Perhaps one of the biggest challenges facing companies in the transportation sector, including our friends in the air, road, marine, and rail space, is maintaining compliance with ever-changing national and regional standards regarding energy use and emissions outputs of various vehicle and fuel combinations. That may sound like a mouthful, and it is! But a critical tool that can help make sense of it all and take your ESG Strategy to another level is the GREET® model.
While we didn’t create the GREET (Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies) model, your friends at Industrial Gas Consultants in Dallas, TX, are always at the forefront of industrial gas systems integration that transforms how you do business with the world. Through that, we believe in education and providing clients with resources that make our world a better place.
What Is GREET?
GREET has gained steam in recent years as a one-of-a-kind tool that simulates energy use and emissions output and provides a complete picture of the full life cycle of energy and environmental technology. This includes:
- Well to wheels for fuels
- Raw material mining
- Vehicle disposal for automobiles
Argonne National Laboratory developed GREET in 1995 and now has over 50,000 registered users who benefit from its annual updates and expansions. Beyond the transportation sector, GREET is also popular with industry, academic, and government agencies. It has been supported by the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office for over two decades.
A Suit of Models and Tools
According to Argonne, environmental regulatory agencies frequently update national and regional standards related to energy use and emissions outputs of various vehicle and fuel combinations. Naturally, this puts a ton of pressure on companies all across the globe, who now must take steps to meet these standards. If they don’t, they’ll face stiff penalties. But prior to 1995, there wasn’t a way to take these steps efficiently. In many ways, it was a guessing game because of our inability to consider the full life cycle of this usage.
GREET fills this gap, generating never-before-seen data for its users, who can then make necessary changes to stay on top of industry changes. GREET has two free platforms: the GREET.net model and the GREET Excel model. Its sustainability metrics include:
Energy Use — Total energy (fossil energy and renewable energy), Fossil energy (petroleum, natural gas, and coal), and Renewable energy (biomass, nuclear energy, hydro-power, wind power, and solar energy).
Air Pollutants — This includes VOC, CO, NOx, PM10, PM2.5, and SOx. These are estimated separately for total and urban (a subset of the total emissions).
Greenhouse Gases — CO2, CH4, N2O, black carbon, and albedo.
Water Consumption — Addressing water supply and demand (energy-water nexus).
GREET covers hundreds of pathways, including Hydrogen production. This is important when you consider more than 10 million metric tons of Hydrogen are produced in the United States annually.
The impact GREET has had over the past two decades is undeniable.
If you aren’t using it yet, please consider picking up a free download at greet.es.anl.gov.
One Call for ESG Project Development and Management. Call Industrial Gas Consultants Today! There is no greater peace of mind than knowing you have an experienced industrial gas integration professional and ESG strategist as a trusted partner. We can advance your ESG strategies or bring them up to date with current standards. If you are starting a new venture from scratch and want to put your best foot forward right away, IGC is here to assist. In what we do, there are no pre-made or quick-fix solutions. We study the intricacies of your company, identify any potential weak points, and then provide recommendations based on what we discover.
Together, we design a strategy that works best for you, your team, and the environment.
Call us at 713-383-7010 to schedule a free evaluation today!
