Calculate your Carbon Footprint
Summary:
You can only make informed decisions about where to target carbon reduction policies when you have a complete view of your organisation's emissions – in other words, "you can't manage what you don't measure".
First, it's worth exploring what exactly we mean by a 'carbon footprint': it's commonly understood to mean the total amount of direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions attributable to an activity (e.g. the operation of your business for a year). In most businesses carbon dioxide will be the main gas – however some industries have some significant emissions of other gases.
Plenty of business-friendly, free, advice is available on creating a simple corporate carbon footprint – highly recommended is Defra's GHG Reporting Guidelines. Defra's guidelines explain in clear terms how you go about creating a footprint – as well as how to report the result and set emissions targets. It also contains the industry standard database of 'emission factors' to use when calculating your footprint e.g. how many kg of emissions result from the consumption of 1 kWh of electricity. It is based on the well-established international standard: The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard.
Some of the key decisions you will have to make when undertaking a footprint is: what emissions sources will I include and from what parts of my business? The broader the footprint, the more valuable it will be – however the increased data and analysis demands will soak up more resource. One option is to start with the basics (electricity, fuel and vehicle fleet) then progress to other sources (business travel, commuting, procurement and waste).
Once you've calculated your footprint you might want to report it externally – see our environmental reporting page for more on this.
It's important to note that a carbon footprint will not effectively measure all environmental impacts – for example it is no good for adequately measuring the impacts of water consumption, some pollutants, human toxicity, wildlife disturbance or broader sustainability issues such as 'fair trade'. However it does capture a wide variety of resource use impacts (e.g. waste and energy) and addresses the number one environmental issue of the day – climate change.
Further Resources:
You can only make informed decisions about where to target carbon reduction policies when you have a complete view of your organisation's emissions – in other words, "you can't manage what you don't measure".
First, it's worth exploring what exactly we mean by a 'carbon footprint': it's commonly understood to mean the total amount of direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions attributable to an activity (e.g. the operation of your business for a year). In most businesses carbon dioxide will be the main gas – however some industries have some significant emissions of other gases.
Plenty of business-friendly, free, advice is available on creating a simple corporate carbon footprint – highly recommended is Defra's GHG Reporting Guidelines. Defra's guidelines explain in clear terms how you go about creating a footprint – as well as how to report the result and set emissions targets. It also contains the industry standard database of 'emission factors' to use when calculating your footprint e.g. how many kg of emissions result from the consumption of 1 kWh of electricity. It is based on the well-established international standard: The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard.
Some of the key decisions you will have to make when undertaking a footprint is: what emissions sources will I include and from what parts of my business? The broader the footprint, the more valuable it will be – however the increased data and analysis demands will soak up more resource. One option is to start with the basics (electricity, fuel and vehicle fleet) then progress to other sources (business travel, commuting, procurement and waste).
Once you've calculated your footprint you might want to report it externally – see our environmental reporting page for more on this.
It's important to note that a carbon footprint will not effectively measure all environmental impacts – for example it is no good for adequately measuring the impacts of water consumption, some pollutants, human toxicity, wildlife disturbance or broader sustainability issues such as 'fair trade'. However it does capture a wide variety of resource use impacts (e.g. waste and energy) and addresses the number one environmental issue of the day – climate change.
Further Resources:
- Footprinter – use this powerful, free tool provided by Surrey County Council to calculate your footprint to Defra standard
- Defra GHG reporting guidelines – reporting guidelines and data source for UK companies
- GHG Protocol – reporting standard used by thousands of companies
- Carbon Trust Standard – emissions reductions reporting standard for organisations