Organisational Boundaries and Division into Plants

Before you start reporting data in the Protocol Spreadsheet, a key task is defining the boundaries of your report with regards to your company (Organisational Boundaries), its installations and activities (Operational Boundaries).

The Protocol Guidance Document (Chapter 1.4) provides general guidance for drawing appropriate Organisational and Operational Boundaries for the emission inventory.

The Protocol Guidance Document (Chapter 2) specifies the relevant principles for reporting according to the Cement CO₂ and Energy Protocol.

The reporting of companies with several plants will often require separate reporting of data for each plant. Separate inventories may be established for individual facilities as appropriate. For instance, the reporting should allow for the separate evaluation of facilities which are geographically separated or run by distinct operators. In the Protocol Spreadsheet this separation can be performed in one Excel® file by creating and using different Plant sheets for each facility (see Set General Plant Information). The impacts of such a division will cancel each other out when the emissions are consolidated at company or group level (See Consolidate Company Data (Aggregate Data from Plants)).

Which Installations and Activities should be covered?

Reporting under the Cement CO₂ and Energy Protocol should cover the main direct emissions and indirect CO₂ emissions associated with cement production. The corresponding inputs are foreseen in the Plant sheets of the Protocol Spreadsheet. These emissions include also those related to the consumption of fuel and electricity in upstream and downstream operations. In particular, cement companies should include the following types of activities in their voluntary reporting under this Protocol:

• Clinker production, including raw material quarrying and preparation.
• Grinding of clinker, additives and cement substitutes such as slag, both in integrated cement plants and stand-alone grinding stations.
• Additional fuel use for own power generation.
• Preparation or processing of fuels or fly ash in own installations.

The Protocol Guidance Document (Chapter 3 and 4) provides detailed information on direct and indirect CO₂ emissions that should be included in the reporting.

The Protocol Guidance Document (Chapter 7.1) provides detailed information on Which Installations Should Be Covered.

How to Consolidate Corporate Reporting

The reporting for organisations should furthermore be performed with regard to the extent of which a company controls or owns the respective installations.

In summary, the consolidation of the emissions and energy use of a company's operations should depend on:

• Operational control
• Financial control and
• Equity share.

WBCSD/CSI has decided that cement companies should consolidate their reporting primarily according to the operational control criterion, and secondly according to the ownership criterion if operational control is not clearly assigned to a single legal entity. This approach is summarised in the following table:

Table 1: Key for consolidating corporate GHG emissions of cement companies, as adopted by the WBCSD/CSI.

The Protocol Guidance Document (Chapter 7.2) provides detailed information on the definition of Operational Control and Ownership Criteria and how to handle complex company structures in the reporting.

See also the revised WBCSD / WRI GHG Protocol (2004) for more detailed guidance and illustrative examples for these consolidation rules.