Emissions

The Commission plays an active part in societal changes. It is thus logic that with the Communication it commits to continue to explore options for further GHG emission reductions and to ensure that it takes into account all new operations linked to its way of working.

Summary

The Commission has developed its approach to evaluating the carbon footprint gradually, with the scope expanding to incorporate expert advice provided during annual internal reviews. A significant development occurred in 2018 when, to deliver a better life cycle approach, several additional categories of (Scope 3) emissions were introduced including i) embodied (fixed asset) emissions for buildings and IT equipment, ii) for service contracts (for example catering, security, cleaning etc) and for iii) waste disposal. Emissions from experts' travel were introduced in 2021 reporting along with those from teleworking. Moreover in 2023 embodied emissions for furniture and for additional food categories (e.g. lamb, veal, fruits, vegetables...) were added. The additional categories substantially increase the data requirements for reporting, and the carbon footprint.

Since the Greening Communication established 2019 as a baseline for targets to achieve a 38% reduction in emissions at the 8 main EMAS sites by 2030, for consistency any new categories introduced to the carbon footprint (or procedural modifications) are calculated and applied back to 2019 where possible. Headline categories are shown in the figure below.

In 2023 the Commission was advised to change its approach to calculating emissions for fixed assets (other than buildings) to be consistent with the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, as this has become the dominant approach to carbon footprinting. The change mainly applies to IT and furniture and means that emissions are allocated in the year of acquisition rather than being amortised over a fixed period. For buildings the Commission continues to apply amortisation and uses the ADEME (now known as France's Agence de la transition écologique) Bilan Carbone methodology.

The coefficients used to calculate emissions in the Commission's carbon footprint are largely from the ADEME database. However other public sources are used where considered appropriate, for example DEFRA (UK government's Department for Energy, Food and Rural Affairs) for professional air travel (see Section Conversion factors used for calculating emissions).

The figure traces the evolution of the carbon footprint since 2019. It shows a 30% reduction in emissions in 2023 compared to 2019, mainly due to a reduction in missions' emissions and of emissions from buildings' energy consumption, due in part to the Commission's goal of a 15% reduction in energy consumption in the winter of 2022-23 and which remained in place for the winter of 2023-24, in line with the EU voluntary target for Member States to reduce their natural gas consumption by 15% between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.

Evolution of the Commission's carbon footprint (headline categories), (tonnes CO₂e)

The Commission reduced emissions from fuel for heating its buildings by 44% since 2019. This is due to a combination of measures including closing buildings where possible over low occupancy periods, and managing 'comfort' hours more efficiently across the sites.

While emissions from staff and expert missions along with staff commuting reduced drastically with Covid in 2020 and 2021, there has since been a rebound in all three and this was strongest for staff missions, which will challenge the Greening objective of a 50% reduction in 2019-24.

The Commission reduced mobility emissions (staff commuting, staff professional travel and experts' travel) by over 40% since 2019. In this period, emissions generated by staff commuting more than halved, experts travel emissions reduced by two thirds, and those from staff professional travel by air reduced by 22%. In 2019 these categories represented 45% of the carbon footprint, reducing to 35% in 2023.

The figure below shows the main components of the carbon footprint. Buildings related emissions account for roughly half with those from buildings energy use and refrigerant loss equivalent to those generated from construction (fixed assets). The emissions from fixed assets increased from 2022 to 2023 due to a new building entering the EMAS scope, but will reduce in coming years under the Commission's real-estate policy.

Main components of the Commission's carbon footprint in 2023 (%)

Detailed carbon footprint, and site specifics

Table Emissions at the EMAS sites in 2023 shows the categories of the carbon footprint by scope, providing more detail than figure Evolution of the Commission's carbon footprint. The totals clearly reflect different site characteristics and patterns of energy usage. For example:

• Brussels, Luxembourg and JRC Seville have the lowest per capita footprint (<4 tonnes), consistent with their mostly administrative role and with facilities comprising office accommodation and ancillary support activities.
• Some JRC sites have a far greater per capita carbon footprint, reflecting the energy-intensive nature of their activities.
• In particular, JRC Karlsruhe must comply with legal requirements, which is the dominant influence on energy consumption. For example, the site is obliged to maintain an air flow of around 300 000 m³ per hour, 24 hours per day throughout the year. Moreover, JRC Karlsruhe is located in the campus of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology has no direct control over the selection of the electricity mix (and therefore emissions). Due to the nature of the site, indicators are usually per m² because the floor space is the main indicator and is independent from the number of staff working and only based on technical and regulatory requirements and scientific activities.
• In JRC Ispra, CO₂e emissions are mainly related to onsite buildings. The site's tri-generation plant accounts for 60.9% of the emissions (10 606 tonnes CO₂e) as its processes use natural gas to produce electrical, as well as heating and cooling energy. Fixed asset buildings’ emissions account for 16.2% of the total emissions (2 816 tonnes CO₂e). The data related to emissions linked to service contracts currently includes only cleaning and safety contracts.
• There are currently a large number of other contracts in force in JRC Ispra, which include different aspects (e.g. linked to decommissioning activities, architectural and engineering services, maintenance works and civil works) but which require further in-depth analysis before being reported. As explained in chapter “JRC (non-Brussels) sites, key achievements and actions”, the energy consumption related to third parties are not included within the above reporting. This consequently also affects the calculation of the CO₂ emissions associated with this figure. The total value of CO₂e emissions for Ispra site, including all third parties are 18 080 tonnes in 2023.
• JRC Geel and Grange have similar per capita emissions, about double the Commission average. JRC Geel has a wide range of scientific installations and activity, whereas Grange has a relatively large surface area as it accommodates two large meeting rooms with translator facilities. One of these is among the largest in Ireland.

