Slight increase in the waste emission factors due to more accuracy in the waste model.

Small increase in emissions expected.

Changes affecting French 🇫🇷 market data

Type of Change

Module /
Emission category

Description

Expected Impact

Minor | Emission Factor Update

Electricity

Update to due to the latest released emission factors from the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME).

Measured emissions may decrease as much as 12% compared to 2022 levels.

Medium | Emission Factor Update

Heating

Update to due to the latest released emission factors from the French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME).

Measured emissions may decrease as much as 49% compared to 2022 levels.

Minor | Emission Factor Update

Cloud Server Services

*Now part of Purchased Goods and Services as per GHG Protocol.

Slight update of emission factor.

Measured emissions can be expected to increase by up to 2%.

Medium | Emission Factor Update

Mobile Combustion

Fuel emissions (for petrol, diesel and unknown fuels) can increase by +17% on average

Measured emissions can increase by 17% on average.

Medium | Emission Factor Update

Waste

Emission factors have been corrected to fit a standardised model across Plan A.

Plastic, residual, and paper waste emissions may increase, while glass waste emissions may decrease somewhat.

Medium | Emission Factor Update

Business Travel

Business travel emissions can either increase or decrease depending on the change of the emission factor.

Increase of Emissions for :

  • Passenger car

  • Short train travel

Decrease of Emissions for:

  • Long train travel

  • Short-haul flights

  • Long-haul flights

Medium | Emission Factor & Calculation Methodology Update

Employee Commute

Employee Commute emissions can either increase or decrease depending on the change.

Commuting distance averages and commuting modality shares (% car % public transport averages in France) are updated due to more accurate calculations.

Increase of Emissions for :

  • Passenger car

Decrease of Emissions for:

  • Public transport

Changes affecting German 🇩🇪 market data

Type of Change

Module /
Emission category

Description

Expected Impact

Medium | Emission Factor & National Average Update

Electricity & Heating

Emission factors and National Averages updated based on latest research.

Measured emissions can increase by 9%.

Emissions decrease by 30% when using the National Averages option.

Major | Emission Factor Update

Business Travel

The average car on the road in Germany is becoming less polluting.

Business Travel emission factors have been corrected to fit a standardised model across Plan A.

Car-related emissions can decrease by 29% (per kilometre basis).

On average, car, train and plane travel emissions may increase up to 59% from 2022 to 2023.

Major | Emission Factor Update

Waste

Waste emission factors have been corrected to fit a standardised model across Plan A.

Plastic, residual, paper, organic and glass waste emissions may decrease significantly.

Minor | Emission Factor Update

Cloud Computing

Smaller corrections in Cloud Computing Emission Factors.

Emission results are expected to change up to +/- 5%.

Medium | Emission Factor Update

Work From Home electricity emissions

Corrections in Work From Home Emission Factors.

Emission results are expected to decrease up to 50%, though the average decrease expected is 24%.

Changes affecting EU 🇪🇺 market data

Type of Change

Module / Emission category

Description

Expected Impact

Medium | Emission Factor Updates

Vehicle Fleet

Vehicle fuel emission factors have been updated to align with EEA’s COPERT Tier 1 method.

Emissions results may decrease as much as 29%.

Changes affecting Mexican 🇲🇽 market data

Type of Change

Module / Emission category

Description

Expected Impact

Minor | Emission Factor Update

Electricity

Changes of Emission Factors are mainly due to the national data update.

Electricity emission factor decreased by -14%.

Emissions results may decrease as much as 14%.

Medium | Emission Factor Update

Work From Home Electricity

Changes of Emission Factors are mainly due to the national data update.

Work From Home emission factor decreased by -24%.

Emissions results may decrease as much as 24%.

Minor | Emission Factor Update

Cloud Computing

Changes of Emission Factors are mainly due to the national data update.

Cloud Computing emission factor increased by 17%.

Emissions results may increase as much as 17%.

Minor | Emission Factor Update

Waste

Changes of Emission Factors are mainly due to the national data update.

Glass waste emission factor increased by 0.8%

Emissions results may increase as much as 0.8%.

Major | Emission Factor Update

Business Travel

Significant increase in the passenger car emission factor (+82%) due to changes between 2016 and 2018 inventories. Decrease of short train travel emission factor (-2.8%), and slight increase of short and long flight (<1%)

Emissions related to road travel may increase by up to 82%. Short train travel may decrease by 2.8%, short and long flights by less than 1%.

