What is a carbon footprint?
A carbon footprint is a measure of how much something impacts upon the climate crisis. It measures the total amount of greenhouse gases produced directly or indirectly by an organisation, service or a product and is usually expressed in equivalent tonnes of carbon dioxide (tCO2e). When we talk about carbon emissions we usually mean all the greenhouse gases which trap heat within the Earth’s atmosphere leading to global warming and climate change.
What is carbon accounting?
Carbon accounting is the process of establishing a carbon footprint (otherwise known as creating a Greenhouse Gas Inventory) – usually by converting consumption, activity or spend data into greenhouse gas emissions using appropriate conversion factors.
How we can help
Whilst it might be obvious that burning fuel or using electricity is going to contribute to your climate impact, it is not always easy to know what you should or shouldn’t be including as part of your carbon footprint – or how to go about turning the kWhs on your electricity bill into tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
At Groundwork our team follows best practice and industry guidelines, such as the UK Government Environmental Reporting Guidelines (including Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting guidance) and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Methodology, to ensure you are reporting accurately, transparently and appropriately on your climate impacts, so that you can be confident you have verified reporting for your stakeholders, suppliers and customers.
Our team will work with you to understand and quantify your emissions and produce an annual carbon footprint or greenhouse gas inventory by:
- Identifying your key emissions (across Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3)
- Supporting you to collect the necessary information
- Calculating your carbon footprint (Greenhouse Gas Inventory)
- Communicating our findings so that you can share these with your stakeholders (as required).
