Accounting for Emissions and Sinks from the Biogeochemical Cycle of Carbon in the U.S. Economic Input‐Output Model

Biogeochemical cycles are essential ecosystem services that continue to degrade as a result of human activities, but are not fully considered in efforts toward sustainable engineering. This article develops a model that integrates the carbon cycle with economic activities in the 2002 U.S. economy. Data about the carbon cycle, including emissions and sequestration flows, is obtained from the greenhouse gas inventory of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Economic activities are captured by the economic input‐output model available from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The resulting model is more comprehensive in its accounting for the carbon cycle than existing methods for carbon footprint (CF) calculations. Examples of unique flows in this model include the effect of land‐use and land‐cover change on carbon dioxide flow within the U.S. national boundary, carbon sequestration in urban trees, and emissions resulting from liming. This model is used to gain unique insight into the carbon profile of U.S. economic sectors by providing the life cycle emissions and sequestration in each sector. Such insight may be used to support policies, manage supply chains, and be used for more comprehensive CF calculations.     

Insights on the Use of Hybrid Life Cycle Assessment for Environmental Footprinting

Establishing a comprehensive environmental footprint that indicates resource use and environmental release hotspots in both direct and indirect operations can help companies formulate impact reduction strategies as part of overall sustainability efforts. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a useful approach for achieving these objectives. For most companies, financial data are more readily available than material and energy quantities, which suggests a hybrid LCA approach that emphasizes use of economic input‐output (EIO) LCA and process‐based energy and material flow models to frame and develop life cycle emission inventories resulting from company activities. We apply a hybrid LCA framework to an inland marine transportation company that transports bulk commodities within the United States. The analysis focuses on global warming potential, acidification, particulate matter emissions, eutrophication, ozone depletion, and water use. The results show that emissions of greenhouse gases, sulfur, and particulate matter are mainly from direct activities but that supply chain impacts are also significant, particularly in terms of water use. Hotspots were identified in the production, distribution, and use of fuel; the manufacturing, maintenance, and repair of boats and barges; food production; personnel air transport; and solid waste disposal. Results from the case study demonstrate that the aforementioned footprinting framework can provide a sufficiently reliable and comprehensive baseline for a company to formulate, measure, and monitor its efforts to reduce environmental impacts from internal and supply chain operations.     

A Carbon Footprint of High‐Speed Railways in China: A Case Study of the Beijing‐Shanghai Line

A carbon footprint (CF) assessment of Chinese high‐speed railways (HSRs) can help guide further development of the world's longest HSR network. In this research, a hybrid economic input‐output and life cycle assessment (EIO‐LCA) method was applied to estimate the CF of the Beijing‐Shanghai HSR line. Specific CFs were analyzed of different subsystems of the line, different stages of production, and three calculation scopes. Results showed that the annual CF of the Beijing‐Shanghai HSR is increasing, whereas the per‐passenger CF constantly declined between 2011 and 2014. Scope 1 emissions account for an average of 4% of the total annual CF, Scope 2 contribute 71%, and Scope 3 comprise 25%. Among the different stages, operation contributes the largest (71%), followed by construction (20%) and maintenance (9%). In the construction stage, the bridges have the largest CF, followed by trains, and then rails. A trade‐off exists between the increase in carbon emissions due to construction of bridges and the reduction in operation emissions affected by leveling changes in terrain. The Beijing‐Shanghai HSR line has a relatively higher per‐passenger CF than eight other HSR lines, which is largely due to China's coal‐based carbon‐intensive energy mix of electricity generation, high proportion of bridges, higher operating speed, and heavier train body. In the future, cleaner electricity supply options, more efficient raw material production, and improvement of trains are keys to reducing the CF of Chinese HSRs.     

Reducing Gaseous Emissions and Resource Consumption Embodied in French Final Demand: How Much Can Waste Policies Contribute?

