The Energy Performance and Carbon Emissions Assessment and Monitoring (ECAM) tool is a free web-based tool that is designed for assessing the carbon emissions that utilities can control within the urban water cycle and prepare these utilities for future reporting needs on climate mitigation. It can be used for:
GHG emissions assessment
Energy performance assessment
Identifying opportunities for reducing CO2e emissions
ECAM also provides the opportunity to develop scenarios and model reduction impacts of future measures as well as monitor the GHG reduction results after their implementation.
The ECAM tool follows a tiered approach.
Tier A - Initial GHG Assessment:
Helps utilities understand their overall energy usage and total GHG emissions at system-wide level (drinking water and wastewater). Data that is readily known or accessible by utility managers and operators is used and allows a first look at the potential opportunities that exist for reducing GHG emissions.
Tier B - Detailed GHG Assessment:
Looks at energy use and GHG emissions at the individual stage level of the urban water cycle (i.e. abstraction, drinking water treatment, distribution, collection, wastewater treatment), providing utilities with a more thorough assessment of their GHG emissions and energy usage. It helps utilities identify areas of improvement and evaluate solutions and scenarios for developing a feasible carbon reduction strategy in line with their current and future needs.
See how it works… start entering data and see initial results within a few minutes
The Initial Assessment (Tier A) provides a snapshot of the utility’s energy consumption and GHG emissions using data readily available to utility managers and staff. It only takes a few minutes.
The Detailed Assessment (Tier B) provides a more advanced level of GHG assessment using utility specific data that are used also to assess the utility’s energy performance.
Just follow these simple steps:
1. Fill in basic system information.
2. Tier A – Initial Assessment: Enter total energy consumption, energy cost, and other operational data.
3. Look at results and see where the biggest sources of emissions occur.
4. Tier B – Detailed GHG Assessment: Enter data at a higher level of detail and certainty of the data for each individual stage.
5. Visit summaries to see overview of GHG sources and which stages contribute most to GHG emission.
6. Look at Opportunities page to see what type of solutions have the biggest impact.
For detailed instructions download user manual
and access ECAM training material
The ECAM tool is the first of its kind to allow for a holistic approach of the urban water cycle to drive GHG emission reduction in utilities. ECAM prepares utilities for future reporting needs on climate mitigation and informs on which improvements can have the biggest impact across the entire drinking water and wastewater system.
ECAM is a powerful tool for funding proposals to include a thorough monitoring of GHG reductions associated to the funded project. It is also powerful in preparing your utility now for future regulatory changes and mandatory reporting on GHG emissions.
The ECAM tool is based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories methodology and is developed by international scientists. Additionally, it accounts for emissions not included by IPCC yet and therefore promotes completeness, comparability, transparency and consistency of emission accounting. Thus, ECAM can assist to link Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of mitigation actions in the water sector to national level.
