The manner of estimating district heating emissions in carbon footprint calculators thus far has been insufficient. The calculators have used the national average to calculate the emissions produced by district heating, leading the emissions of all district heating customers to look equally large. Customers who heat their homes or businesses with emission-free district heating have gotten results of a much larger carbon footprint from the calculators than their heating emissions are in reality.

“The calculator allows our corporate customers to monitor the implementation of their carbon neutrality targets for district heating very accurately. The newly published calculator makes tracking the data easier and makes the process even more transparent. The calculator is also an important component for tracking the carbon neutrality of Oulun Energia, as it is our objective to achieve total carbon neutrality by 2035,” explains Heating Services Manager of Oulun Energia, Kimmo Alatulkkila.

The new district heating emissions calculator accurately shows the actual emissions from the district heating production of a user’s place of residence.

The reporting of emissions data follows the commonly used methods approved by Statistics Finland and the Energy Authority. The emissions data can be calculated using either the energy content method or the efficiency method. District heating companies report their emissions data to the calculator on a regular basis, and companies can even report their monthly emissions data to ensure that the data is up to date.

In conjunction with Finnish district heating companies, the emissions calculator has been developed by Local Power, Statistics Finland, the Finnish Environment Institute, Motiva, the Association of Finnish Municipalities, Finnish Energy, the Energy Authority, and the Finnish District Heating and Cooling Association; FinDHC ry.

The calculator can be found at www.klpaastolaskuri.fi (in Finnish only).