Assessment of organizational carbon footprints in a denim-washing company: a systematic approach to indirect non-energy emissions

Abstract

As stated in the 2016 Paris Agreement, concerns about global climate change and carbon emissions have increased, and organizations, in particular, have embarked on an annual measurement process to estimate their contribution to global climate change. Carbon footprint, one of the measurement methods, is a widely applied tool to assess the environmental impact of organizations. This study presents a real case study of a denim-washing company’s activities based on ISO standard calculation methods of greenhouse gas emissions. Accordingly, the annual carbon footprint of the denim-washing company was 2482.09 tCO2e for the year 2021 in total for the overall carbon footprint. Direct emission was calculated at 1575.75 tCO2e, indirect energy–related emission at 798.09 tCO2e, and indirect non-energy–related emission at 108.25 tCO2e. The highest CO2 emissions are related to heating from greenhouse gas direct emission sources, followed by purchased electricity consumption, and the lowest CO2 emissions are related to fire–CO2 tube storage. In conclusion, this study is particular in that it analyzes not only the specific processes of a denim-washing company but also the overall organizational carbon footprint calculation, assesses the importance of indirect non-energy in the total carbon footprint, and evaluates the calculation findings with sector-specific mitigation strategies.