CASE STUDY 1
Accounting for Existing Scope 3 Product Use-Phase Emissions
Companies need reliable information about the electricity their products use after sale to accurately measure and reduce scope 3 emissions. However, localized residual mix data and information about the clean electricity customers already receive are often incomplete, inconsistent, or unavailable. CRS helps companies transform fragmented electricity data into practical accounting methodologies that support credible emissions reporting, informed clean energy procurement, and defensible sustainability claims.
Downstream Residual Mix and Standard Delivery Clean Energy Analysis
The challenge:
A multinational technology company needed a reliable way to estimate the electricity emissions associated with customer use of its products in the United States and Europe.
Our approach and impact:
CRS analyzed residual mix data and standard delivery clean energy programs, evaluated available disclosure information across U.S. states and European markets, and developed a tailored residual mix dataset and accounting methodology for the company’s scope 3 inventory. This provided a credible basis for estimating downstream category 11 electricity emissions and enabled the company to avoid over-procurement by purchasing renewable energy certificates (RECs) for the non-renewable portion of its customers’ electricity use, while supporting credible product use-phase clean energy claims.
Global Scope 3 Residual Mix Accounting Framework
The challenge:
A global information technology company needed a consistent methodology to estimate product use-phase electricity emissions based on regional residual mix rates across multiple countries with different electricity markets, tracking systems, and levels of data availability. The residual mix rate helped the company determine the amount of clean energy its customers were using to power their electronic devices over the approximate lifespan of that product, which could then be attributed to the company’s downstream scope 3 emissions.
Our approach and impact:
CRS developed a customized market-based accounting methodology, a globally applicable framework of residual mix factors by country, a hierarchy of currently available preferred data sources, and practical fallback methodologies where country-specific information was unavailable. This provided a consistent global approach to scope 3 category 11 accounting across international markets, allowing the company to estimate product electricity emissions more accurately and make informed clean energy procurement decisions worldwide.
How Can We Help?
Need help achieving your clean energy transition goals or developing a credible approach to downstream Scope 3 electricity accounting? Contact us to learn how CRS can help.
CASE STUDY 2
Utility Product Verification
Utilities and energy service providers are increasingly being asked to provide resource mix and emissions information for a wide range of clean electricity and standard service products; rigorous, independent verification ensures the legitimacy and quality of these products for utility customers. CRS’s Advisory Services verifies these electricity products in the United States and internationally, including hourly matching, clean energy, and emissions rates.
Clean Energy Verification
The challenge:
A federally owned electric utility corporation, investor-owned utility, and municipal electric utility all needed third-party verification of the clean portion of their electricity offerings to ensure the accuracy of the clean energy disclosures made to their customers.
Our approach and impact:
CRS conducted third-party reviews of each utility’s clean energy portfolio including hourly and annual generation information, REC inventories, calculation methodologies, product design, and energy accounting systems. This informed the development of verification protocols for each utility, each year, capable of determining that the fuel mix and emissions calculations used in customer disclosures were accurate and that RECs were not being double-counted across customers. The verification protocol was then used by an independent auditor to credibly verify the clean energy portion of each utility’s product. CRS then reviews the auditor’s protocol for final verification. Ultimately, this verification builds customer trust in each of these utility’s program integrity.
How Can We Help?
Need help achieving your clean energy transition goals or strengthening the credibility of your clean energy program and customer disclosures? Contact us to learn how CRS can help.
CASE STUDY 3
Standard Delivery Clean Energy Claims Guidance for Voluntary Buyers
Corporate clean energy buyers often assemble portfolios that span multiple procurement mechanisms, including PPAs, on-site generation, community choice aggregation, and unbundled RECs. But a multi-source procurement strategy can lead to inconsistent accounting, unsupported claims, or missed opportunities to strengthen a renewable energy portfolio. Understanding the clean energy a company is receiving through its default supply service means it can remain confident in its procurement strategy and maximize its clean energy portfolio performance.
Credible Claims for an American University
The challenge:
A private American university procures renewable energy through many of the mechanisms outlined above, but needed guidance to ensure its renewable energy claims and greenhouse gas accounting were accurate and aligned with best practices.
Our approach and impact:
After reviewing the university’s full electricity portfolio, CRS delivered a report with recommendations on meeting renewable energy targets, REC portfolio management and performance, credible clean energy claims, and public disclosure best practices. CRS’s recommendations strengthened the credibility of the university’s clean energy claims, improved its emissions accounting practices, and identified opportunities to improve the environmental impact of its procurement strategy.
How Can We Help?
Need help achieving your clean energy transition goals or strengthening your clean energy procurement, accounting, and claims? Contact us to learn how CRS can help.
CASE STUDY 4
Global Value Chain Procurement Guidance
Companies with global operations and supply chains encounter varied renewable energy markets when trying to meet their decarbonization commitments, including diverse energy attribute certificate (EAC) systems, tracking system mechanisms, and clean energy procurement options. Without market-specific guidance, companies may find themselves double counting renewable energy, making inaccurate claims, or buying low-impact or low-quality renewable energy, exposing them to reputational and regulatory risk.
