Climate change brings significant risks to businesses and economies. We all know that the first step to minimize our own impact is to measure our emissions but many are not sure of how. Carbon emissions can be measured by calculating your carbon footprint, which is the total output of greenhouse gas emissions caused by your organisation.
The World Resource Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development collaborated to create the Greenhouse Gas protocol. The GHG protocol established the Corporate Standard in 2001, (later revised in 2004) which set the guidelines and standards for businesses and organisations to report greenhouse gases. This later was adopted by the International Standards and Operations (ISO) for all businesses to follow.
There are three agreed ‘scopes’ for considering and measuring carbon emissions::
Scope 1
Direct GHG emissions from fuel combustion, company vehicles and fugitive emissionsScope 2
Indirect GHG emissions from the consumption of purchased electricity, heat or steamScope 3
Other indirect GHG emissions such air travel, waste, contractor-owned vehicles and employee commutingThe first step for any carbon management programme is to understand the current carbon footprint (baseline measurement). This allows targets to be set and benefits quantified from more effectively managed emissions. With years of experience, we are experts in assessing energy management. By measuring your carbon footprint, you can identify practical ways to be more efficient and cut costs, increase awareness on your operational footprint and increase brand value by proudly promoting your environmental efforts to stakeholders. A data collection tool will be provided for you to easily collate the required information relating to the relevant emission sources of your organisation.
