Environmental Stewardship
Prudential businesses in the U.S. and abroad are focusing on a broad range of activities that contribute to the protection of the environment.
In its continued efforts to ensure the quality and accuracy of its GHG emissions data, Prudential once again engaged a third-party verifier (Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance) to review and provide limited assurance of its 2019 Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 Business Travel GHG emissions.
Domestic Emissions Data
Environment Domestic Emissions Data
| Description |
2019 |
2018 |
2017 |
| Portfolio Square Footage |
8,302,095 |
8,302,095 |
8,653,579 |
GHG Emissions
Scope 1 (MT CO2e) |
17,247 |
9,077 |
8,143 |
GHG Emissions
Scope 2 (MT CO2e)* |
54,652 |
58,221 |
57,078 |
GHG Emissions
Scope 3 (MT CO2e) |
29,598 |
13,375 |
10,380 |
Energy Consumed
Stationary Combustion (MMBTU) |
154,228 |
181,666 |
164,349 |
Energy Consumed
Purchased Electricity (kWh) |
139,992,142 |
146,039,158 |
143,796,398 |
Notes
* Scope 2 location-based emissions are reported above for comparison with historical year.
2016 was the first year that international sites were incorporated into Prudential’s GHG Inventory and was selected as the new base year. As a result, comparisons made below are only for performance among 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019:
The company’s Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions (i.e., energy used in buildings) increased by 6.8%.
In 2019, Scope 1 emissions from diesel used in emergency generators at U.S. buildings, corporate aircrafts, leased vehicles for executive transport, employee shuttles and building refrigerants were quantified and added to the inventory.
The company’s total GHG emissions Scope 1, 2 and 3 (Scope 3 includes emissions from Business Travel and from fuel- and energy-related activities not included in Scopes 1 and 2) increased by 21.0%. Compared with 2018, the company increased its Scope 3 emissions from business travel by 121.0%. This significant increase may be attributed to due to two main changes to the inventory:
- In 2019, Scope 3 emissions from employee mileage reimbursement, public transit—taxi/livery, bus ferry, rental cars and hotel stays were added to the inventory.
- A change in the use of emission factors sourced from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to DEFRA. This switch was due to more granular air travel activity data being available in CY2019, which included not only haul distance but also seating class. The DEFRA factors are much better suited to this level of data granularity.
Domestic Emissions Data
| Description |
2019 |
2018 |
2017 |
2016 |
| Scope 1-2 |
0.0086604 |
0.0081616 |
0.0075369 |
0.0082017 |
| Scope 1-3 |
0.0122255 |
0.0097172 |
0.0087364 |
0.0096704 |
| FERA – Scope 3 (MT CO2e) |
18,723 |
18,628 |
18,247 |
17,881 |
| Business Travel + FERA (MT CO2e) |
48,321 |
32,003 |
28,627 |
29,577 |
Notes:
Changes in square footage between 2019 and historical years may be attributed to the following: integrating select international locations (home offices and data centers) that are owned or operationally controlled in 2017; the dynamic nature of office space used among the POJ, PGFL and GIB businesses in Japan; and, improved accuracy in 2019 of floor area among all international businesses.
For domestic business, floor area for Moosic was missing and added for both 2018 and 2017. The Sunnyvale location was also added to the inventory in 2018. These activities have led to a restatement of floor areas in historical years 2016—2018 to correct reported unit values for floor areas and resulting erroneous conversions; and to enable comparability among normalization metrics. These values reported above have therefore changed from those reported in the 2018 Sustainability Report. Scope 3 GHG emissions for upstream fuel- and energy-related activities (FERA) not included in Scopes 1 and 2 were also recalculated for 2016—2018 and updated given all the changes in the inventory numbers described.