IDEA Carbon Count

About IDEA Carbon Count

In 2023, IDEA undertook a new initiative to assess carbon emissions by member district energy systems and better understand the methods member systems are using to decarbonize. 

This voluntary program is intended to support IDEA education and advocacy efforts and should become a valuable tool for members to share best practices and demonstrate their success at reducing carbon emissions on behalf of their customers and connected buildings.

IDEA Carbon Count was conceived as a partner to the annual District Energy Space competition. DE Space, which launched in 1990, is an annual reporting process by which member systems submit data on added buildings and square footage during the given year. DE Space has become a powerful tool for demonstrating industry growth and with time IDEA hopes Carbon Count will become equally valuable.

For the third year in a row IDEA is collecting carbon emissions data from systems to advance our industry’s advocacy efforts and celebrate the accomplishments of member systems. Submit your data now to be recognized as a Climate Champion on the stage at IDEA2025 in Minneapolis, MN!
 
In 2023, IDEA launched the first ever Carbon Count initiative. This voluntary program is intended to support IDEA education and advocacy efforts and, as the dataset grows, should become a valuable tool for members to share best practices and demonstrate their success at reducing carbon emissions on behalf of their customers and connected buildings. 
 
How can you participate? Simply download the 2024 Submission Form and Submission Guidelines. You can submit either:
• Data detailing total fuel consumed, which we will use to calculate emissions on the systems behalf, or
• Pre-calculated carbon emissions data
 
In addition to 2024 emissions data, please include in your email the system’s baseline emissions and year, if applicable.
 
Participating systems will be recognized on stage as Climate Champions at IDEA2025, IDEA’s 116th Annual Conference and Trade Show from June 2-5 in Minneapolis, MN. IDEA will also facilitate coordination between participating systems and our PR agency, Greenough, to promote system stories and decarbonization strategies. 
 
Please email your submissions to Sarah Crawford-Theurkauf (sarah.idea@districtenergy.org) by Friday, May 23rd to be recognized at IDEA2025.

Carbon Count: An Ongoing Endeavor

The long-term success of this project is dependent on the thoughtful and sustained engagement of our member systems, and we are enormously grateful to everyone who has participated so far.

We are also pleased to announce that we will be accepting data on a rolling basis, so if you would like to participate in this important project, we welcome you to do so throughout the year!

We would like to thank the companies who submitted last year and encourage everyone to submit their 2024 data so we can recognize your efforts.

2023 Submissions

Thank you to all the systems that submitted data to the Carbon Count for 2023! To date, these systems are:

  • Citizens Energy Group
  • University of Toronto
  • University of Minnesota
  • University of Florida
  • University of Washington
  • University of Virginia
  • Western Washington University
  • CenTrio Chicago
  • EMICOOL
  • Corix
    • Simon Fraser
    • Burnaby
    • Vancouver
    • Victoria
  • Enwave
    • Toronto
    • London
    • Windsor
    • PEI
IDEACC Submission Form
IDEACC Submission Guidelines

Webinar: Carbon Accounting 201: Establishing Baselines for District Energy Systems!

New to carbon accounting? Catch up with Carbon Accounting 101 and Carbon Accounting 201: Establishing Baselines for District Energy Systems presented last year by Lalit Agarwal (formerly EnergyCAP) and Sarah Crawford-Theurkauf (IDEA)!

Reliable carbon emission baseline values are some of the most powerful tools a district energy system can have in decarbonization efforts and conversations with customers and leadership. However, establishing those baselines can be challenging- carbon accounting is an evolving field, there are a number of methodologies in the market, and district energy-specific guidance can be hard to find.|
IDEA, in partnership with EnergyCAP, is here to help! In this session, we cover:
 
How to differentiate between Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions
Gathering the commodity data required for calculation
Understanding and selecting appropriate emissions factors