Good practice:

Carbon footprint (CF) calculation of the Departments activity in Government of Navarra

Citizens distrust the Public Administration if there is no exemplary action. Public administrations need to address actions that demonstrate their climate commitment. As the Department is the unit responsible of climate change policy, in 2019 we started to calculate the impact of the Department's activity on GHG emissions identifying the main sources of emissions with the aim of measuring our impact and adopting the most efficient measures to reduce it.
The CF of the main building was calculated for 2018-19. In 2020, the calculation has extended to the 55 facilities and has included the mobility activity.
CF scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions have been calculated including direct emissions (fuel consumption for heating and cooling, for official vehicles and refills of fluorinated air conditioning gases) and indirect emissions associated with electricity consumption and emissions associated with commuting. The information sources used were:
- Energy consumption of all facilities.
- Data on fuel consumption of official vehicles, fluorinated gas recharge and commuting. A survey was conducted to determine distances and ways of traveling to the workplace, which was answered by 32% of employees.
The results (2020):
Department CF: 862,5 Tn CO2
CF per employee: 1,5 Tn CO2
78% of CF is linked with mobility, 22% with buildings
Electricity accounts for 61% of energy consumption in buildings.
Targets:
- Make workers aware of the impact on the climate.
- Prepare an improvement plan

Data collection and footprint calculation has been carried out with the administration's own means and its instrumental entities. The only external expense was the design and layout of a document distributed to staff to make them participate of the action and its future measures: 477€

In 2019, footprint fell to 48 TnCO2, 19% lower than in 2018, but it is assumed that this was mainly due to a warmer winter instead of the measures taken.
The internal contrast of the publication has aroused interest in investing in Energy Efficiency in the management teams of the Department. One of the facilities is going to take different measures to improve its energy efficiency.
Following the example of this initiative, 2 other departments started to calculate the CF of their main building.

Need to systematize the collection of certain data necessary for the calculation of the CF e.g. distances traveled on work routes.
Scope 3 could be achieved if emissions data associated with products, services, buildings, etc. were available. Outsourced.

The calculation of the CF and the elaboration of an improvement plan for the reduction of GHG emissions should be part of the administration's routine.
It is an exercise of transparency that shows the administration's commitment to face climate change that should be assumed by every public administration.
The future regional law on Climate Change, that is currently for approval, includes an article indicating that the public administrations and their public bodies have to carry out an inventory of buildings, mobile parks and public infrastructures of which they are owners, as well as a record of their energy consumption and associated GHG emissions. In addition, The Government of Navarra and its dependent entities must carry out the CF assessment in the area of their activity before June 30 2024, at least with scopes 1&2.
Communication, training and participation measures are essential for the implementation of the actions to take after interpreting the result of the CF calculation.