Why Measure your Carbon Footprint?

The acceptance, that organisations need to plan for a Net Zero emissions future, is well established.  The ability to measure your carbon footprint, is an essential part of that planning process.  We all need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, and you can’t manage what you don’t measure.  It is an ongoing process and your carbon footprint will need to be measured on a regular basis.  Accuracy and reliability over a period of years are crucial.  Keeping track of the conversion factors used to calculate carbon emissions, which change annually, is essential.

What is a Carbon Footprint?

Just in case you are not sure what “carbon footprint” means, it is “the amount of carbon dioxide equivalent released into the atmosphere resulting from the activities of a particular individual, organisation, community or country”.  It includes not only carbon dioxide (CO₂), but includes, methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O), hence the term carbon dioxide equivalent or CO₂e.   For some organisations, it can include the so-called Kyoto protocol gasses.  These are mainly used in refrigeration and air conditioning.  The vast majority are very much more harmful to the environment than carbon dioxide.  Sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆), is used as an electrical insulator and arc suppressant. It is 22,800 times more potent than carbon dioxide and is estimated to stay in the atmosphere for between 800–3,200 years.

For most organisations, the carbon footprint will include what are termed Scope 1 (gas, owned or controlled transport, fugitive emissions and process emissions) and Scope 2 emissions (mainly electricity).  For some, Scope 3 emissions will be important, particularly if business travel is a major part of their operations.  All these need to be considered when you measure your carbon footprint.

GHGi Analytics

This is where GHGi Analytics comes in.  It is our cloud-based data collection, analysis & reporting software service, for energy use and GHG emissions.  It is aligned with the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and fully meets the requirements of ESOS and SECR (The UK’s Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting) legislation.  Not only does it measure your carbon footprint; it takes the pain out of keeping your Net Zero strategy on track.  Science Based Targets are becoming an important part of reaching Net Zero.  If you decide to use them, GHGi Analytics can help you with this.