Scope 3 Emissions for SMSU

1. Which of the 15 categories of Scope 3 emissions are most likely to be material for SMSU? Are there potentially material Scope 3 areas for SMSU that are not included in the 15 categories? Explain your reasoning.

When evaluating Scope 3 emissions for SMSU, several of the 15 categories are identified to be material for the institution’s operations. Further, they apply to all stakeholders of the institution. However, Category 3, which pays attention to fuel and energy-related activities, Category 6, which relates to business travel, and Category 7, which relates to employee commuting, are the most relevant. Notably, due to the location of the institution, many students and staff must drive to the campus, which significantly impacts emissions: Scope 3 Emissions for SMSU.

Further, business travels occur for activities like conferences, professional development, and sporting activities. Additionally, electricity and utilities that often fall under Scope 2 can have emissions related to fuel extraction (Wagenhofer, 2024). It is important to consider emissions related to student travel, be it to or from the campus. Notably, this is so because it is not captured explicitly in the 15 categories even though it is relevant to SMSU’s carbon footprint.

2. For the top two or three categories we identified in the first discussion, how might SMSU adapt its information systems to capture the data to support reporting? Consider the practical aspects of how this might be done.

To improve data capture for these emissions, SMSU should adapt its information systems in various ways. First, it should seek to capture commuting data by conducting surveys among students and staff. Examples of data that can be collected include transportation methods, vehicle types, and the distance covered during travel. The data collected can be useful in integrating the Scope 3 emissions into the university system.

For instance, the data collected for business travel should be integrated into the institution’s travel booking information system (Wiedmann et al., 2021). The systems could then make it effective to link emissions with various factors. For example, linking utility data directly to emission factors for the institution for the fuel and energy category within SMSU’s sustainability software can play a significant role in enabling the school to create an accurate emissions inventory that best suits the industry’s best practices for climate reporting.

References

Wagenhofer, A. (2024). Sustainability reporting: A financial reporting perspective. Accounting in Europe, 21(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/17449480.2023.2218398

Wiedmann, T., Chen, G., Owen, A., Lenzen, M., Doust, M., Barrett, J., & Steele, K. (2021). Three‐scope carbon emission inventories of global cities. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 25(3), 735-750. https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13063

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Discus on the following topic:

1. Which of the 15 categories of Scope 3 emissions are most likely to be material for SMSU? Are there potentially material Scope 3 areas for SMSU that are not included in the 15 categories? Explain your reasoning.
2. For the top two or three categories we identified in the first discussion, how might SMSU adapt its information systems to capture the data to support reporting? Consider the practical aspects of how this might be done.
   

   Scope 3 Emissions for SMSU

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• Southwest Minnesota State University: SMSU