Empirical study on calculating the GHG emission and water consumption of Indian oil corporation Ltd.
Student name: Mr Safalya Mishra
Guide: Dr Kamna Sachdeva
Year of completion: 2011
Host Organisation: Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Mr Bibhuti R. Pradhan
Abstract: Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, especially those due to human activities, have huge
impact on environment. It makes immense sense for organisations to take carbon neutrality
initiatives (e.g. offsetting GHG emissions through tree plantation), which not only minimises
emissions, it also sends a positive signal across the organization about the need to be
proactive towards issues pertaining to climate change. IndianOil, as a responsible corporate
citizen, has decided to contribute its bit and reduce the GHG emissions from its retail Outlets
(ROs).
This report enumerates the methods / means used to estimate GHG emissions and water
usage in IndianOil’s ROs and suggests methods to minimize them. The study was held
between 1st March 2011 and 15th May 2011 at 4IndianOil ROs in and around Delhi area.
These were COCO Jangpura RO (city-based RO), Global RO, Hyatt (city-based RO), Metro
RO, Binola (on NH-8 highway) and a Kisan Seva Kendra (in village Charoda, Haryana).
The study is based on a well-to-wheel approach, considering parameters like employee and
tank travel which are activities taking place outside the perimeters of the RO. The task
involved estimation of GHG emissions (which include only carbon dioxide (CO2) and
methane (CH4) emissions as per an API report, 2002) due to electricity consumption,
vehicular emission while travelling within the RO premises to fill their tanks, emissions due
to employee travel, emission due to fuel carrying tanker travel and fugitive emissions.
Water consumption data for all the ROs have been estimated annually depending on the
capacity and number of fills required for the storage facility or the number of water tankers
(20kl) used by the RO. Roof-top rainwater harvesting technique was found to replenish only
2% of the water consumed across all the outlets studied.
As part of the abatement strategies to reduce the GHG emission from different ROs solar PVs
are suggested to meet part of the lighting requirements. To reduce the lighting load, which is
one of the most prominent sources of GHG emission at the ROs, LED-based lighting
accessories are proposed to replace other lighting sources. The energy consumption due to
such changes are taken from an IndianOil internal study and are found to be one-third of that
used under present scenario. As for the rest of the CO2 emission, tree plantations can prove to
be effective carbon offsetting technique.
