Quantifying emissions with carbon footprint data: an interview with Oh Guang-myung

What speaks louder than any environmentalist's speech is quantifiable carbon reduction data. In today's era of expanding carbon reduction strategies, carbon footprint calculations play an imperative role in assessing the effectiveness of reduction efforts. More importantly, such calculations can also communicate the importance of daily climate action by presenting data to encourage habit changes that were overlooked. 2PM Lab is a leading Carbon Technology Engineering Startup, and its CEO, Oh Guang-myung introduced the wide range of services they provide to pursue net-zero in different aspects of lifestyle.

As the CEO of 2PM Lab, please introduce what kind of problems the company was created to solve.

Our company is developing solutions to address the issues of corporate carbon emissions disclosure and calculating the carbon footprint of products, in response to the recently emerging global carbon regulations. Therefore, our primary focus is developing solutions for calculating corporate carbon emissions for ESG disclosure, determining carbon reduction amounts for eco-friendly products, and automatically calculating the carbon emissions of exported products.

What do you consider to be the key differentiator of your flagship service, Green Flow, compared to existing carbon management methods?

First, Green Flow is a tool for calculating carbon emissions at business sites, meaning corporate carbon emissions. The method for calculating these corporate emissions already has established standard guidelines. Based on the GHG Protocol, the government had previously created and distributed an Excel-based emissions calculator. We've now made this web-based. 

Also, our country has a 20-year history of comprehensive government data. Since the 2000s, vast amounts of government information have been recorded by agencies like the National Tax Service, KEPCO, and various other institutions. When a company logs in, we automatically crawl data like fuel consumption, electricity usage, gas/district heating consumption, and waste emissions from the past year. So, if a company needs to input, say, 10 items, we automatically collect about 70% of them.

We created a service where companies only need to verify and input the remaining 30%. Currently, Gyeonggi Province operates a service called the Gyeonggi Climate Management Platform. Gyeonggi Province has enacted an ordinance mandating that all companies within the province calculate their carbon emissions. We built and operate this automated carbon emissions calculation platform for business sites, available to all companies in Gyeonggi Province.

You mentioned that besides managing corporate carbon like Greenflow, you also created solutions for other areas like exports. Could you explain how you aim to achieve carbon neutrality through technology in those other areas?

Yes, there are several. First, there's the CBAM regulation currently being implemented in Europe. This regulation imposes a fine on carbon emissions differences. For example, if steel or aluminum produced in Korea has higher carbon emissions compared to that produced in Europe, the difference must be paid as a penalty. Taking aluminum as an example, producing one ton of aluminum in Europe emits about 6 tons of carbon. Korea, however, imports the raw material aluminum from places like India or Australia. Therefore, no matter how well Korea processes it, the carbon emissions differ by roughly 16 to 17 tons. That's a difference of about 10 tons compared to Europe. Currently, the charge per ton is about 100,000 won, meaning Korea faces the crisis of having to pay a charge of about 1 million won.

Tracking these product emissions requires continuously monitoring and managing data on raw material inputs, production volumes, and energy usage across every stage of the actual manufacturing process. Our current research project involves collecting data from energy monitoring systems called FEMS (Fuel and Energy Monitoring System) installed on each piece of equipment in the aluminum manufacturing process. Then, we collect data from the production management system. This allows us to systematically manage how much raw material, fuel, and electricity our company uses to make a single product. Creating such a tool is one of our primary tasks. 

The second part of our work involves direct selection assistance, not a system. For example, if shoes are made using waste leather, there's a carbon reduction effect compared to making shoes from virgin leather. We use the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) carbon footprint calculation model to determine the exact amount of carbon reduction achieved by using upcycled materials. 

We're also calculating the carbon reduction effect of using tumblers based on LCA, one by one. Recently, we conducted a project to calculate the carbon footprint at exhibition and performance venues. We did this project at the request of the Korea Tourism Organization. When an exhibition activity takes place at venues like COEX, it attracts hundreds of thousands of people. For example, the Seoul Cafe Show we did last November drew 130,000 people from around the world. Over four days, these people gather at a specific time and place for an event, so carbon emissions are concentrated. According to the World Tourism Organization, carbon emissions from such events account for about 8% of global carbon emissions.

K-pop concerts are another example. A single concert, lasting just a few days, can generate waste equivalent to ten years' worth. This raises the question: how can we achieve sustainable performances and exhibitions? That's why we developed a carbon footprint calculator specifically for these events. For example, from the organizer's perspective, emissions are calculated based on quantitative data like electricity, gas, and thermal energy usage during the event period, as well as waste generation. There are also participating booths. When you go to places like COEX, you see prefabricated booths, or companies might have their own booths made from wood or other materials. After the event, all these booths become waste. So, we determine the carbon footprint based on the materials and structure used to build these booths, as well as the items being exhibited.

We also distributed carbon footprint calculators to attendees participating in exhibitions or performance events. We structured a questionnaire asking how they arrived at the event—by public transportation, on foot, or by plane—how many nights they stayed, and if they consumed beverages at the venue, what type they drank and whether from a disposable cup or a tumbler. If they ate meals, we asked whether they included meat or were vegan. Using this questionnaire, we calculated the carbon footprint generated by each attendee.

