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Goal Setting

Additional Resources

Forward thinking companies have recognized the benefits of setting public greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction goals for years. Setting aggressive GHG reduction goals can galvanize reduction efforts at a company and often leads to the identification of many additional reduction opportunities. An aggressive GHG target also can help garner senior management attention and increase funding for internal GHG reduction projects. Additionally, corporate targets can encourage innovation, improve employee morale, and help in the recruiting and retention of qualified employees.

While companies have generally been lauded by their customers and shareholders for taking proactive steps to address climate change, there have been few efforts to evaluate the extent to which these public corporate GHG goals represent actual GHG reductions as opposed to business-as-usual changes expected for their sector. In an effort to provide companies with a transparent and publicly available benchmarking resource to help evaluate and establish new or existing GHG goals, EPA’s Corporate GHG Goal Evaluation Model is now available for download on the web.

The EPA Corporate GHG Goal Evaluation Model was initially created under EPA’s Climate Leaders program as a tool for projecting business-as-usual GHG intensity improvements in order to assess GHG reduction goals set by companies participating in the program. The model incorporates best available forecast data on energy consumption and economic production output from a variety of publicly available sources and has been updated and enhanced with data from 2011. It can be accessed, along with three accompanying documents, by visiting the web links below. (Note: In order to use the model, users must first download the Free Analytica Player, Exit EPA Disclaimer which allows viewing and running of existing models.)

The EPA Corporate GHG Goal Evaluation Model (Analytica) (9.3M)
Purpose: To provide companies with a transparent and publicly available benchmarking resource to help evaluate and establish new or existing GHG goals that go beyond “business as usual” for their individual sectors.

The EPA Corporate GHG Goal Evaluation Model: User’s Manual (PDF) (35 pp, 655K, About PDF)
Purpose: This document provides the user with important information on EPA’s goal-setting model, the software and data needed in order to use the model, and general guidance on how to analyze the outputs from the model.

Overview of the EPA Corporate GHG Goal Evaluation Model (PDF) (8 pp, 150K)
Purpose: To provide an overview of the methodology and data sources that support EPA’s goal-setting model.

The EPA Corporate GHG Goal Evaluation Model: Update Process Manual (PDF) (28 pp, 374K)
Purpose: To provide an overview of the actions taken to update the latest version of the model, and instructions on how modelers can make future updates as new model data are made available.

For more historical context on the goal model and the EPA Climate Leaders program please see the documents below:

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