7.10appointing a verifier
Your verifier should be competent to review the carbon footprint in line with the minimum participation requirements listed in section 9.6. Typically, the organisations that have this capability include:
-
Verifiers listed on www.airportcarbonaccreditation.org that have previously conducted the successful verification of an airport’s carbon footprint or participated in an Airport Carbon Accreditation verifier’s webinar delivered by the Administrator;
-
Nationally accredited certification bodies;
-
Reputable environmental consultancy firms;
-
Reputable accountancy firms;
-
Organisations that already carry out reporting on the airport’s behalf, such as annual financial reporting or ISO 14001 / EMAS certification (provided that they have not been involved in the preparation of the carbon footprint – see section 9.5).
The above organisations should be able to provide you with a quote for undertaking the verification process. It is recommended that you provide your verifier with details of the minimum verification requirements in section 9.5 to enable them to provide you with a suitable and cost-effective service.
As the process must be independent, ACI EUROPE, ACI ASIA-PACIFIC and the Administrator cannot recommend any single specific organisation that can conduct the verification. However, if you plan to appoint an organisation and would like to know whether they are suitable, please contact the Helpline.
7.11The Concept of Materiality
The concept of “materiality” is essential to understanding the process of verification.
Materiality refers to the concept that individual errors or the aggregation of errors, omissions and misrepresentations could affect the carbon footprint and influence decisions made from this information.
Therefore, materiality is used to identify information that, if omitted or mis-stated, would significantly misrepresent the footprint as a whole and ensure that such material discrepancies are omitted/minimised.
Acceptable materiality is determined by the verifier based on the agreed level of assurance. As a rule of thumb, an error is considered to be materially misleading if its value exceeds 5% of the total inventory for the part of the organisation being verified.
It is acknowledged that due to data availability, assumptions required to estimate emissions from some Scope 3 emissions sources, sampling methodologies and varying data that are not under an airport’s direct control, it may be difficult to determine if values below the 5% threshold have been achieved. For those emissions sources, the airport should be able to satisfy the verifier that:
-
The data available is as accurate as reasonably possible;
-
The data has been prepared in line with the Scope 3 reporting guidelines contained in Section 8.5 of this document;
-
Any assumptions made in calculating the emissions made from those sources are suitably documented.
All participation levels require that airports obtain independent third party verification of their carbon footprint from a third party that is suitably qualified to perform the verification.
Verification principles to consider include:
-
Impartiality
-
Competence
-
Factual approach to decision making
-
Openness
-
Confidentiality
The minimum requirements for airport footprint verification and the use of verification bodies are listed below. The Application Assessment Form contains a section in which the verifier is required to confirm that these requirements have been fulfilled. The airport may also wish and is encouraged to submit a brief ‘verification report’ as further documentary evidence. The verification process should be conducted in accordance with the requirements of ISO14064:3
-
The verifier or verification body should be independent of the airport.
-
The verifier or verification body should not have assisted in any way with the development of the carbon footprint as this would constitute a breach of independence.
Verification process should be in accordance with ISO 14064:3
The verification report should contain:
-
A statement verifying that the scope defined by the airport is compliant with the GHG protocol and the requirements of Airport Carbon Accreditation.
-
Confirmation that the verifier has concluded under a ‘reasonable level of assurance’ as defined in ISO14064:3 that the GHG footprint:
− is materially correct;
− is a fair representation of the GHG data and information;
− is prepared in accordance with the requirements of this programme, GHG protocol and ISO14064:1 (note currently only reporting on CO2 is required as mandatory for this programme)
-
An assessment of sources of actual and potential errors, omissions and misrepresentations and the associated level of risk that they are likely to give rise to.
-
Confirmation that there is no material discrepancy greater than 5% in the data or that in the opinion of the verifier, would lead to misinterpretation of the information provided.
-
Verification of any adjustment calculations that have been provided to account for new assets or asset divestment.
-
Conclusions on the GHG assertion, including any limitations or qualifications to the conclusion.
-
The validation report should be dated within 12 months of submission of the footprint to the Administrator
-
A statement detailing the credentials of the verification body – if not already approved by the programme.
-
Where applicable, confirmation that claimed scope 3 emissions reductions from stakeholder engagement activities have been calculated in line with the programme requirements.
INFORMATION TO SUPPORT THE FOOTPRINT VERIFICATION
In order to facilitate an efficient and effective verification process it is likely that the airport would need to supply the verifier with the following information to support the calculation methodology.
-
Information about the company's main activities and GHG emissions (types of GHG produced, description of activity that causes GHG emissions)
-
Information about the company/groups/organization (list of subsidiaries and their geographic location, ownership structure, financial entities within the organization)
-
Details of any changes to the company’s organizational boundaries or processes during the period, including justification for the effects of these changes on emissions data
-
Details of joint venture agreements, outsourcing and contractor agreements, production sharing agreements, emissions rights and other legal or contractual documents that determine the organizational and operational boundaries
-
Documented procedures for identifying sources of emissions within the organizational and operational boundaries
-
Information on other assurance processes to which the systems and data are subjected (e.g. internal audit, external reviews and certifications)
-
Data used for calculating GHG emissions. This might, for example, include:
-
Energy consumption data (invoices, delivery notes, weigh-bridge tickets, meter readings: electricity, gas pipes, steam, and hot water, etc.)
-
Production data (tonnes of material produced, kWh of electricity produced, etc.)
-
Raw material consumption data for mass balance calculations (invoices, delivery notes, weighbridge tickets, etc.)
-
Emission factors (laboratory analysis etc.).
-
Description of how GHG emissions data have been calculated:
-
Emission factors and other parameters used and their justification
-
Assumptions on which estimations are based
-
Information on the measurement accuracy of meters and weigh-bridges (e.g., calibration records), and other measurement techniques
-
Equity share allocations and their alignment with financial reporting
-
Documentation on what, if any, GHG sources or activities are excluded due to, for example, technical or cost reasons.
-
Information gathering process:
-
Description of the procedures and systems used to collect, document and process GHG emissions data at the facility and corporate level
-
Description of quality control procedures applied (internal audits, comparison with last year’s data, recalculation by second person, etc.).
-
Other information:
-
List of (and access to) persons responsible for collecting GHG emissions data at each site and at the corporate level (name, title, e-mail, and telephone numbers)
-
Information on uncertainties, qualitative and if available, quantitative.
Airports may submit absolute and/or relative emission improvement targets
Targeting Reductions in Emissions
Share with your friends: |
