IDEA Carbon Count

Introducing the IDEA Carbon Count

Beginning 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.

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

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! You can find the submission form and guidelines below, or reach out to Sarah Crawford-Theurkauf for more information. 

IDEACC Submission Form
IDEACC Submission Guidelines

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

Did you catch Carbon Accounting 101, presented by Lalit Agarwal (EnergyCAP) and Sarah Crawford-Theurkauf (IDEA) at CampusEnergy2024 in February? If not, you can watch it here!

The conversation continued on Thursday, March 28th with Carbon Accounting 201: Establishing Baselines for District Energy Systems! Stream it Now!

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 will cover:
 
How to differentiate between Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions
Gathering the commodity data required for calculation
Understanding and selecting appropriate emissions factors
 
In addition to a short presentation, we hope to reserve a good amount of time for Q&A, so come with your questions.
Finally, we will demonstrate how to leverage the new and improved IDEA Carbon Count to calculate your baselines for you. The Carbon Count process leverages EnergyCAP’s financial-grade carbon accounting system, CarbonHub, to transform submitted system consumption data into verifiable emissions values, and IDEA is pleased to extend that benefit to participating systems.