Informed Decisions

Written By: Michael Tsang, Ph.D. | Originally Published in The Business Year (TBY) Oman | Date: March 2022

What have been some of your latest projects in Oman?
We have been working on a variety of project ranging from policy projects with the government to more technical assessments for private companies. For example, on the policy side we are working for the Authority for Public Service Regulation developing policies and a roadmap to phase out older, energy inefficient lighting technology like incandescent lamps and filament bulbs and replacing them with LEDs. The goal is to expedite that process and enhance benefits such as the reduction of greenhouse gases to savings on energy and energy bills to providing a better product to the customer and end user. Switching gears, since the start of COVID-19 we have been working extensively on providing a better user experience for doing greenhouse gas accounting and environmental reporting. We are doing this with our own proprietary cloud-based environmental ‘dashboarding’ software . Most recently, we worked with Oman’s Civil Aviation Authority to develop Oman’s first dashboard for tracking its commitments to the Paris Agreement as well as the Montreal Protocol. With our cloud-based approach, companies will have a more efficient and effective way to track greenhouse emissions, energy consumption, and environmental emissions in order to track progress and make more strategic sustainability-related decisions. Other day-to-day work for us involves conducting in-depth greenhouse gas reports for things like Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 analysis as well as conducting product-level life-cycle assessments (LCA) as a part of more enhanced sustainability analytics. This latter topic is becoming import particularly for Omani companies that export to the U.S., E.U. and East Asia which are increasingly requiring carbon-foot printing or Environmental Product Declarations (i.e. LCA studies) as a part of their supply-chain evaluation process.

How will TPC’s cloud-based environmental ‘dashboarding’ software promote awareness on environmental impacts?
We see it as a strong enabler for both companies, the government, and individuals to strengthen Oman’s environmental reporting as well as providing access to such data. Currently, there is no way to access Oman’s greenhouse gas data quickly and easily. With the dashboard that we have implemented in partnership with the CAA, users can now see Oman’ past, current, and projected GHG emissions, along with other information such as which companies are actively removing carbon from the atmosphere and how close we are to achieving our commitments and goals for the Paris Agreement. On the reporting side, the dashboard will allow companies to manage, access, and visualize their GHG data so they can make more informed decisions about their impacts regarding climate change more easily. The hope is to give companies a more intuitive and easier experience with environmental reporting, so they can move away from the busy work of handling their data to using the data for planning and strategies.

What are your strategies concerning resource efficiency in Oman?
Our core expertise lies in using lifecycle assessments and life cycle thinking as a tool to track resource efficiency and resource consumption on both the input side as well as the waste and emissions side. The purpose of this type of assessment is to evaluate not only a company’s direct consumption and emissions but also consumption and emissions across the value and supply chains. When talking about climate change, for example, a company’s supply chain can easily account for the majority of their GHG emissions. This is what is referred to as Scope 3 emissions and involves things such as the embodied carbon of the feedstock, fuel, or chemicals a company uses in their manufacturing process or how waste is handled when it leaves its facilities. Companies therefore have tremendous power to influence global GHG emissions through how they select vendors in their supply chain, for example.

What does the green future in Oman look like?
Oman has been on a good trajectory for the past few years, for example, starting with the release of small-scale solar photovoltaic regulations in 2017, which kicked off a significant buzz around renewable energy in the country. That trend has continued, resulting in deployment of both small and large-scale renewable energy projects, as well as the country setting targets like 30% of all electricity production being renewable by 2030 and reducing its GHG emissions by 7% over that same time-period. More recently, the conversation has shifted towards emerging technologies such as green hydrogen and green molecules in order to address issues such as renewable energy storage, the sustainability of liquid fuel sources, and other energy requirements. There are other creative projects coming out of Oman, such as 4401, which is a company developing a method for carbon capture and carbon storage solutions here in the country. That being said, a sustainable future for Oman – and the rest of the world for that matter – should involve a mix of technologies and range of solutions. There is not one specific approach alone that can solve all energy, resource, and emissions challenges.

What are your long-term aspirations to contribute to a greener ecosystem?
Overall, we want to continue with our mission, which is focusing on supporting companies and entities to make more informed decisions around energy, carbon, and the environment. Some of this work will be in providing advisory services and policy work on the appropriate strategies and road-map for managing their GHG emissions. However, one of our long-term goals will be focused on providing our dashboarding software and other types of tools to a wider audience.