Lifecycle greenhouse gas & water resource inventory modelling for Swedish small and medium enterprises

Abstract: Traditionally, environmental related work is not commonly practised by the Swedish small and medium enterprises (SME). This can be attributed to the non-inclusive Swedish sustainability reporting legislation, which is primarily targeted at the large corporations, but also due to shortage of resources, demands, prioritization and competences in the SME. The study is aimed to simulate the SME’s interest and confidence in taking the first step in incorporating sustainability into their business strategies by means of environmental inventory. Through the development of an easy-to-use inventory model in MS Excel and automatically generated inventory reports, the study provides the SME with a tool to account for lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water resource utilization. The availability of Snacksbolaget, a wholesaling actor, as a case study company refines the research scope to put focus on the wholesale and retail trading sector. Carrying out in two phases, the study begins with developing a generic theoretical model to portray typical GHG emissions and water resource utilization in the wholesale and retail trading sector, which is followed by applying the theoretical model to Snacksbolaget as a case study. The application involves system boundary definitions in the company and product levels, data collections, calculations, inventory model building and verification by Snacksbolaget. The usability of the inventory model is verified by Snacksbolaget and the company is satisfied with the information the overarching inventory reports provided. The inventory results based on Snacksbolaget’s data demonstrate that Scope 3, indirect GHG emissions, contributes to the majority of the company’s overall emissions. Within Scope 3, the largest contributions are originated from purchased products cradle-to-gate stages and their upstream transportation, while sensitivity analysis proves that the energy production mix applied to the manufacturing of product and the modes of goods transport could play a vital role in GHG reduction. Correspondingly, indirect water use in electricity generation, particularly in the product manufacturing stage, is shown to be the largest water input and output source of the studied products. Recommendations to Snacksbolaget are provided in the report, aiming at potentially minimizing indirect GHG emitted and water withdrawn or discharged by the products and services they purchase. To reach a larger SME audience, it is recommended to further develop the current customized spreadsheet model into sector specific inventory models. The interest and uptake of the models will likely increase if they are well developed and maintained by expertise independent of the SME and made readily available to the use of the SME.