Climate change has been called one of the most significant challenges of our generation. While some organizations have made progress in lowering their emissions during the last few years by transitioning to renewable energy such as wind and solar, much more needs to be done to reduce their carbon dioxide and methane emissions – the two gases that scientists say contribute the most to climate change.
Honeywell
The World Nuclear Association estimates that energy-related greenhouse gas emissions account for the majority of human-caused emissions, estimated at about 80% in the United States and the European Union.1 Unfortunately, the International Energy Association (IEA) reported that total energy-related greenhouse gas emissions worldwide increased to an all-time high of 41.3 Gt CO2-equivalent in 2022.2 From utilities to energy companies, clearly there is a lot of work to do. It doesn’t help that traditional methods to calculate emissions are labor intensive and require extensive time to develop insight for reporting requirements.
The good news is that visionary leaders around the world have committed to lowering emissions and are actively implementing and developing reduction plans. To achieve their commitments, organizations face two challenges: establishing a consolidated system of record for emissions reporting and integrating this system with sensing technology that can reduce emissions.
A consolidated system of record
The appropriate strategy for reducing emissions looks different at each organization, and depends on the industry, footprint and operational structure. Some companies may have a reduction strategy that includes a mix of improving operational efficiency, optimizing energy consumption, and investing in new fuels such as hydrogen. It could also include other elements such as implementing carbon capture, expanding battery energy storage systems and developing carbon offset credits.
The challenge with most of these strategies is that they require leaders to effectively measure and report emissions at an asset level across a multitude of operations. Then, that data must be accessible, accurate and actionable at the enterprise level, creating a system of record that helps facilitate better decision making and reporting.
Many companies have thousands, or even tens of thousands, of assets across multiple production lines, plants and geographies. The high volume of data makes identifying meaningful insights that much more difficult. That’s why organizations are beginning to invest in enterprise emission management software solutions. Many of these digital and software-as-a-service (SaaS)-led solutions aggregate data and allow leaders to more effectively view their overall emissions profile, take actions to reduce emissions and report the results for regulatory compliance.
For example, Honeywell’s emissions management solution – powered by our industrial-grade software Honeywell Forge – can monitor data from across an organization in near real time. The solution can analyze the intensity of different greenhouse gases – including methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide – while providing visualization to understand the economic and environmental impacts of Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.
Software that integrates with sensing
When establishing a consolidated system of record, that system must be sensor-agnostic so that it can collect data from sensors and hardware on assets across a company. Organizations must have the right software and hardware to measure their emissions outputs.
In the past, industrial personnel walked around plants and operations using handheld equipment to detect invisible leaks. Today, Internet of Things (IoT)-linked detectors and gas cloud imaging (GCI) cameras can sense and quantify leaks in near-real time. Not only can these leaks be reported back through the software system as outputs of the company’s overall emissions, but they alert operations who can analyze and take actions to reduce and stop the leaks.
Industrial IoT that integrates sensing with software systems is helping operators identify emissions problems they didn’t even know existed. Take for example, the Honeywell Rebellion Gas Imaging System, that uses hyperspectral imaging technology coupled with machine learning analytics to pinpoint gas and emissions leaks. GCI cameras are now being used to capture methane and hydrogen sulfide leaks during routine maintenance.
This integration is critical to tackling methane leaks, which are significant contributors to climate change and can be extremely costly to companies. According to the Oil & Gas Methane Partnership, losses in 2021 cost the oil and gas industry $19 billion.3 Just as important, organizations must comply with more stringent government emission standards to avoid costly fines and meet their own sustainability targets.
Investing for the future with digital transformation
During the next few years, we will see an acceleration of disruptive technology solutions that help organizations reduce their emissions and meet their environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals. New emissions technologies will enable industries to better measure and analyze leaks while also driving greater efficiency, resiliency and accountability. Having a system of record in place will be a key underlying component to connect emerging sustainable technology and achieve sustainability goals at an enterprise level.
1 World Nuclear Association, Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Electricity, October 2022. [Accessed September 13, 2023]
2 International Energy Association, CO2 Emissions in 2022, March 2023. [Accessed September 13, 2023]
3 Oil & Gas Methane Partnership, More About Methane. 2023. [Accessed September 13, 2023]
