The company in this case study has been anonymised for confidentiality purposes.
Why mining companies have to report their rail transport output
Due to ANZSIC of “4710 – Rail Freight Transport” being listed under the pollutant, greenhouse and energy monitoring reporting schemes, it is therefore required to report rail operations to the National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) and National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) scheme if these reporting thresholds are tripped.
Differences in definitions of NGER and NPI reports
Preparing both reports for rail operations can be complex and time consuming, due to a number of differences in style and requirements.
For example: The definition of facility is different between NPI and NGER reporting – NGER’s states facility as ‘an activity, or a series of activities’; while for NPI, a facility is defined as a physical boundary which normally is the same as the tenement boundary of a rail operation.
The reporting boundaries for rail operations for both reporting schemes can be ambiguous as the railways can be shared and connected to multiple facilities of different reporters.
Expert knowledge required for accurate reporting
Extensive knowledge is required to generate and prepare these reports in order to meet the specific reporting obligations.
There are hundreds of emissions estimating techniques to choose from the provided NPI manuals, therefore selecting and estimating the emissions from the most appropriate emissions estimation techniques is critical to generate an accurate emissions report.
Management of emissions data can lead to complications
Fuel combustion is usually the main emissions source from rail operations. However, reporting this can be complicated if fuel is provided by several contractors and suppliers – making data collection and tracking processes challenging, and attempting to manage this data via spreadsheets can also be difficult and ineffective.
The Solution: What Greenbase did to resolve the issues with rail freight transport reporting
Superior accounting platform for data management
Greenbase’s IGAN system is an environmental accounting platform purpose built to ensure each environmental report is prepared effectively and accurately. Using the COUNT process (Collect/input once, Use Numerous Times) for data collection, entry and reporting for both NPI and NGER reports.
The system contains data management and data schedule tools to make data collections and tracking streamlined, it then integrates and maintains all data streams and approved calculation methods that meet the specific required obligations.
Specialist support and advice on NPI and NGER reporting
Greenbase also provides more than system support, with specialist advice on NPI and NGER technical and reporting issues.
The team consists of experts with skills that cover multiple fields and a depth of both knowledge and experience in environmental reporting schemes including NPI and NGER.
Greenbase assists clients on determining complex reporting obligations and reporting boundaries to meet the regulation’s requirements.
Benefits: The Greenbase Difference
Greenbase’s IGAN platform can easily be deployed and integrated with client processes. Providing secure online access to each client, allowing them access to their data and reports, anytime and anywhere.
IGAN also produces industry comparisons and benchmark reports from the published NPI and NGER data, with the ability to co-generate NPI and NGER reports using the same set of data, significantly reducing data management time and complexities.
Furthermore, the maintained dataset in IGAN can be utilised for other environmental reports such as corporate sustainability or licensing estimations.
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