A Small Gas with a Massive Impact
As part of Windfall Bio’s commitment to transparent reporting about the impact of our operations, an inaugural 2024 GHG Inventory has been completed in line with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP). We measured emissions across Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3. In alignment with GHGP, we are reporting our inventory per GWP-100. However, given methane’s outsized impact on global warming in the first 20-years, we will begin reporting both GWP-100 and GWP-20 inventories for the 2025 reporting year.
As is typical for most companies, Windfall Bio’s Scope 1 (3% of total emissions) and Scope 2 (5% of total emissions) were a relatively small portion of the overall GHG inventory. A significant portion of these categories are driven by purchased natural gas, purchased non-biogenic methane for Windfall Bio’s lab purposes, and purchased electricity. Windfall Bio’s offices are located in Northern California where the grid energy intensity is among the lowest in U.S. Scope 3 (92% of total emissions), indirect emissions along the value chain, represent the bulk of the GHG inventory.
Scope 1
Scope 1 emissions include natural gas usage for building heating as well as methane utilized across Windfall Bio’s lab and bioreactor operations. For 2024, Windfall Bio estimated the amount of non-biogenic methane purchased and utilized in the lab based on spend with Windfall Bio’s industrial gas vendor. For 2024, building management reported no refrigerant leaks or recharges. The conversion of biogenic methane in our bioreactor operations is considered carbon negative. In future years, as we scale bioreactor operations, the conversion of biogenic methane emissions within Windfall Bio’s operations will significantly contribute to achieving zero or even carbon-negative Scope 1 emissions.
Scope 2
Windfall Bio’s Scope 2 emissions from purchased electricity are driven by building cooling and lab equipment, including refrigerators and fermentation equipment. To date, we have not purchased market-based mechanisms, such as renewable energy certificates, to reduce Scope 2 emissions.
Scope 3
Scope 3 (92% of total emissions), indirect emissions along the value chain, represent the bulk of the GHG inventory. These emissions were driven mainly by R&D suppliers and operations. The largest Scope 3 category was Category 1, Purchased Goods and Services (87% of Scope 3 emissions) followed by Category 7, Employee Commuting (10% of Scope 3 emissions), Category 6, Business Travel (2% of Scope 3 emissions) and Category 2, Capital Goods (1% of Scope 3 emissions).
Category 1 was tied to investments in bioreactor and other lab equipment. Future expenses related to the building of bioreactor equipment may shift to Category 2, Capital Goods as our accounting categorization evolves. Category 7, Employee Commuting, reflects a largely in-person workforce that must commute 5 days per week. Category 6 Business Travel, a traditional hotspot, was relatively low as our current business model does not require extensive employee travel.
In future reporting years, Category 11, Use of Sold Products, will include methane (biogenic or otherwise) that would have been released into the atmosphere but is captured and converted to biomass by customers using Windfall
Bio's mems. By destroying biogenic methane, our customers can achieve carbon negativity through the use of our mems, in turn helping to reducing Windfall Bio’s own Scope 3 emissions. Category 11 category will also
include the use of any fertilizer sold by Windfall Bio.
Windfall Bio Key Metrics Dashboard
As a growing company, we anticipate absolute emissions may continue to increase in the years ahead, largely driven by increases in headcount and continued R&D and pilot operations.
We will track progress in reducing emissions intensity through the following KPIs:
* For 2024, methane converted in Windfall Bio’s lab was estimated based on the average number and size of methane tanks purchased from our industrial gas supplier, with purchase records missing for the first half of the year prior to implementation of a lab inventory management system. For 2025, methane converted in the lab will be calculated based on volume of methane purchased from our industrial gas supplier, tracked in our lab inventory management system.
** Represents total methane converted across all of Windfall Bio’s 2024 operations, including R&D lab and pilot bioreactors.
*** Represents total biomass produced across contract manufacturing partners. Total biomass produced in Windfall Bio labs will be tracked and included in future reporting years.
As we continue to scale and build out Windfall Bio’s data collection processes and controls, we anticipate tracking additional emission-related KPIs, including:
- Total fertilizer produced across Windfall Bio bioreactors
- Corporate emissions/fertilizer produced across Windfall Bio bioreactors
Life Cycle Assessment
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In 2024, Windfall Bio completed a third-party Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) with EcoEngineers to assess the carbon footprint of methane-produced fertilizer, confirming that — when produced using biogenic methane — it achieves a net carbon-negative footprint of -28 kg CO₂e/kg fertilizer (GWP100) or –99 kg CO₂e/kg fertilizer (GWP20). These emissions are an order of magnitude lower than emissions associated with the production of blood-meal, the benchmark scenario, of 1.2 kg CO₂e/kg fertilizer.
The LCA analyzed the ‘cradle-to-grave' process, from production of Windfall Bio’s Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI)-listed OptiMem seed culture to on-farm production of biomass-fertilizer using biogenic methane from manure. We will continue to update the LCA as engineering processes and designs continue to evolve.
Based on this LCA, the potential GHG impact of the biomass Windfall produced in 2024, if produced utilizing biogenic methane as a feedstock, was -6.3 MT CO₂e (GWP-100) and -29 MT CO₂e (GWP-20).