Aiming for an eco-friendly balance: report details carbon emissions of Sudbury businesses.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: Green Report

A new report outlines the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and greenhouse gas emissions produced by small and medium-sized enterprises in Sudbury, with the aim of helping them reduce their current use by 20 per cent over 10 years.

The Business Energy and Emissions Profile (BEEP), launched by Green Economy North on March 28, is only the second report of its kind in Ontario, after York region. Developed by the B.C.-based organization Climate Smart, the profile includes 2,993 Sudbury businesses, employing 51,000 people, which represents 68 per cent of all the businesses and organizations in the city.

"The purpose of this is to deliver to the business community in the City of Greater Sudbury some sense of their role and responsibility in reducing their overall carbon emissions, and more than just how much is coming from their industry," said Richard Eberhardt, project manager at Green Economy North, an organization that helps local businesses set and meet sustainability targets.

"It presents in fairly good detail both case studies, as well as data about what strategies would be most effective, have been most effective, in other jurisdictions."

The bulk of the overall emissions in Sudbury come from mining operations, followed by public sector organizations, such as hospitals, postsecondary institutions and schools. But because those entities are legally required to report their emissions to government every year, that data is already available, Eberhardt said.

"What we didn't know was the emissions that come from the rest of our small and medium-sized enterprise sector," Eberhardt said. "And that's a huge, broad range of businesses and organizations --most businesses and organizations, actually, in our city."

Those sectors include retail, construction, food services and accommodation, support services (cleaning, waste removal), financial, wholesale, and manufacturing.

Combined, they produce 254,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent and greenhouse gas emissions per year. To put that in context, it's the equivalent of 108 million litres of gasoline consumed, 53,000 cars on the road, 9 million incandescent lightbulbs, or 10.4 million tanks of barbecue propane.

Of the sectors, the top three emitters are construction, accommodation and food services, and retail and trade. Together, they produce 68 per cent of SME emissions in Sudbury.

The report also shows that the emissions come from a variety of sources--mobile transportation, natural gas, solid waste, and...