This year we commissioned a piece of work with Arup, to help compare the avoided emissions from our heat recovery products sold in FY22 against our operational emissions over the same period.
Carbon emissions avoidance from our heat recovery sales
Applying heat recovery ventilation solutions in airtight, well insulated new buildings, or deep energy efficient refurbishment of existing buildings, can offer reductions in the energy used for heating or cooling. As well as energy reductions, and associated financial savings, there are also the parallel carbon emissions that are avoided.
To help scale the impact of our products we commissioned a piece of work with Arup, to help compare the avoided emissions from our heat recovery products sold in FY22 against our operational emissions over the same period.
As our products provide continuous reductions in energy over their lifetime, they avoid far more than just one year’s operation and every year our sales add to the installed base, so avoiding more emissions. However, our approach here is to provide a comparison of our FY22 operational emissions against one year of emissions avoided by the heat recovery products we manufactured and sold over our financial year 2022.
Methodology
The methodology considers both domestic and non-domestic buildings, following the design standards and guidance in SAP 2012 and CIBSE Guide B2. The total heat load is a function of the fabric heat losses, heat losses due to infiltration and heat losses due to ventilation. The calculated energy savings and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions relate to the reduced heating load due to the selected MVHR product.
The methodology considers:
- number of devices sold per country;
- device airflow rate (24 hours/day for domestic, 14 hours/day for non-domestic);
- device heat recovery efficiency;
- external temperature according to country;
- relevant emissions factors for gas and electricity according to country;
- internal set point temperature of 21ºC (with 12ºC setback for non-domestic);
- any energy used in running of the fans within the heat recovery devices; and
- product performance as tested for the Eco design Directive.
Results
223,065 tCO2e
Avoided emissions
Based on the methodology described, our products avoid 223kt CO2e.
52,345 tCO2e
Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions
This equates to avoided emissions equivalent to
over 4x
our operational emissions.
Definition – emissions scopes
Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from fuel combusted in our own facilities and vehicles and scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of electricity or heating that we purchase for use in our business. These emissions have been reliably measured and independently verified. Our scope 3 emissions include all other activities in the supply chain as well as the positive impact of using our products.
Definition – avoided emissions
Avoided emissions are those emissions avoided from the use of Volution Group heat recovery products. Avoided emissions are not included within scope 1, 2 or 3 emissions, and do not form part of reporting of total emissions or net zero targets for the Group.
Assessment and verification
Our scope 3 emissions have been independently assessed and used
to develop Science Based aligned targets.
Volution Group MVHR product sales can deliver emissions savings of 223 ktCO2e worldwide. For comparison and scale, that is equivalent in greenhouse gas emissions to over 28,000 homes’ energy use for a year*.
* Calculated by the EPA Greenhouse gas equivalents calculator. See more here:
www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator#results