Evolving E-ledgers: Conceptual Advances and Real-World Applications

On October 10, 2024, the E-liability Institute successfully hosted its third conference, Evolving E-ledgers: Conceptual Advances and Real-World Applications. The virtual event brought together over 250 industry practitioners and Institute staff to advance the field of rigorous carbon accounting, exploring important topics like downstream emissions reporting, the accounting basis of CBAM, applications in the healthcare, fossil fuel, and service industries, and the development of a public-use E-liability standard.

Summary

• Session 1: An Update On the E-ledgers Framework

The first session, moderated by E-liability Institute Board Member Alicia Seiger of Stanford University, focused on recent updates to the E-ledger framework.

Professor Robert Kaplan of Harvard University, co-founder and senior fellow at the E-liability Institute, introduced the Disclosing Downstream Emissions paper (co-authored with Professor Karthik Ramanna). 

Professor Karthik Ramanna of Oxford University, Co-founder and Principal Investigator at the E-liability Institute, introduced a new paper, co-authored with Professor Maria T. Zuber (MIT), Michael Wang (Argonne National Laboratory), and Niels Angel (Catena-X), on the link between E-liability and Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs). Karthik demonstrated the workings of the recursive principle to continually improve the accuracy of E-liability carbon accounting (paper forthcoming).

• Session 2: E-liability Pilot Updates

The second session highlighted real-world applications of the E-liability method, featuring three representatives from organizations that have piloted the E-liability approach: Chevron, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, and IDG Security.

Laura Kurt, Lead Greenhouse Gas Specialist at Chevron described the development of its own carbon measurement system, known as the Statement of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (SGE). Chevron then partnered with the E-liability Institute on a liquefied natural gas (LNG) value chain project, which helped them extend the scope and accuracy of the SGE approach.

Wendy Cheeseman, Head of Sustainability and Carbon Management at Oxford University Hospitals NHS, a leading research and teaching hospital in the UK, demonstrated the application of the E-liability framework to a high-volume healthcare treatment: hip replacements. The project showed how reductions in direct energy use, travel, and anaesthetic gasses could help the NHS achieve its net zero target.

Ian Gordon, Founder and Chairman of IDG Security, discussed his company’s efforts to measure carbon emissions while serving UN peacekeepers in Afghanistan. He compared the measurement of emissions to traditional financial measurements of costs. An unexpected discovery was that food consumption accounted for 38% of their IDG’s CO2 emissions, a much higher share than anticipated. IDG’s pilot experience is the subject of our latest HBR case study publication.

• Session 3: E-liability Proto-Standard and Closing Remarks

In the final session,  Karthik and Lauren Holloway, the Institute’s Chief of Staff, shared progress on the Institute’s work to develop a formal proto-standard for carbon accounting and auditing.

The proto standard is offered as a free global public good, encouraging widespread adoption and adaptation without requiring citation. Stakeholders are invited to email suggestions for improvement to protostandard@e-liability.institute before November 21st, 2024.

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