EAC Procurement for Scope 3 GHG Emissions
The challenge:
An American multinational technology company needed to understand how EACs could credibly be applied to its scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions (categories 1, 2, and 11) across its global value chain. The company wanted to procure credible EACs, apply them consistently within recognized GHG accounting frameworks, and avoid double-counting risks.
Our approach and impact:
CRS delivered best practices concerning the application of EACs to scope 3 emissions and considerations for developing international markets. Building on the quality criteria defined in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s 2015 Scope 2 Guidance, CRS outlined credible accounting and allocation methodologies for supplier electricity use, life-cycle assessments, and product use-phase emissions. CRS highlighted best practices for EAC purchases and disclosures, including value chain partner engagement, EAC retirement approaches, and necessary documentation.
As this company’s supply chain was centered in specific international markets, including China, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan, CRS provided market-specific recommendations for procurement and unbundled EAC options, renewable energy use claim risks, areas of uncertainty, and opportunities for advocacy. The result of this work was a clear, actionable strategy for the company to procure EACs for its scope 3 accounting across its global value chain.
Global Supplier Procurement Programs
The challenge:
An American multinational technology company was developing a clean energy program to help its suppliers evaluate and prioritize renewable energy projects and procurement options that reflected specific market conditions and maximized impact.
Our approach and impact:
CRS researched EAC markets across multiple countries, including Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand, the United States, and Vietnam, drawing on our expertise in these regions and leveraging our local relationships. CRS analyzed project eligibility and unbundled EAC requirements. These recommendations added rigor to the company’s supplier guidance on credible usage claims, accurate accounting, and maximizing the environmental benefits related to renewable energy generation.
The resulting guidance supported effective supplier communications and engagement while also advancing the company’s goals of renewable electricity production to support operations and business, promoting new supply of renewable energy in the market, and delivering other environmental and social benefits such as displaced grid emissions and community benefits.
Impactful Supplier Procurement Guidance
The challenge: A global technology company wanted to ensure that its suppliers’ renewable energy procurement decisions delivered meaningful environmental and social impact. To do this, the company needed a consistent, practical methodology for its suppliers to evaluate and procure from renewable energy projects across diverse markets.
Our approach and impact: CRS developed a scorecard to measure and increase the impact of different renewable energy projects for the company and its suppliers. CRS developed a Procurement Scorecard built upon a set of criteria categories (including, but not limited to, emissions impact, land use and conservation, and equity and community co-benefits), international standards, regulatory programs, and industry initiatives. The Scorecard helped the company determine whether a particular renewable energy procurement met the company’s high standards for due diligence and which procurement options the company should consider for itself and its supply partners. The result was a practical tool that allowed the company and its supply chain partners to assess, compare, and maximize the impact of their renewable energy procurements.
How Can We Help?
Need help achieving your clean energy transition goals or navigating credible renewable energy procurement across global markets and value chains? Contact us to learn how CRS can help.
CASE STUDY 5
Supporting Credible Supply Chain Renewable Energy Procurement in the United States
Large companies increasingly expect their suppliers to procure renewable electricity, but many suppliers have little experience with renewable energy or RECs. Without clear guidance, supplier participation is low, inconsistent, or difficult to verify, making it difficult for companies to decarbonize their supply chains.
Supplier Guidance for Renewable Energy Procurement
The challenge:
A multinational pharmaceutical company required its indirect U.S. suppliers (e.g., consultants, lawyers, office supply manufacturers) to procure renewable electricity for the portion of goods and services provided to the company. Many of these suppliers had limited experience with RECs, renewable energy markets, and renewable energy procurement, making it difficult for them to fulfill their contractual obligations.
Our approach and impact:
CRS leveraged our REC market and supplier procurement strategy expertise to develop educational materials on renewable energy benefits, procurement options, and other methods for decarbonizing or decreasing a company’s electricity use. CRS also created a customized electricity calculator to help suppliers track their consumption and the share attributable to the pharmaceutical company. This tool gave suppliers the information they needed to accurately procure renewable energy. In the end, the pharmaceutical company had a structured, implementable program and the tools to help both it and its suppliers meet those goals.
How Can We Help?
Need help achieving your clean energy transition goals or building a credible clean energy program for your supply chain? Contact us to learn how CRS can help.
Ready to Work With CRS?
CRS, through decades of experience around the world, brings rigor, an understanding of nuance and complexities, and a commitment to expanding renewable energy markets to our Advisory Services offerings. We offer a breadth of services to a diverse set of clients: residual mix accounting, clean energy verification, value chain decarbonization, international procurement mechanisms, and credible voluntary claims guidance. But our focus on credible accounting and impactful procurement means our work not only helps companies and organizations meet their targets but also leads to a world with more renewable energy production and use.
Whether you’re navigating a specific clean energy challenge or looking for support achieving your broader clean energy goals, CRS can help. Contact services@resource-solutions.org to start a conversation.