This study investigates the benefits of waste management policies on gaseous emissions and resource consumption caused by the final demand, in the specific case of France and in a context of economic growth. Waste input‐output analysis is implemented to compare three scenarios, depicting and combining the upward trend of final demand from 2008 to 2020, the increase in recycling rates by 2020 (encompassing the achievement of recycling objectives set by European Union Directives), and the simultaneous larger implementation of best available techniques (BAT) for waste incineration. Hybrid monetary physical input‐output tables are initially derived from balanced physical supply and use tables and further complemented with process inventory data on waste treatment technologies. A dramatic reduction in the demand for primary metals (by a factor of 2.0) and for primary mining and quarrying products for construction (by a factor of 1.9) is observed in 2020, as compared to 2008, in the case of the scenario “recycling,” despite the competition induced by the evolution of the final demand. On the contrary, considering energy requirements and fossil carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide emissions caused by the French final demand, the combined improvements in recycling and incineration performances by 2020 would only limit the rise induced by the evolution of the final demand. On the basis of these results, the potential contribution of waste management policies to the decoupling of resource consumption and gaseous emissions from final demand's growth is finally discussed.     

Effects of Using Heterogeneous Prices on the Allocation of Impacts from Electricity Use: A Mixed‐Unit Input‐Output Approach

Economic input‐output life cycle assessment (IO‐LCA) models allow for quick estimation of economy‐wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with goods and services. IO‐LCA models are usually built using economic accounts and differ from most process‐based models in their use of economic transactions, rather than physical flows, as the drivers of supply‐chain GHG emissions. GHG emissions estimates associated with input supply chains are influenced by the price paid by consumers when the relative prices between individual consumers are different. We investigate the significance of the allocation of GHG emissions based on monetary versus physical units by carrying out a case study of the U.S. electricity sector. We create parallel monetary and mixed‐unit IO‐LCA models using the 2007 Benchmark Accounts of the U.S. economy and sector specific prices for different end users of electricity. This approach is well suited for electricity generation because electricity consumption contributes a significant share of emissions for most processes, and the range of prices paid by electricity consumers allows us to explore the effects of price on allocation of emissions. We find that, in general, monetary input‐output models assign fewer emissions per kilowatt to electricity used by industrial sectors than to electricity used by households and service sectors, attributable to the relatively higher prices paid by households and service sectors. This fact introduces a challenging question of what is the best basis for allocating the emissions from electricity generation given the different uses of electricity by consumers and the wide variability of electricity pricing.     

The Green Economy Mirage?

Taiwan is attempting to implement the concept of a green economy through a Low Carbon Growth Plan (LCGP). However, the existing decision support tools for this measure have three key limitations: ignorance regarding the open economy; a lack of life cycle thinking; and limited categories of environmental impact. This study integrates environmentally extended, multi‐region input‐output analysis and hybrid life cycle assessment to quantify the potential environmental impact of the industrial activities and energy structure in Taiwan in 2020. Two novel indicators, environmental debts and loans, are also applied to identify the geographical shifting effects and tie environmental responsibility to the discussion. The results of this study reveal that under the existing LCGP, relative decoupling will be attained, but no significant environmental cobenefits other than those affecting climate change can be gained. Moreover, the current emission pledges cannot be fulfilled. The presence of increased environmental debt ratios reveals the geographical shifting effect of the LCGP. The main driver of the expansion of the environmental footprint can be attributed to the export of electronic components and products, which are not included in the agenda of policy discussions. As a result, three crucial policies are suggested to modify the existing LCGP: the implementation of a higher energy efficiency improvement target; rethinking the constraints on the electronics industry; and the development of a mechanism to include environmental issues in free trade agreement negotiations. With these changes, the realization of the current emission pledge and a green economy could be possible.     

A Hybrid‐Unit Energy Input‐Output Model to Evaluate Embodied Energy and Life Cycle Emissions for China's Economy

We develop a hybrid‐unit energy input‐output (I/O) model with a disaggregated electricity sector for China. The model replaces primary energy rows in monetary value, namely, coal, gas, crude oil, and renewable energy, with physical flow units in order to overcome errors associated with the proportionality assumption in environmental I/O analysis models. Model development and data use are explained and compared with other approaches in the field of environmental life cycle assessment. The model is applied to evaluate the primary energy embodied in economic output to meet Chinese final consumption for the year 2007. Direct and indirect carbon dioxide emissions intensities are determined. We find that different final demand categories pose distinctive requirements on the primary energy mix. Also, a considerable amount of energy is embodied in the supply chain of secondary industries. Embodied energy and emissions are crucial to consider for policy development in China based on consumption, rather than production. Consumption‐based policies will likely play a more important role in China when per capita income levels have reached those of western countries.     

