AGL Sustainability Report 2007

Glossary

Greenhouse definitions
CO₂e	Carbon dioxide equivalent is the standard measure used to compare the greenhouse effect of emissions from various greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide.
CH4	Methane is the predominant greenhouse gas that occurs in natural gas. Methane has a global warming potential 21 times that of carbon dioxide.
CO₂	Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that is produced, amongst other things, by the combustion of fossil fuels as coal.
SF6	Sulphur hexafluoride is a greenhouse gas used in the electricity industry as an insulator.
GHG	Greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perflourocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride.
Intensity	Greenhouse gas intensity of energy refers to the amount of greenhouse gas released per unit of energy produced. For example, electricity produced by combustion of brown coal has a higher greenhouse gas intensity than electricity produced by the combustion of black coal. Electricity produced by wind generation has a greenhouse gas intensity of zero.

Greenhouse Emissions Factors
Scope 1	Direct greenhouse gas emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the company. For AGL, scope 1 emissions comprise emissions from gas fired power stations, direct emissions from natural gas combustion at other facilities, direct emissions from vehicle / plant fuel use, fugitive emissions from our gas networks, and fugitive SF6 emissions from our electricity networks. Scope 1 emissions are also known as ‘direct’ or ‘point source’ emissions.
Scope 2	Indirect emissions associated with the generation of purchased electricity. For AGL, this includes electricity imported for use at our power generation facilities, electricity used at our Hydrocarbon Extractions facility, electricity used in our offices and other facilities, and electricity losses from our electricity network.
Scope 3	Indirect emissions that arise as a consequence of the activities of the company but occur from sources not owned for controlled by the company. AGL currently accounts for the following scope 3 emissions: emissions arising from the disposal of waste generated at our offices and facilities, and emissions associated with the extraction and transportation of fuel that we use.
Full-fuel cycle	Emissions from the entire fuel production and consumption chain. For fuel consumption, this equates to Scope 1 emissions plus Scope 3 emissions associated with the extraction, production and transport of the fuel. For purchased electricity, this equates to Scope 2 emissions plus Scope 3 emissions associated with the extraction, production and transport of the fuel used to generated the electricity, as well as electricity transmission and distribution losses.

Gas energy units
The basic unit of energy used in the gas industry is a joule.
1 megajoule (MJ)	1 million joules
1 gigajoule (GJ)	1 thousand megajoules
1 terajoule (TJ)	1 million megajoules
1 petajoule (PJ)	1 thousand million megajoules
It takes approximately 1 megajoule to boil enough water for 14 cups of tea.

Electricity energy units
The basic unit of energy used in the electricity industry is a watt hour.
1 kilowatt hour (KWh)	1 thousand watt hours
1 megawatt hour (MWh)	1 thousand kilowatt hours
1 gigawatt hour (GWh)	1 thousand megawatt hours
1 terawatt hour (TWh)	1 million megawatt hours
1 kilotonne (kt)	1,000 tonnes
1 megatonne (Mt)	1 million tonnes

Air emission definitions
Nitrogen Oxides (NO_x)	Nitrogen oxides result from the conversion of nitrogen in the air used to burn a fuel. The nitrogen is oxidised to form nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and nitrous oxide (NO₂). Nitrogen oxides also come from nitrogen compounds in the fuel itself when it is burned. The mix of oxides is generally represented as nitrogen dioxide.
Sulphur Dioxide (SO₂)	Sulphur containing compounds in a fuel are converted to various oxides of sulphur (sulphur dioxide SO₂, sulphur trioxide SO₃) when the fuel is burned. The mix of oxides is generally represented as sulphur dioxide.
Volatile organic compounds (VOC)	Organic compounds are those that contain carbon (petrol, diesel, alcohol, nail varnish remover etc). Volatile organic compounds in a fuel are usually of interest because they are volatile and evaporate into the atmosphere. In the presence of nitrogen oxides and sunlight they form photochemical smog, which is a mix of irritating chemicals including ozone and fine particles.
Particulates	When a fuel is burned, small solid particles from partially burned fuel or from non-combustible material in the fuel are released. These particles can be very small at 0.1 nanometres (approximately the wavelength of visible light) to very large (for a particle) as 10 nanometres (nm).

Health and safety definitions
LTIFR	Lost time injury frequency rate is calculated based on the number of lost time injuries per million hours worked.
MTIFR	Medical treatment injury frequency rate is calculated based on the number of medical treatment injuries per million hours worked.
Duration Rate	Average number of days lost per injury.

Other
REC	Renewable Energy Certificate. Each certificate is created from the generation of one megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity from a renewable and ecologically sustainable source as defined in the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000. Sources include hydro, wind, solar, bagasseenergy crops landfill gas, municipal solid waste combustion, biogas, geothermal-aquifer, tidal, photovoltaic, solar hot water, co-firing, wave ocean, fuel cells and hot dry rocks. One certificate is required to be surrendered by an electricity retailer to the Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator according to the amount of electricity sold by that retailer.
Environmental Incident	An environmental incident has occurred when material has been spilled or released to the environment (land, air, water, people affected), causing harm or having the potential to cause harm. Its consequence / impact would be measured as minor or important per our Risk Assessment Matrix.
Significant Environmental Incident	A significant environmental incident has occurred when material has been spilled or released to the environment where its consequence / impact is measured as serious as per our Risk Assessment Matrix. This level of incident cannot be easily managed and resolved by on-site personnel.
Employee Numbers	To ‘normalise’ environmental data (eg water use per person, paper use per person), the total number of employees is calculated as the sum of the full-time equivalents for payroll colleagues plus the sum of the Average Days Worked Ratio for non-payroll colleagues.
Full-Time Equivalents	This is the average number of effective full-time equivalent employees, taken from our full-time, part-time and casual payroll colleagues over the reporting period based on a standard number of work hours per full-time employee. This does not include employees on unpaid leave for one month or more.