Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS)
OP-1: Emissions Inventory and Disclosure

As part of the process of drawing up a GHG balance sheet for INRS, MSc students Simon Bée (2020) and Kemgang Nguenevit (2021) carried out a literature review and bibliographical search, and created a spreadsheet to facilitate future calculations. The most important phase in the creation of the balance sheet is data acquisition. In order to build a reliable system, it is crucial to establish all connections to the data via simple, automatic paths wherever possible. It is therefore important to establish a link with the various people responsible for the relevant sectors, and to determine with them the data required. Field visits to the various sites helped validate the data. With regard to the GHG assessment protocols themselves, several sources were used for calculations and emission factors: - Guide to quantifying greenhouse gas emissions (MELCC, 2019) - GHG Protocol, A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, revised edition (2004), including "Accounting and Reporting Standard Amendment" (February 2013) - 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories - ISO 14064-1:2018. Greenhouse gases - Part 1: Specification and guidance, at the organization level, for quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals - National inventory report 1990-2019: Greenhouse gas sources and sinks in Canada. In this report, GHG emissions are calculated in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (t CO2 eq.). In order to comply with the principles set out in ISO 14064-1:2018 and the GHG Protocol, all greenhouse gases covered by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)/Kyoto Protocol will be reported. However, some of these gases will not be present or taken into account in this report, or in the calculations, as INRS's activities do not produce them or produce them in very small quantities. The emission and removal factors for the various GHG sources and sinks are taken from the most recent National Inventory Report (NIR) published annually by the Government of Canada. For the purposes of this report, the most recent NIR data are taken from the copy published in May 2021, covering the year 2019. Furthermore, in line with international recommendations, the global warming potential (GWP) values used are based on a 100-year cumulative radiative forcing. These values are taken from the 5th report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2014).

The INRS 2021-2022 balance sheet takes into account so-called scope 1 and scope 2 emission sources, as well as a portion of scope 3, for the period from May 1, 2021, to April 30, 2022. In order to comply with ISO 14064-1, INRS accounts here for all GHG emissions or removals from facilities over which it has operational control and therefore "full authority to initiate and implement its operating policies at the operational level". This means that all buildings owned by INRS, excluding those leased to third parties, are included in the scope 1 and 2 balance sheets. Emissions linked to spaces owned by INRS but leased to third parties, and to spaces occupied by INRS as a tenant, have been included in scope 3 indirect emissions. This is because INRS has no control over the operations that take place there, or over the way in which the buildings are managed. Scope 1 emissions include: Direct emissions from stationary combustion sources (natural gas for energy production); Direct fugitive emissions (air conditioners); Direct emissions from heat-powered mobile sources (vehicle fleet); Direct emissions from stationary combustion sources (generators); Laboratory gas consumption. Scope 2 emissions include indirect emissions from hydropower consumption.

Scope 3 emissions, i.e. indirect sources, have not yet all been accounted for in the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 GHG balance sheet. In those two balance sheets, only indirect emissions linked to wastewater treatment and energy used in rented spaces (including the office space in Montreal where INRS is a tenant, and the spaces on the Laval campus and in the Quebec City building that INRS leases as a landlord) are available.

However, data for commuting and business travel is available for 2023. We can deduct scope 3 emissions related to business travel thanks to the new INRS expense report form, put in place in March 2023, that asks the user what mode of transportation they used and how far they went. In 7 months, we collected more than 800 data entries and were able to record 347 tons of CO2 eq. in business travel (among which 308 tons only for plane travels). It was extrapolated to 595 tons for 1 year. Scope 3 emissions for commuting were calculated by the travel management centres with whom we do business, thanks to a survey of community members' travel habits in October 2023 (see OP-16 for more detail).

Drinking water consumption and wastewater treatment are sources of GHG emissions. The operation of wastewater treatment plants and the creation and maintenance of infrastructure require energy and emit pollutants. Municipal wastewater treatment emits CH4 (28 times the 100-year warming potential of CO2) and N2O (265 times the 100-year warming potential of CO2), due to the organic matter load in the water and the nitrification/denitrification process at the plant. The IPCC methodology (Volume 5, Chapter 6, 2019) was used to calculate the treatment-related emissions per cubic metre for each site, based on the type of municipal treatment in place. For rented spaces, numbers for steam and electricity were obtained from the building owner.