LIFE BEEF CARBON: a common framework for quantifying grass and corn based beef farms’ carbon footprints

Europe’s roadmap to a low-carbon economy aims to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. Beef production is an important source of GHG emissions and is expected to increase as the world population grows. LIFE BEEF CARBON is a voluntary European initiative that aims to reduce GHG emissions per unit of beef (carbon footprint) by 15% over a 10-year period on 2172 farms in four large beef-producing countries. Changes in farms beef carbon footprint are normally estimated via simulation modelling, but the methods current models apply differ. Thus, our initial goal was to develop a common modelling framework to estimate beef farms carbon footprint. The framework was developed for a diverse set of Western Europe farms located in Ireland, Spain, Italy and France. Whole farm and life cycle assessment (LCA) models were selected to quantify emissions for the different production contexts and harmonized. Carbon Audit was chosen for Ireland, Bovid-CO₂ for Spain and CAP’2ER for France and Italy. All models were tested using 20 case study farms, that is, 5 per country and quantified GHG emissions associated with on-farm live weight gain. The comparison showed the ranking of beef systems gross carbon footprint was consistent across the three models. Suckler to weaning or store systems generally had the highest carbon footprint followed by suckler to beef systems and fattening beef systems. When applied to the same farm, Carbon Audit’s footprint estimates were slightly lower than CAP’2ER, but marginally higher than Bovid-CO₂. These differences occurred because the models were adapted to a specific region’s production circumstances, which meant their emission factors for key sources; that is, methane from enteric fermentation and GHG emissions from concentrates were less accurate when used outside their target region. Thus, for the common modelling framework, region-specific LCA models were chosen to estimate beef carbon footprints instead of a single generic model. Additionally, the Carbon Audit and Bovid-CO₂ models were updated to include carbon removal by soil and other environmental metrics included in CAP’2ER, for example, acidification. This allows all models to assess the effect carbon mitigation strategies have on other potential pollutants. Several options were identified to reduce beef farms carbon footprint, for example, improving genetic merit. These options were assessed for beef systems, and a mitigation plan was created by each nation. The cumulative mitigation effect of the LIFE BEEF CARBON plan was estimated to exceed the projects reduction target (−15%).     

Greenhouse Gas and Energy Life Cycle Assessment of Pine Chemicals Derived from Crude Tall Oil and Their Substitutes

Pine chemicals are co‐products of papermaking that are upgraded into diverse products from inks to adhesives. They can also be utilized for energy purposes. This research investigates the carbon and energy life cycle assessment (LCA) of pine chemicals derived from crude tall oil (CTO). The study goals are to determine the cradle‐to‐gate carbon and energy footprint for CTO‐derived chemicals, compare CTO‐derived chemicals to their likely substitutes, and calculate the carbon and energy effects of shifting CTO resources from current chemical production to biodiesel production. The data collected represent 100% of the U.S. and 90% of the European CTO distillation industry for 2011. This analysis is the first industry‐level LCA of pine chemicals. The carbon footprint for CTO‐derived pine chemical products is 50% lower than the likely mix of alternative products, including hydrocarbon resins for rubber, ink, and adhesive, alkyl succinic anhydride for paper size, and heavy fuel oil for heat. Current and proposed European policies could result in CTO being classified as renewable biomass for energy production, creating incentive to convert CTO into fuel rather than chemicals. The differences in the carbon and energy footprints of utilizing CTO for biodiesel versus chemicals are not meaningful when comparing European CTO biodiesel, which displaces conventional diesel, to European CTO‐derived chemicals, which displace the previously discussed substitutes. Therefore, there is no additional carbon or energy benefit that accrues by diverting CTO from current chemical feedstock applications to use for biodiesel production in Europe.     