The evolution of the total carbon footprint at the individual EMAS sites is presented in Annex CF by site and gives rise to the following observations:

Commission carbon footprint and greening action plan

Table Progress against Greening Commission targets (2019-2030) shows the distribution of expected emissions reductions for 2019-30 by category under the Greening Communication action plan, resulting in an overall reduction of 38%. While there is some site specificity, for several categories the quantities are Commission wide.

The scope of the carbon footprint when the Communication was published has since expanded. Teleworking was not included and generates additional emissions, but consequently commuting emissions are reduced. Although not introduced until reporting for 2021, it has been estimated for the baseline year 2019 and for the following years. The new category of furniture (fixed assets, or embodied energy emissions) accounts for roughly 1,5% of the total carbon footprint.

However, the carbon footprint has remained relatively stable since data processing for the Greening Communication despite several procedural developments.

Progress against Greening Commission targets (2019-2030)

Conversion factors for calculating emissions

Too many conversion factors were used in preparing this report to list here. However, as in previous years, the majority were provided under the Bilan Carbone methodology that was originally established by ADEME, and available to the public: https://bilans-ges.ademe.fr.

This was complemented by multiple other sources including, but not exclusively:

• DEFRA, the UK Government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, used for commercial aviation emissions, and carbon trust for calorific values of liquid fuels
• IEA, the International Energy Agency, used for the emissions factors for national electricity networks
• FEBIAC, the Belgian federation of automobiles and motorcycling, for emissions of national vehicle fleet
• EUROSTAT and https://www.odyssee-mure.eu projects for factors relating to domestic space heating and cooling data in EU Member States
• Internal operational data for vehicle fleets
• Commercial sources for global warming potential for some refrigerants

The Commission's approach to the carbon footprint is reviewed annually by experts who recommend updates to the methodology, coefficients and sources when required. This year the methodology to calculate scope 3 emissions results in some small changes, as stated in Overall Commission summary.

Monitoring and mitigating emissions from other sources

Embodied emissions from IT

Several actions encompass the IT domain, and a new digital strategy was created in 2022. The emissions associated with IT fixed assets are calculated using the annual inventory for 17 categories of IT equipment (see Chapter circularity). Following a switch to accounting all emissions for IT equipment in the year of purchase according to the GHG protocol, the resulting Commission level emissions reduced from 3 419 to 1 373 tonnes between 2019 and 2023 (Chapter 3). The reasons for this include a reduction in the number of larger equipment items such as laptops, desktop printers as well as in some coefficients used in the calculations. The site level breakdown is included in Annex 3 Fixed assets.

Teleworking

The first estimates of teleworking emissions were included in the 2021 reporting exercise, and this section contains results from the second, more detailed exercise of evaluation. Like the 2021 exercise, heating energy and emissions characteristics were compiled from publicly available national data sets, combined with Commission staff survey data. While 2021 reporting benefitted from a small number of questions on teleworking in the Staff Environmental Awareness Survey that was addressed to a selection of staff, this exercise drew upon a dedicated teleworking survey that was sent to all staff.

The breakdown in the components of teleworking emissions in 2023 is presented in the figure below. As in 2021 the largest components were space heating (60%) and equipment electricity use (19%).

Components of total teleworking emissions in 2023

The distribution of teleworking emissions between the sites is shown below.

Teleworking emissions at EMAS sites in 2023 (kgCO₂e/person)

While climate plays a role, Seville has very little heating emissions, the national energy mix is also important. The evolution of total teleworking emissions is shown below compiled with data from Annex "Telework".

Teleworkers were 6% of staff in 2018, 7% in 2019 and 8% in 2020 before the lockdown. The percentage of teleworkers during the pandemic varied between 50% and 100% from site to site.

Greater emissions were observed in 2021 than in 2020 because staff were encouraged to telework for the whole year.

Evolution of teleworking emissions, tonnes CO₂e

The Commission adopted the Working Time and Hybrid Working Decision in 2022 after which teleworking accounted for 40% to 60% of working time across the sites. Therefore, benefitting from more flexible working arrangements, most staff spend more time working at home than they did in 2019, but not as much as during the Covid pandemic.

Service contracts

Emissions generated by service contracts are shown in the figure below. Categories include security, cleaning and, following a harmonisation exercise by all sites three further categories identified with different emission factors: iii) Hard Service contracts: printing, advertising, architecture and engineering, multi-technical building maintenance, iv) Soft Service contracts: Service/Insurance, banking services, advice, and fees and v) Other heavy service contracts. The data in annex 5 - Biodiversity and emissions from food, service contracts and paper suggest that hard service contracts are the largest contributors.

Generally higher emissions in recent years is likely in part due to more complete reporting.

Emissions from service contracts (tCO₂e)

Other sources of emissions

Other sources of emissions are displayed in the specific sections:

• Buildings
• Mobility
• Waste
• Paper