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Five things your company needs to know about the NPI

1) Do I need to report my company’s emissions?

The NPI Guide provides the information you need to determine whether your company needs to report its emissions. It also helps you determine which substances you may need to report on.

Briefly, the NPI uses a series of thresholds to determine what substances need to be reported (see Table 2 in Appendix A of the NPI Guide):
  • if your company uses ten tonnes or more of a category 1 substance on the NPI reporting list in a year, then you need to report on emissions of that substance
  • if your company consumes 400 tonnes or more of fuel in a year, then you need to report on your emissions of category 2a combustion substances. These include: carbon monoxide, flouride compounds, hydrochloric acid, oxides of nitrogen, particulate matter less than 10 microns, polycyclic aromoatic hydrocarbons, sulphur dioxide and total volatile organic compounds. Larger energy users (2000 tonnes or more of fuel/year) need to report on category 2b emissions of combustion and heavy metal substances
  • if your company discharges 3 tonnes or more of total nitrogen or total phosphorus to water, you need to report these emissions.

Section two of the NPI Guide, together with examples one and two take you through these threshold tests in a step-by-step way.

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2) What resources are available to help me estimate my company's emissions?

Once you determine which substances you need to report, the next step is to estimate your annual emissions of each substance to air, land and water.

In many cases this should be a straight forward task, though some companies may need to take some effort to estimate these accurately. To assist with this task, a series of over 93 industry handbooks have been developed - one for each industry that will need to report to the NPI.

Each industry handbook consists of one or a number of Emission Estimation Technique (EET) Manuals that detail techniques you can use to estimate emissions.They were developed in consultation with industry. The NPI does not require industry to establish expensive monitoring systems. In most cases, a good knowledge of the operations of a facility is all that is needed to estimate emissions.

If you wish to use other, more accurate, techniques you may do so, with approval of the Department of Natural Resources, Environment and The Arts.

For more information on estimating emissions, see Section three of the NPI Guide. To obtain a copy of your industry's handbook, contact the Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts or click here.

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3) When do I need to report my company’s emissions?

The timetable for reporting are:

  • Reporting year matches the end of financial year, i.e. 1 July to 30 June. With prior approval from NRETA, some industries report on calendar year (1 January to 31 December)
  • By 30 September after the reporting year - Industry to provide emission data to the NRETA or by 31 March for calendar year reporters
  • By 30 November - the Department to provide NT emission data to Commonwealth
  • Early January - Commonwealth releases the emission data onto public database.

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4) What if my company does not trip NPI thresholds?

After working through the NPI Guide you may find that your company does not exceed any of the reporting thresholds. Or your company may exceed some thresholds but not others that relate to your industry. When your company exceeds a threshold, the next step is clear - each year you are required to estimate the relevant emissions and report to the Department of Natural Resources, Environment and The Arts. Where you do not exceed thresholds, annual reporting is not compulsory, though you may wish to consider the following options:

  • estimate these emissions and report them to the Department - voluntary reporting is a positive step to being a good corporate citizen; or
  • provide data to the Department to help us estimate your emissions and incorporate them into the NPI’s aggregated emission data. This data will help produce accurate estimations of your company’s contribution to total emissions.

Don’t forget your company’s NPI reporting requirements may change from year to year. Quantities and types of emissions may change due to production level changes, introduction of new processes or changes in your relevant Emission Estimation Technique Manual. It’s worth reviewing your company’s NPI requirements annually.

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5) How can I get further information?

You can find out more about the NPI by:

 

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