Capital in the American carbon,energy, and material footprint

Stocks of fixed capital play a vital role in fulfilling basic human needs and facilitating industrial production. Their build‐up requires great quantities of energy and materials, and generates greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution. Capital stocks influence economic production and environmental pollution through their construction and over subsequent decades through their use. We perform an environmental footprint analysis of total consumption, capital investment, and capital consumption in the United States for 2007 and 2012. In 2012, capital consumption accounted for 13%, 19%, and 40% of total carbon, energy, and material footprints, respectively. Housing, federal defense, state and local government education and other services (including household consumption of roads), personal transport fuels, and hospitals are the consumption sectors with largest capital footprints. These sectors provide fundamental needs of shelter, transport, education, and health, underlying the importance of capital services. Endogenizing capital causes the biggest proportional increase to footprints of sectors with low environmental multipliers. This work builds upon existing input‐output models of production and consumption in the United States, and provides a capital‐inclusive database of carbon, energy, and material footprints and multipliers for 2007 and 2012. This article met the requirements for a gold – gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges .     

Addressing the Carbon‐Crime Blind Spot: A Carbon Footprint Approach

Governments estimate the social and economic impacts of crime, but its environmental impact is largely unacknowledged. Our study addresses this by estimating the carbon footprint of crime in England and Wales and identifies the largest sources of emissions. By applying environmentally extended input‐output analysis–derived carbon emission factors to the monetized costs of crime, we estimate that crime committed in 2011 in England and Wales gave rise to over 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents. Burglary resulted in the largest proportion of the total footprint (30%), because of the carbon associated with replacing stolen/damaged goods. Emissions arising from criminal justice system services also accounted for a large proportion (21% of all offenses; 49% of police recorded offenses). Focus on these offenses and the carbon efficiency of these services may help reduce the overall emissions that result from crime. However, cutting crime does not automatically result in a net reduction in carbon, given that we need to take account of potential rebound effects. As an example, we consider the impact of reducing domestic burglary by 5%. Calculating this is inherently uncertain given that it depends on assumptions concerning how money would be spent in the absence of crime. We find the most likely rebound effect (our medium estimate) is an increase in emissions of 2%. Despite this uncertainty concerning carbon savings, our study goes some way toward informing policy makers of the scale of the environmental consequences of crime and thus enables it to be taken into account in policy appraisals.     

The Carbon Footprint of Games Distribution

This research investigates the carbon footprint of the lifecycle of console games, using the example of PlayStation®3 distribution in the UK. We estimate total carbon equivalent emissions for an average 8.8‐gigabyte (GB) game based on data for 2010. The bulk of emissions are accounted for by game play, followed by production and distribution. Two delivery scenarios are compared: The first examines Blu‐ray discs (BDs) delivered by retail stores, and the second, games files downloaded over broadband Internet. Contrary to findings in previous research on music distribution, distribution of games by physical BDs results in lower greenhouse gas emissions than by Internet download. The estimated carbon emissions from downloading only fall definitively below that of BDs for games smaller than 1.3 GB. Sensitivity analysis indicates that as average game file sizes increase, and the energy intensity of the Internet falls, the file size at which BDs would result in lower emissions than downloads could shift either up‐ or downward over the next few years. Overall, the results appear to be broadly applicable to title games within the European Union (EU), and for larger‐than‐average sized games in the United States. Further research would be needed to confirm whether similar findings would apply in future years with changes in game size and Internet efficiency. The study findings serve to illustrate why it is not always true that digital distribution of media will have lower carbon emissions than distribution by physical means when file sizes are large.     

Using dynamic relative climate impact curves to quantify the climate impact of bioenergy production systems over time

The climate impact of bioenergy is commonly quantified in terms of CO₂ equivalents, using a fixed 100‐year global warming potential as an equivalency metric. This method has been criticized for the inability to appropriately address emissions timing and the focus on a single impact metric, which may lead to inaccurate or incomplete quantification of the climate impact of bioenergy production. In this study, we introduce Dynamic Relative Climate Impact (DRCI) curves, a novel approach to visualize and quantify the climate impact of bioenergy systems over time. The DRCI approach offers the flexibility to analyze system performance for different value judgments regarding the impact category (e.g., emissions, radiative forcing, and temperature change), equivalency metric, and analytical time horizon. The DRCI curves constructed for fourteen bioenergy systems illustrate how value judgments affect the merit order of bioenergy systems, because they alter the importance of one‐time (associated with land use change emissions) versus sustained (associated with carbon debt or foregone sequestration) emission fluxes and short‐ versus long‐lived climate forcers. Best practices for bioenergy production (irrespective of value judgments) include high feedstock yields, high conversion efficiencies, and the application of carbon capture and storage. Furthermore, this study provides examples of production contexts in which the risk of land use change emissions, carbon debt, or foregone sequestration can be mitigated. For example, the risk of indirect land use change emissions can be mitigated by accompanying bioenergy production with increasing agricultural yields. Moreover, production contexts in which the counterfactual scenario yields immediate or additional climate impacts can provide significant climate benefits. This paper is accompanied by an Excel‐based calculation tool to reproduce the calculation steps outlined in this paper and construct DRCI curves for bioenergy systems of choice.     

