A Preliminary Assessment of Handprint Methodologies for Information and Communications Technology Grid Management Solutions

Greenhouse gas reporting protocols for companies are evolving to capture emissions downstream from the customer’s use of goods and services. The carbon handprint has emerged as an approach for assessing these emissions, complementing the more common carbon footprint. This white paper explores how the handprint concept can be used to estimate the significant reductions in energy and emissions accruing from offering new solutions with a lower carbon footprint compared to the baseline solution, or by helping a customer reduce the footprint of their existing processes relative to business as usual. Estimating and attributing handprint effects from information and communications technology (ICT) solutions is especially complicated because of the diverse and interconnected networks of companies that enable and deliver these solutions. This white paper considers two applications of ICT-enabled grid management solutions, one front-of-meter on the utility side and one behind-the-meter on the end-use customer side, to assess how ICT solutions may contribute to lowering GHG emissions in such applications and how emissions credits might be allocated in these scenarios.