Calculating your organisation’s carbon footprint: how to get started
Oh Yes! Net Zero members across the region are taking simple yet important steps every day to cut their carbon footprint – from switching to more energy-efficient lighting, to reducing travel and cutting non-recyclable waste. But unless you’ve calculated your organisation’s carbon emissions, how can you know what impact these changes are having?
While any action you take to reduce your environmental impact will make a positive difference to our region and the planet, the first step in a plan that will get you to Net Zero is to understand your current carbon footprint.
If you haven’t yet measured your emissions, here are tips from Oh Yes! Net Zero founding members on how to get started.
1. Get to grips with the language
The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol sets the rules for calculating your carbon emissions, splitting them into three categories:
Scope 1 emissions are those caused directly by processes or activities in your organisation, for example through non-electric vehicles you own and run, fuels burnt in your boilers on-site or refrigerant gases leaked from air conditioning. Scope 1 also covers emissions from industrial processes, such as the carbon dioxide created in the manufacturing of cement.
Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions resulting from the energy – like electricity, steam, heat or cooling – that is generated off-site and which your organisation purchases and consumes.
Scope 3 emissions are all other indirect emissions resulting from your value chain, for example, those that result from you buying, using and disposing of products from your suppliers.
Although Scope 3 emissions are largely out of your control, for many organisations they represent the largest proportion of your emissions, as Diana Taylor, managing director of Oh Yes! Net Zero founding member Future Humber, explains:
“Measuring our carbon emissions was far easier than I thought it would be,” she said.
“I guess it wasn’t a surprise that 98 per cent of them were Scope 3. But what the measurement also told me was that 80 per cent of the Scope 3 emissions come from 20 per cent of our suppliers, so it immediately starts to carve the challenge up. I can focus on that group and start to have conversations with them about how we can work together to reduce the CO2 emitted in their services for all of our benefit.”
2. Gather the information you need
To comply with the GHG Protocol you must measure Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. Scope 3 is optional.
Doing this can be straightforward – but first you’ll need to gather 12 months’ worth of information about the electricity and fuel you’ve used in your organisation: For example:
· electricity in kilowatt hours (kWh)
· natural gas in kWh or cubic metres
· liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in litres
· petrol or diesel in litres
· refrigerant top-ups in kilograms
3. Crunch the numbers with a carbon calculator
Once you have the information you need to hand, there are free carbon calculators you can use to find out how many metric tonnes of carbon emissions your organisation was responsible for during the year in question.
Aura Innovation Centre, another Oh Yes! Net Zero founding member, has a helpful ‘Journey to Net Zero’ roadmap on its website that signposts small and medium-sized businesses to the free calculator provided by climate consultancy the Carbon Trust.
A series of other useful tools are also available online to support businesses wanting to start out on their journey to Net Zero. SME Climate Hub produces a personalised dashboard with a detailed breakdown of your current emissions. NatWest’s Carbon Planner is also a very useful tool which enables you to build an action plan and offers suggestions of how to make the biggest dint in CO2 emissions.
Aura director Louise Smith said: “As well as providing a benchmark to track progress against, measuring your carbon footprint can be a very motivating activity because it helps organisations identify priorities for further action.
“The jargon around Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions may make it seem a daunting task but the process of calculating your emissions can be very straightforward – and vital if you’re serious about sustainability.”
Oh Yes! Net Zero Carbon Clinics are helping businesses of all sizes to kickstart their Net Zero journey, by working alongside an experienced organisation in their supply chain.
Find out more about Carbon Clinics here.