The Climate Registry Reporting

Need to report your facility's carbon?

Soon all facilities in Washington State that emit more than 10,000 tonnes of CO2e annually will have to report their carbon emissions to the Department of Ecology. Some property owners are already voluntarily reporting to The Climate Registry, the nation's standard carbon reporting entity. The Climate Registry has standards of reporting for all types of carbon emissions.

When the State provides the reporting guidelines, Seattle Steam will then add them to this carbon reporting webpage. In the meantime, The Climate Registry provides the current methodology for reporting carbon from steam users. Click here to view Section 15.2 of the Climate Registry's reporting manual.
Seattle Steam

Here is an example of a typical calculation for a building:

Step One

Mlbs of steam used = 2908 Mlbs

Heating Value of delivered Steam = 1156.3 Btu/lb (from Seattle Steam and will vary between high pressure and low pressure steam supply)

Reference Point = 180 Btu/lb

Energy Consumption (MMBtu) = [Enthalpy of Delivered Steam (Btu/lb) - 180 (Btu/lb) ] × Steam Consumed (lbs) ÷ 1,000,000 (Btu/MMBtu)

Building Energy Consumption (MMBtu) = [1156.3 - 180] x 2.908 = 2839.08 MMBtu
Step Two

SSC Emission Factor = 195.3636 lbs CO2e per Mlb of steam or 168.956 lbs CO2e per MMBtu

Annual tons of carbon = 2839.08 MMBtu x 168.956 = 479,680 lbs CO2e or 218.04 tonnes.

Note: Seattle Steam does not agree with the use of the Reference Point and believes that a more correct calculation is where the quantity of steam is multiplied by the Seattle Steam Emission Factor of 195.3636 Ibs of CO2e per Mlb of steam delivered.

For example:
2908 x 195.3636 = 568,117 Lbs or 258.24 tonnes of CO2e.