Greenhouse Reporting Boundary

Operational Footprint

AGL Operational Footprint includes  greenhouse emissions for facilities over which we have operational control.  Data includes direct and indirect sources where data is available and the source is considered to be potentially ‘material’¹³.    Direct (Scope 1) sources include stationary fuel combustion, process emissions, venting and flaring and transport emissions.  Indirect emission sources include purchased electricity (Scope 2), upstream emissions associated with fuel and electricity purchases (Scope 3), waste and airline travel.

During 2007/08 AGL has updated our reporting boundary for the 2006/07 and 2007/08 greenhouse gas emissions and energy data accounting for recent Australian developments in relation to corporate greenhouse reporting.  Updating 2006/07 data improves the comparability between reporting periods.

From 1 July 2008, AGL is required to reporting data on energy consumption, energy production and greenhouse gas emissions to the Commonwealth Government under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Act 2007.  The NGER Act 2007 is designed to provide a streamlined greenhouse and energy reporting framework which will also underpin the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

The reporting boundary used to define the inclusion of emission sources for the AGL Operational Footprint is different to that used previously by AGL¹⁴.  The main difference is the inclusion of greenhouse gas emissions from combustion of landfill and biogas.

Reporting boundaries proposed under the NGER Act 2007 include energy and greenhouse gas emissions from third parties on facilities where AGL is deemed to have ‘operational control’¹⁵  For 2006/07 and 2007/08, emissions do not include third parties that operate on AGL sites. AGL is developing processes and systems to capture this data for 2008/09.

Equity Footprint

The Equity Footprint sets out AGL’s share (by percentage investment level) of the emissions from our fully or partially owned entities.  The Equity Footprint indicates to AGL shareholders the greenhouse gas impacts associated with their investment.

The Equity Footprint broadly meets the requirements of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development/World Resources Institute Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s ‘Equity Share Approach’ to greenhouse accounting.

Supply Footprint

The Supply Footprint covers greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the production, transportation, distribution and consumption of electricity and gas throughout the energy supply chain.

The Supply Footprint for 2006/07 has been recalculated to account for changes in the reporting boundaries and calculation methodologies for the Operational Footprint.

Calculation Methodology

The NGER Act 2007 provides regulations and methodologies for the reporting of greenhouse and energy data under the Act.  In determining greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption and production for 2007/08, AGL utilised the relevant reporting and calculation methodologies set out in the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (Measurement) Determination 2008 where the appropriate level of data was available.  Where data was not available AGL utilised lower order NGER greenhouse estimation ‘Methods’.  AGL is continuing to refine our data collection processes for 2008/09.

The calculation methods for 2006/07 data were based upon the Factors and Methods Workbook (December 2006) published by the Department of Climate Change (formerly the Australian Greenhouse Office).  These methods are considered broadly consistent for the purposes of voluntary reporting, and therefore the 2006/07 data has not been recalculated with the methods used for the 2007/08 data, except for landfill flaring, landfill generation and biogas generation projects.

Data Assurance

AGL Energy Ltd engaged Environmental Resources Management (ERM) Australia Pty Ltd to provide limited assurance of the AGL Operational Footprint.

Click here to view a copy of the assurance statement from ERM Australia Pty Ltd.