The calculation of a ‘Carbon Footprint’ can be challenging for organisations. The full Carbon Footprint of an organisation covers not just the direct emissions from burning fuels onsite, use of electricity and use of transport. It also requires calculation of the impact of an organisation indirectly through its supply chain, purchase of goods and services, the impact of waste it creates etc. Emissions of other greenhouse gases in addition to carbon dioxide must also be considered.
Methodologies are available for detailed corporate emissions reporting notably the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064. These methodologies deal with these complex issues and provide a good analytical framework for development of a full carbon footprint. This is an appropriate approach for organisations looking to make accurate calculations and/or seeking to disclosure their emissions publicly.
For smaller organisations, or organisations which are simply seeking to get an initial assessment of the emissions for which they are directly responsible a simpler and more pragmatic approach may be appropriate. It provides information for organisations that can be used as a stepping-stone towards quantification under the above standards.
The ‘basic’ carbon footprint uses a limited amount of information. The methodology acknowledges the importance of the GHG Protocol and takes much of its approach from these more detailed documents.
Boundary Conditions
A fundamental methodology consideration in producing a carbon footprint is to decide what the footprint should cover - i.e. which part(s) of a site, organisation or group of companies are to have their emissions quantified. This decision is commonly referred to as determining the organisational boundary.
For basic footprinting purposes not all these emissions are usually covered. In most cases the focus is on common emissions sources from Scope 1 and Scope 2 which can be readily and consistently quantified. Coverage of other emissions is optional and dependent on the scale and complexity of a given site or operation and customer data being available for analysis.
Where there is a strong causal link between an organisation’s activities and an emission source, strong preference is given to including it. This applies to water and waste disposal for most organisations. Consideration may also be given to including the direct emissions of third parties that an organisation has a strong influence upon, such as employee’s travel in their own private cars for company business. Employee commuting should also be considered, but would be a lower priority than business travel.