Report on NGER Threshold Calculator 2016 for Sustainable Engineering

This report provides a recommendation for the NGER Threshold Calculator 2016, focusing on its application in engineering management for a sustainable future. The analysis centers on the calculator's assessment of greenhouse gas emissions under the Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act of 2007. The report suggests modifications to enhance the calculator's comprehensiveness, specifically advocating for the inclusion of a transportation section to account for emissions generated during the transport of materials, particularly for large-scale projects like railway construction. The current calculator effectively covers emissions and energy consumption/production, but the addition of transportation data would provide a more holistic evaluation of carbon handling and processing across the entire project lifecycle. The report also highlights the calculator's flexibility in accommodating varied reporting periods and its ability to assess emissions at a facility-specific level, enabling targeted improvements within organizations. References to supporting literature are included to validate the recommendations.

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Engineering management for sustainable future

Recommendation
The NGER Threshold calculator 2016 for finding out if an organization has an obligation to
register and report Green house gas emission under Greenhouse and Energy reporting Act of
2007 is an extensive assessment of major stages of processes through which Carbon is handled
and processed. The tool captures both emissions and energy consumption/production.
In reference to the whole Life Carbon quantification and assessment reference provided the
NGER Threshold calculator can still be modified to become more extensive and capture all the
handling and processing of the Green houses gasses such as Carbon (IV) Oxide (CO2).
In addition to emissions and energy consumption or production the NGER Threshold calculator
2016 should be modified to include transport section because transporting materials for big
projects can lead to increased emissions of Greenhouse gases and thus for the entire system to be
inclusive the transport part should be included especially for the large projects such as Railway
construction a lot of ballast and other materials may be required. (Forum for the future, 2009)
This is the only additional part which I believe the NGER Threshold calculator 2016 should
clearly include as one of its scope because scope 1 and scope 2 stands for energy emitted and
energy produced and/or energy consumed presumably during the actual industrial processes
rather than the auxiliary parts such as transportation of the materials. (Blackman, 2001) There are
so many other auxiliary or support parts whose effects on Green house gas emission and
production and/or consumed is negligible or has no big difference. However in major projects
such as one Railway construction were a lot of materials are needed then the greenhouse gas
quantities associated with this auxiliary part are substantial and may affect the overall output of
the NGER Threshold calculator 2016 significantly. (The Global Carbon Crisis, 2011) For small

projects where transportation of the products does not have significant effects then the NGER
Threshold calculator 2016 as it is gives sufficient calculations that will ensure organizations or
entities gets suitable signal on whether or not reporting threshold has been reached. (Forum for the
future, 2009)
With this additional feature the NGER Threshold calculator 2016 would now put into account all
the stages through which raw materials go through right from transportation to the final part the
product is out to the end user. As it is the tool covers majority of the Greenhouses gases that is
the Carbon Di Oxide, Methane gas, Nitrogen Di Oxide among others. The calculation will
therefore be sufficient enough when transport part is added to the tool. (Salazar-Villalpando et al.,
2012)
It is important that the reporting is triggered if any of the major components of the Greenhouse
gas reaches a significant level where it has adverse effects to the environment. In view of this the
tool with the proposed modification will be able to ensure that all the major components of the
Greenhouse are monitored effectively right from the transportation to all the other subsequent
processes that will follow. (Forum for the future, 2009)
The tool as it is has provision where time or period can be varied between one year which
represents the full year reporting and period of less than a year where number of days has to be
entered. For the period which is less than a year the tool extrapolates the figures such that it
represents the whole year for the purposes of uniformity during the analysis and decision making
stage. This provision enables organizations to enter data even if they have not completed the
whole year. These way potentially harmful situations that need reporting will still be reported so
that the necessary action can be taken early even when a full reporting period has not been
reached. (Lovejoy and Ashton, 2011)

Additionally, the tool has been broken down to accommodate many facilities which mean that
specific items in an organization will be targeted as opposed to the whole set up of the
organization. (Forum for the future, 2009) Thus the tool is alive to the fact that wholesale changes
in an industrial set up is challenging and may not be feasible due to the cost associated with such
changes. An industry therefore can break down up to 20 specific facilities upon which
assessment and reporting will be done thus ensuring that only the core part of the whole
industrial set up which is responsible for triggering reporting is done away with. (Emmanuel and
Baker, 2012)
In conclusion, the tool is largely effective save for the recommended addition of the
transportation part where all the activities of the organization can be monitored from the
transportation stage to the final part where the product is released to the end user.

References
Blackman, W. (2001). Basic hazardous waste management. Boca Raton, FL: Lewis
Publishers.
Carbon management. (2011). Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.
Emmanuel, M. and Baker, K. (2012). Carbon management in the built environment.
London: Routledge.
Forum for the future (2009). Carbon Management Framework for Major
Infrastructure Projects. 1(1), pp.29-36.
Lovejoy, T. and Ashton, R. (2011). Stepping up the ambition for carbon management:
a vision for carbon-rich, cross-continental biodiversity corridors. Carbon
Management, 2(2), pp.101-103.
Salazar-Villalpando, M., Neelameggham, N., Guillen, D., Pati, S. and Krumdick, G.
(2012). Energy Technology 2012. New York: Wiley.
The Global Carbon Crisis. (2011). Sheffield: Greenleaf Pub.