Medium | Emission Factor Update

Employee Commute

Changes due to commuting distance average changes.

Emissions expected to increase by up to 24%.

Changes affecting US 🇺🇸 market data

Type of Change

Module / Emission category

Description

Expected Impact

Minor | Emission Factor Update

Electricity

Changes of Emission Factors are mainly due to the national data update.

Country and state emission factor has been updated.

Emissions results may decrease as much as 7%.

Minor | Emission Factor Update

Vehicle Fleet

Emission factors for unknown fuel increased slightly.

Emissions results may increase as much as 0.8%.

Major | Emission Factor Update

Work From Home Heating

Changes of Emission Factors are mainly due to the national data update.

Emissions results may decrease as much as 46%.

Minor | Emission Factor Update

Cloud Computing

Changes of Emission Factors are mainly due to the national data update.

Cloud Computing emission factor increased by 2%.

Emissions results may increase as much as 2%.

Minor | Emission Factor Update

Waste

Paper waste emissions have changed into mixed paper waste instead of office paper waste.

Emissions results may increase as much as 7%.

Minor | Emission Factor Update

Business Travel

Slight decreases and increases in Emission Factors.

Emissions related to road travel may decrease by up to 3%. Short train travel may decrease by 3%, short and long flights may increase by 1%.

Medium | Emission Factor Update

Employee Commute

Changes due to commuting distance average changes.

Average car commute distance increased.

Emissions expected to increase by up to 25%.

Minor | National Averages Update

Energy (Electricity and Heating)

Slight increase in electricity values; decrease in heating values.

Emissions related to heating may decrease by up to 13%. Emissions for electricity may increase by up to 1%.

Changes affecting Australian 🇦🇺 market data

Type of Change

Module / Emission category

Description

Expected Impact

Minor | Emission Factor Update

Electricity

Update of the electricity grid factor. Change compared to the old emission factor is around 10%, reported as published in 2022 by the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

Emission results are expected to change by 10%.

Minor | Emission Factor Update

Waste (Glass)

Slight decrease in the waste emission factors of glass due to more accuracy in the waste model.

Emissions are expected to decrease slightly

Changes affecting Indian 🇮🇳 market data

Type of Change

Module / Emission category

Description

Expected Impact

Minor | Calculation Method Update

Waste

Slight decrease in the emission factors of glass waste, plastic waste, paper waste and residual waste due to more accuracy in the waste model

Emissions are expected to decrease slightly

Minor | Emission Factor Update

Business Travel

Long haul flight: emission factor updated for more accuracy

Emissions are expected to change slightly

Medium | Emission Factor Update

Cloud Computing and Facility Supply

Cloud server and Facility Supply emission factors updated due to new country-specific data availability

Emissions are expected to change slightly

Medium | Calculation Method Update

Employee Commute

Update of percentage of employees commuting by public transportation due to an upgraded commute model

Emissions are expected to change slightly

Medium | Emission Factor Update

Electricity

Update of percentage of renewables in India’s electricity mix as per newest publication from government

Emissions are expected to change slightly

Emissions category-specific updates

Heating - Work From Home and National Averages 🔥

Type of Change

Module / Emission category

Description

Expected Impact

Methodological change

Work from Home and National Average Heating

The old heating model distributed heating emissions equally to all heating months, and used global averages across several locations. The new model rectifies this by considering the time of year and has unique heating conversion factors for 177 countries (adding a further 73 countries, regions and areas within 2023).

For most geographies, emissions will increase in the respective winter months and decrease in summer months.

Waste - Organic 🍽️

Type of Change

Module / Emission category

Description

Expected Impact

Conversion factor error fix

Waste (Organic)

Due to an error fix, most of the emissions for Organic waste will change for Facilities in the European Union region.

Changes range range from 2% to 30%, with an average of 10% in changes. Changes will also be seen in previous years due to the change being an error fix, not a model or factor update/upgrade. Emission Factors like the one for the United Kingdom and the Global one did not see any changes.

Purchased Goods and Services 💳

Type of Change

Module / Emission category

Description

Expected Impact

External database update

Purchased Goods and Services

All country-specific industry data updated for 2022.

Impact dependent on country and industry.

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