Enabling Future Sustainability Transitions

This synthesis article presents an overview of an urban metabolism (UM) approach using mixed methods and multiple sources of data for Los Angeles, California. We examine electric energy use in buildings and greenhouse gas emissions from electricity, and calculate embedded infrastructure life cycle effects, water use and solid waste streams in an attempt to better understand the urban flows and sinks in the Los Angeles region (city and county). This quantification is being conducted to help policy‐makers better target energy conservation and efficiency programs, pinpoint best locations for distributed solar generation, and support the development of policies for greater environmental sustainability. It provides a framework to which many more UM flows can be added to create greater understanding of the study area's resource dependencies. Going forward, together with policy analysis, UM can help untangle the complex intertwined resource dependencies that cities must address as they attempt to increase their environmental sustainability.     

Subnational greenhouse gas and land‐based biodiversity footprints in the European Union

Insights into subnational environmental impacts and the underlying drivers are scarce, especially from a consumption‐based perspective. Here, we quantified greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and land‐based biodiversity losses associated with final consumption in 162 regions in the European Union in 2010. For this purpose, we developed an environmentally extended multi‐regional input–output (MRIO) model with subnational European information on demand, production, and trade structures subdivided into 18 major economic sectors, while accounting for trade outside Europe. We employed subnational data on land use and national data on GHG emissions. Our results revealed within‐country differences in per capita GHG and land‐based biodiversity footprints up to factors of 3.0 and 3.5, respectively, indicating that national footprints may mask considerable subnational variability. The per capita GHG footprint increased with per capita income and income equality, whereas we did not find such responses for the per capita land‐based biodiversity footprint, reflecting that extra income is primarily spent on energy‐intensive activities. Yet, we found a shift from the domestic to the foreign part of the biodiversity footprints with rising population density and income. Because our analysis showed that most regions are already net importers of GHG emissions and biodiversity losses, we conclude that it is increasingly important to address the role of trade in national and regional policies on mitigating GHG emissions and averting further biodiversity losses, both within and outside the region itself. To further increase the policy relevance of subnational footprint analyses, we also recommend the compilation of more detailed subnational MRIO databases including harmonized environmental data.     

Greenhouse Gas Emission Estimates of U.S. Dietary Choices and Food Loss

Dietary behavioral choices have a strong effect on the environmental impact associated with the food system. Here, we consider the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with production of food that is lost at the retail and consumer level, as well as the potential effects on GHG emissions of a shift to dietary recommendations. Calculations are based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) food availability data set and literature meta‐analysis of emission factors for various food types. Food losses contribute 1.4 kilograms (kg) carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂‐eq) capita^?1day^?1 (28%) to the overall carbon footprint of the average U.S. diet; in total, this is equivalent to the emissions of 33 million average passenger vehicles annually. Whereas beef accounts for only 4% of the retail food supply by weight, it represents 36% of the diet‐related GHG emissions. An iso‐caloric shift from the current average U.S. diet to USDA dietary recommendations could result in a 12% increase in diet‐related GHG emissions, whereas a shift that includes a decrease in caloric intake, based on the needs of the population (assuming moderate activity), results in a small (1%) decrease in diet‐related GHG emissions. These findings emphasize the need to consider environmental costs of food production in formulating recommended food patterns.     

