This report on the Rheaply platform allows admin users to view the estimated embodied carbon avoided from the reuse of items in their organization. It also:
Enables admin users to contextualize the impact of resource exchanges as an environmental benefit for your organization.
Displays the estimated embodied carbon avoided from exchanged items as facilitated by the Rheaply platform.
Depends on listing items with must-have details filled out: standard category and weight per unit.
Functions according to Rheaply categories that align with a database provided by our partner, WAP Sustainability Consulting.
Who can view this?
Admin users at all active organizations
Where is it done?
In the Estimated embodied carbon avoided report
Step-by-step
Navigate to the Date range filter to choose a time frame to view the report
Select exchange type: All, External, or Internal
View the environmental impact from the Estimated embodied carbon avoided metric card
This is a total of the estimated embodied carbon avoided from exchanges across the platform during the selected date range
View the range of environmental impact from the chart Estimated embodied carbon chart avoided over time
It is a display of the estimated embodied carbon avoided per day, month, and year
Click on the Group by filter on the chart to adjust the time intervals
Click on the What is this report telling me? help modal for more information
How you can read the information from the report
The disclaimer for the data
User guidelines for data usage
Click on the How was this report made? help modal for more information
The scope of the data
Definitions of the report
Data calculations
Assumptions for the report
How can your actions impact this report?
The steps that sellers and buyers take on the Rheaply platform influence the embodied carbon avoided report.
Who can do this?
Sellers (applies to admin users as well)
Where is it done?
Rheaply platform
Step-by-step
When you list an item and/or multiple items, please provide the weight per unit of the item(s) and select the category from the list that most closely matches your item(s). This will help Rheaply measure your organization's impact in relation to the estimated embodied carbon avoided.
When a buyer makes an offer on your item(s) and you accept the offer, the exchange will be counted towards your organization's impact.
Guide to embodied carbon calculations
Learn more about the definitions and assumptions referenced in the Estimated embodied carbon avoided report.
Definitions
Embodied carbon
As defined by our partner, WAP Sustainability Consulting, embodied carbon refers to the greenhouse gas emissions associated with raw material sourcing, supplier processing, and manufacturing.
Embodied carbon emission factors
As indicated by the Environmental Protection Agency, emission factors essentially represent the quantity of emissions released with the activity attributed to the release of emissions (Source: EPA). Rheaply has integrated embodied carbon emission factors as derived from our partnership with WAP Sustainability Consulting. These factors represent the quantity of the emissions released from raw material sourcing, supplier processing, and manufacturing of items.
Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)
According to the EPA, this measure is “the number of kg of carbon dioxide emissions with the same global warming potential as one kg of another greenhouse gas” (Source: EPA).
Global warming potential (GWP)
According to the EPA, the global warming potential of a greenhouse gas is the quantification of “how much energy the emissions of 1 ton of the gas will absorb over a given period of time, relative to the emissions of 1 ton of carbon dioxide” (Source: EPA).
Greenhouse gas
Refers to any gas that has the chemical properties to retain heat and reflect that energy toward the Earth’s surface, contributing to the greenhouse effect and climate change (Source: EPA).
Report assumptions
Embodied carbon is present in all manufactured items. Values are determined by our external data partner, WAP Sustainability Consulting.
“Avoided” is defined as not adding carbon to your organization’s footprint. The CO2 emission factor associated with an item given its reuse through Rheaply is zero.
Values in the Estimated embodied carbon avoided report represent an estimation of the carbon it would have taken to create a new item of the same kind. It does not include carbon related to disposal, transportation, or procurement of the item, either due to a new purchase or reused from Rheaply.
Rheaply allocates embodied carbon factors to standard available item categories based upon the representative products WAP established as life cycle assessment practitioners.
Life cycle assessments estimate the embodied carbon emissions associated with a product as those emissions have been produced.
The scope of these assessments is from A1-A3 lifecycle stages of a product as defined under ISO 21930 with influence from ISO 14040/14044.
Downstream emissions associated with transportation and distribution phases have not been factored in.
FAQs
What defines ‘reuse’ for this report?
Both accepted and completed offer statuses signify reuse exchanges and are included in the report.
When the user views the data by date range, the date of when the offer was accepted will be generated in the report.
The report applies to exchanges within organizations only.
What might the categories be? How are they decided and prioritized?
This report is limited to accepted and completed offers for listings associated with Rheaply’s available standard categories.
The embodied carbon emission factors were assigned to WAP Sustainability’s product categories.
Each WAP Sustainability Consulting product category was subsequently mapped to the closest aligned standard categories on the Rheaply platform.
For the beta release, we wanted to prevent the dependency of mapping against each and every new custom category that is created.
Should we refrain from encouraging use of and/or presenting listings with pounds as our new standard?
No, users should continue to choose pounds if preferred.
Any unit of weight they select will be converted to the ideal unit (kg) for the estimated embodied carbon calculation in our backend.