The operator's carbon emissions are calculated very precisely based on data. For attendees, since we don't ask about every single event via the questionnaire, it's not an exact carbon footprint. However, it serves as a benchmark to compare how eco-friendly their practices were relative to other attendees. So we created tools like this carbon footprint calculator for exhibitions and performances. Now that the proof of concept is complete, our business goal starting this year is to implement our carbon footprint calculation service across all 17 MICE venues nationwide.

We're also actively petitioning and engaging in various activities to reduce carbon emissions from such exhibitions and performances. So, as a corporate representative, how significant a role do you think could such efforts play in carbon reduction?

First, the carbon reduction effect in fields like exhibitions, tourism, and performances could be quite significant. And this is an area where participating citizens or visitors can contribute. The problem is that all efforts to reduce carbon emissions actually involve adding extra tasks that weren't previously required. So, other services provide direct benefits simply by using them. But calculating your carbon footprint is like an inconvenient truth. Because it forces inconvenience upon you, citizens with the will to act will still gladly embrace inconvenient practices. For example, for an eco-friendly performance, I'd happily get my ticket digitally, avoid using glow sticks on-site, bring my own tumbler for water, and so on.

But from the perspective of companies or event organizers, all these things impact their profits. Unless regulated or mandated by guidelines, they won't willingly participate. So we're doing two things. One is that for events like performances or exhibitions, local governments and tourism organizations provide support. These supporting entities, the tourism organizations and local governments, evaluate events or performances they fund. They provide support for evaluation purposes, so we request that ESG criteria be included in the evaluation items. We ask that they assess whether the performance organizer is making efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. 

Ultimately, the fundamental driving force behind action by companies or local governments is the participating citizens. So, whenever we have the opportunity, we explain and promote to these participating citizens how meaningful it is to select this carbon footprint. The crucial point is whether the local governments or responsible agencies that permit and support such events or performances currently have the will to reduce carbon emissions. Can that be translated into regulations or guidelines? That seems to be the most important factor. If that is done well, I believe it could generate significant carbon reduction effects across many performances and exhibitions.

If you believe there are still technical or institutional challenges that need to be resolved, what are they and how do you think this carbon measurement technology should evolve in the future?

The technology to create a calculator for determining carbon footprints isn't actually difficult. The calculation methods and formulas are already established. The key now is effectively integrating scattered data points into a service. The most crucial aspect, as mentioned earlier, is that local governments, responsible government agencies, and organizations like tourism boards should incorporate carbon reduction and ESG metrics into their evaluation and management indicators when supporting or managing events like performances and exhibitions. This is the key challenge we must address. From a service perspective, we can't simply impose inconvenience on citizens. 

Seoul City and Gyeonggi Province already have citizen-participation carbon neutrality reward programs in place. Gyeonggi Province, for example, has an app called Climate Action Opportunity Income. Here, citizens earn points from the province by engaging in various eco-friendly practices like cycling or reducing single-use items. These points can be directly converted into local currency for use. However, continuously rewarding users with monetary incentives isn't sustainable. We believe that if we can make the service itself more engaging, users might find practicing good deeds more enjoyable. For example, imagine a character you raise on your mobile device that grows or a tree that flourishes based on the amount of carbon you reduce through eco-friendly actions. We aim to incorporate such gamification elements because our goal is to create a service that lowers the barrier to civic participation and makes eco-friendly actions more enjoyable.

That idea you just mentioned sounds like something I'm hearing for the first time. You also mentioned that technology has advanced significantly so far. If that's the case, could you share one example where you recall data was actually used to achieve carbon reduction results or improve efficiency?

Well, organizations like the Korea Institute of Invention and Innovation identify technologies that can significantly contribute to carbon neutrality in Korea, but they don't really know how much carbon reduction effect those technologies have each year. While their contribution is clear, we calculated the reduction effects for these various technologies. This provided the companies that developed the technologies with an opportunity to promote and market their technologies. We received follow-up feedback that this contributed to the growth of those companies, helping them commercialize and spread their carbon reduction technologies more widely. So, we feel we're making a significant contribution through this quantification of reduction effects. Take the carbon emissions calculator for exhibition venues I mentioned earlier. Citizens didn't realize that reducing their morning hot shower by five minutes saves as much electricity as leaving a fluorescent light on for 12 hours.

By presenting this data numerically, we show them: if carbon emissions are that high, they should reduce their hot shower time. Similarly, leaving one electric rice cooker on consumes the same amount of electricity and produces the same carbon emissions as having five TVs running. By comparing it with these numbers, people realized they should change their habits—instead of leaving the rice cooker on constantly, they should only turn it on when cooking rice. Through these quantitative figures, we saw many examples of users adopting and improving low-carbon practices in their daily lives.

It seems there were many positive outcomes. Finally, what advice would you give to students or young people interested in working in carbon management and climate fields? Or what study directions would you recommend?

First, maintaining a strong interest is crucial. Next, the most important thing is that carbon neutrality is such a hot topic these days that greenwashing is prevalent. So, just like we talk about digital literacy, environmental data literacy is essential. Just because something is labeled as eco-friendly doesn't automatically make it good. 

When you dig deeper, you find many aren't actually beneficial. That's why we need more awareness about greenwashing issues, a willingness to investigate, to look at the data, and critically assess whether something is truly environmentally beneficial. This kind of skepticism and interest in our daily lives is necessary.