Every facility completing the Higg Facility Environmental Module is asked whether it maintains an air emissions inventory. Answering yes is easy. Producing an inventory that survives verification is where most factories lose points.
What the inventory actually is
An air emission inventory is a documented list of every source at your facility that releases pollutants to air, together with the quantity released over a defined twelve-month period. It is not a test report. Test reports measure concentration at a point in time; the inventory estimates total annual mass.
Verifiers look for a single dataset that ties together source identification, activity data such as fuel consumption or run hours, an emission factor, and the resulting annual quantity in consistent units.
Sources you must include
Factories consistently under-report by counting only the boiler. A complete inventory covers combustion, process and fugitive sources.
The data verifiers ask for
Bring twelve consecutive months of records. Purchase invoices for fuel, meter readings for electricity and gas, logbooks for generator run hours, and refrigerant top-up records. Where a record is missing, document the estimation method rather than leaving a gap.
Emission factors must be referenced. Using a factor without stating its source is the single most common reason an inventory is downgraded during verification.
Four mistakes that cost points
These issues appear in verification after verification.
Building one that lasts
Treat the inventory as a live workbook owned by your EHS team, not a consultant deliverable filed after verification. Update it monthly as invoices arrive, and the annual submission becomes a review rather than a scramble.