Today is one of the most important days of the year: Energy Efficiency Day! Energy Efficiency Day is a collaborative effort supported by multiple energy-efficiency advocacy groups around the US, including ACEEE, the Alliance to Save Energy, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Every year, corporations, businesses, and groups come together to spread awareness of the importance of energy efficiency in communities. After all, energy efficiency is the fastest way to meet energy needs and reduce pollution—especially for utilities and their customers!
The Energy Efficiency Day website explains how “energy efficiency is … an economic engine, supporting more than 2.4 million jobs nationwide in manufacturing, construction and other fields–most of which can’t be outsourced overseas” and we couldn’t support that goal more.
Working hard to shrink our carbon footprint
E Source takes sustainability and energy efficiency seriously, and we’ve been working diligently to shrink our carbon footprint as a company. In honor of Energy Efficiency Day, we wanted to share some of the things we’ve accomplished and the impact it’s had!
We’re more than just your partner in research, consulting, and data science. We’re on the net-zero carbon journey with you. We measure our greenhouse gas emissions, take action to reduce them, and negate our annual emissions by purchasing high-quality carbon-removal credits.
Living our mission means building a sustainable future with our own business practices. We have two top-level sustainability commitments:
- Reduce our Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions by 50% by 2030 and produce net-zero carbon by 2050
- Measure our carbon emissions on an annual basis and take action to remove that carbon from the atmosphere using high-quality carbon-removal credits
To begin paying off our carbon debt, we’ve partnered with Nori, a Seattle-based company that pairs individuals and businesses that want to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Nori works with farmers to adopt regenerative farming practices that build soil carbon, an otherwise expensive and risky transition for farmers. In August 2020, we purchased 839 tons of carbon removal credits from Nori to erase our 2018 and 2019 emissions. And we recently purchased an additional 397 tons to erase our 2020 emissions.
Most recently, we’ve calculated our carbon footprint for 2018, 2019, and 2020 using the widely recognized Greenhouse Gas Protocol (figure 1). Our total emissions include the historic emissions of the five acquisitions we made in 2020. We saw an absolute reduction in our emissions of 54% from 2019 to 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This drop came primarily from reduced business travel and employee commuting.
Figure 1: E Source enterprise emissions for 2018, 2019, and 2020
This magnitude of emissions reduction aligns with the most aggressive corporate emissions reduction goals today, which aim to cut emissions 50% by 2030 from a pre-2020 target base year. This left us wondering how we might use the findings from 2020 to continue achieving this level of carbon emissions, and it gave us a glimpse at the level of emissions reduction we have the potential to reach.
Be sure to visit our Sustainability at E Source page to read more about our ongoing projects and sustainability goals. And download the 2020 summary of our emissions calculations (PDF).
Getting involved in #EEDay2021
Since its start in 2016, Energy Efficiency Day’s message (and mission) has been to “Save money. Cut pollution. Create jobs.” According to the Energy Efficiency Day’s website, the “goal is to share tips, tools, and stories that promote the multiple benefits of energy efficiency, from lower costs to healthier homes.”
Interested in joining Energy Efficiency Day today? Visit the Energy Efficiency Day website to find out how you can add your voice, and start sharing your thoughts on social media with the event hashtag #EEDay2021.