CO2 reporting programme for small and medium sized facilities

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Population: 13,617,445 [metropolitan area]

Climate: Humid-subtropical

Duration: 2010-now

Sector: Cross-cutting

Funding sources: Public-private

City Networks: C40, ICLEI

Savings: CO2 emissions reduced by 13.3% in 4 years.

Solutions: Implementation of a programme to assess and report the CO2 emissions.

Multiple benefits: Electricity bills reduced and increased citizens’ knowledge on energy efficiency.

Carbon Reduction Reporting for Small and Medium Entities (CRR) is a mandatory annual reporting programme of CO₂ emissions for small and medium-sized facilities located in the Tokyo metropolitan. These buildings account for 60% of total Tokyo’s CO₂ emissions from industrial and commercial sector. Besides the mandatory reporting, Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) also attracted large number of volunteer participants. Over 34,000 facilities are reporting including 10,000 volunteers.

Objective: To bring building owners and tenants to monitor CO₂ emissions and take measures to reduce them. To provide policy makers with data on building stock.

Solutions – Mandatory and voluntary carbon reporting programme for the for small and medium-sized facilities located in the Tokyo metropolitan. The major steps of the programme include: CO₂ emissions data compilation and creation and submission of the report, report verification by the TMG, public disclosure of the results in TMG website, site inspections for facilities with mandatory reporting obligations, provision of the feedback and suggestions of improvement strategies.

Funding – No available budget information.

Innovation – In contract of benchmarking schemes, the CRR focus on disclosure of CO₂ emissions instead of energy consumption data. Since many companies prefer to keep consumption data confidential, reporting CO₂ emissions programme becomes more attractive. TMG thinks that CO₂ emissions reporting also moves beyond the energy efficiency measures, including wider range of other ways to tackle climate change, than just energy consumption. Large scale of reporting enterprises – 291 mandatory and 1871 voluntary, resulting in 23,023 mandatory and 11,476 voluntary different facilities (enterprises often have more than one facility).

Success factors – Participation in a programme is attractive to building owners and tenants because it offers them many positive outcomes. For instance, they are provided with the snapshot on how their particular facility is performing in comparison with similar facilities; Report cards given can be used as green building labels to boost attractiveness to potential tenants. Reporting process is hassle-free (Excel tool) and so that also encourages voluntary participation. TMG has made several partnerships and relationships with the key industry groups (Tokyo Corporation Association, 140,000 corporations) and together played crucial role in implementation of the programme. They have helped promoting the programme, provided awards for the volunteers from their own budgets, held awareness on the programme meetings.

Significant outcomes:

• CO₂ emissions reduced by 13.3% from 2010 to 2014;
• Building tenant and owners’ awareness on energy consumption raised;
• Energy bills across reporting facilities reduced by ¥838/m² (7.58 $*/m²) in 2014.

Synergies with local policies:

• Tokyo Environmental Master Plan 2016 sets goals of 38% energy consumption reduction by 2030 (2000 baseline) and 30% GHG emissions reduction by 2030 (2000 baseline);
• One of three core TMG programmes working to foster green buildings (CRR, Cap-and-Trade, Green Building Programme);
• Tokyo Climate Strategy sets goals of 20% energy consumption reduction by 2020 (2000 baseline) and 25% GHG emission reduction by 2020 (2000 baseline).

Political alignment:

• Energy Conservation Act  sets the foundation for industrial energy efficiency and energy management regulations;
• The Top Runner Programme  sets energy efficiency target values for energy-using machinery, equipment, and other items;
• INDC target  has no specific energy efficiency targets, but measures are included in GHG emission reduction target calculations;
• Compliments cap-and-trade (mandatory emission trading) system;
• Strategic Energy Plan (2014) sees a continuous strong role for energy efficiency in helping Japan meet its fundamental objectives of energy policy;
• Long-term Energy Supply and Demand Outlook  is based on Strategic Energy Plan (2014) and presents the ideal structure of energy supply and demand by 2030. Includes specific energy efficiency measures;
• Energy Efficiency Labelling System is the major energy efficiency policy tool to increase the efficiency of electrical appliances in Japan;
• Action Plan for Low-Carbon Society – is one of pillars of Japan’s energy efficiency and conservation and CO₂ emission reduction policy targeting the private sector.

Marketability:

• Participation in the programme appeared to be playing a key role in driving retrofitting and low-carbon technologies;
• Increased demand for low carbon buildings;
• Small and Medium Tenant Building Low Carbon Partnership formed, to spur market diffusion of the Carbon Report Cards.

* The conversion rate used is YEN 1 = USD 0.009