Life‐cycle and cost of goods assessment of fed‐batch and perfusion‐based manufacturing processes for mAbs

Life‐cycle assessment (LCA) is an environmental assessment tool that quantifies the environmental impact associated with a product or a process (e.g., water consumption, energy requirements, and solid waste generation). While LCA is a standard approach in many commercial industries, its application has not been exploited widely in the bioprocessing sector. To contribute toward the design of more cost‐efficient, robust and environmentally‐friendly manufacturing process for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), a framework consisting of an LCA and economic analysis combined with a sensitivity analysis of manufacturing process parameters and a production scale‐up study is presented. The efficiency of the framework is demonstrated using a comparative study of the two most commonly used upstream configurations for mAb manufacture, namely fed‐batch (FB) and perfusion‐based processes. Results obtained by the framework are presented using a range of visualization tools, and indicate that a standard perfusion process (with a pooling duration of 4 days) has similar cost of goods than a FB process but a larger environmental footprint because it consumed 35% more water, demanded 17% more energy, and emitted 17% more CO₂ than the FB process. Water consumption was the most important impact category, especially when scaling‐up the processes, as energy was required to produce process water and water‐for‐injection, while CO₂ was emitted from energy generation. The sensitivity analysis revealed that the perfusion process can be made more environmentally‐friendly than the FB process if the pooling duration is extended to 8 days. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 32:1324–1335, 2016     

北京市住宅建筑生命周期碳足迹

从生命周期角度看,建筑碳足迹与能源和建材生产系统具有密切关系。随着技术的进步和节能政策的推进,中国能源的生产和使用,以及建材生产过程中的环境排放都随着时间在持续降低,这将间接地影响到建筑的环境表现。依据1990—2010年期间每5a的中国能源与建材生命周期清单数据,对北京市20年间住宅建筑系统开展生命周期评价和碳足迹核算,以揭示北京市住宅建筑系统的环境负荷变化特征。结果表明,北京市住宅建筑生命周期碳足迹随时间推移呈现降低趋势,主要来自能源系统和建材生产系统的碳减排贡献。不同结构建筑的碳足迹尽管有差异,但也呈现了相似的下降趋势。从生命周期阶段看,建筑碳足迹主要体现在建筑使用阶段和建材生产阶段。尽管建筑使用阶段的节能对于降低建筑生命周期碳足迹具有重要贡献,但节能在经济成本及环境成本方面而言是有限度的。在可持续的环境政策管理制定中,应从生命周期角度,统筹考虑协调各行业减碳的协调发展。论文同时也验证了在生命周期评价中考虑时间变量将有助于更好地利用生命周期评价结果支持环境可持续管理。结论对于城市规划的政策制定、量化环境表现是有益的。     

Global Supply Chains of Coltan

The spot price for tantalum, a metal used in high‐performance consumer electronics, spiked in 2000, triggering a boom in artisanal mining of surface deposits in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The profit from columbite‐tantalite ore, or coltan, is alleged to have funded militants during that country's civil war. One warlord famously claimed that in 2000, coltan delivered a million dollars per month. While coltan mining was neither a necessary nor sufficient cause for the civil war, there is nevertheless a clear association between mining and conflict. In order to trace global flows of coltan out of the DRC, we used a high‐resolution multiregion input‐output (MRIO) table and a hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA) approach to trace exports through international supply chains in order to estimate a “coltan footprint” for various products. In this case study, our aim is to highlight the power and utility of hybrid LCA analysis using high‐resolution global MRIO accounts. We estimate which supply chains, nations, and consumer goods carry the largest loads of embodied coltan. This hybrid LCA case study provides estimates on illicit flows of coltan, estimates a coltan footprint of consumption, and highlights the advantages and challenges of using hybrid monetary‐physical input‐output/LCA approaches to study and quantify a negative social impact as an input to production. If successful, the hybrid LCA approach could be a useful and expedient measurement tool for understanding flows of conflict minerals embodied in supply chains.     

Implementing Carbon‐Footprint‐Based Calculation Tools in Municipal Greenhouse Gas Inventories

Policy makers and practitioners working on local climate action continuously strive for improved greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories to support their mitigation strategies. The provision of such inventories, with the sufficient detail and quality needed, has proven to be challenging. This article describes the application of a carbon‐footprint–based (CF‐based) calculation tool to Norwegian municipalities. The aim is to improve the local GHG inventory, with a particular focus on the emissions resulting from the provision of services by local governments. Through selective CF analysis, we aim to illustrate the knowledge gained from implementing these tools in local climate action plans and to further contrast CF‐based calculations with more traditional production‐based accounting. Municipalities report they have revised their understanding of the most important GHG mitigation strategies after implementing this tool.