Sustainability Magazine November 2024 | Page 25

for carbon reporting , which can easily be 25 years . We have motors that are coming in for maintenance that have been in use for more than 70 years . In emissions accounting , here are companies that say all my products have a maximum 15-year lifetime expectation for the benefit of their carbon accounting .
If I extend the lifetime of my products , it ’ s increasing the emissions – unless I ’ m at low emissions energy use for these products . The majority of our emissions are generated when our products are used by our customers , so it very much depends on what they ’ re using – if they ’ re not using low carbon or renewable energy , then the emissions are just going up . This is a crucial part of transparency for ABB ’ s Scope 3 emissions reporting .
Q . HOW DOES ABB INTEGRATE LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS AND CIRCULARITY INTO ITS PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND OPERATIONS ?

» We are focusing on eliminating waste and driving resource efficiency , and we do this by embedding circularity into our product portfolio from the design phase . We are also looking at protecting water , biodiversity and having a positive impact on land use . Our water management solutions are actually a significant part of our business and it ’ s an area that ’ s growing extremely fast .

Talking about the circularity framework , there is no such thing as a greenhouse gas protocol when it comes to circularity . How do you measure circularity ? No standard exists . ISO had just launched one , but the ISO standards are normally just the absolute minimum . It ’ s not in line with the
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