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1. Which emissions should be included in a company's Carbon Assessment?
This question can be broken down into two parts:
a) Greenhouse gases accounted for
b) The scope of activities accounted for
The first part is very simple: 6 greenhouse gases are taken into account (CO2, N2O, CH4, SF6, HFCs, and PFCs). These gases are converted into CO2 equivalent in order to have a universal unit of measurement (just as one would consolidate dollars into euros).
The scope of activities accounted for is much more controversial!
A Carbon Assessment® accounts for all direct or indirect emissions related to a company's activity, which "specialists" categorize into 3 scopes :
- Scope 1 - Direct energy emissions: Own consumption of fuels, gas, refrigerant fluid, etc.)
- Scope 2 - Indirect energy emissions : Own electricity consumption. This emission is indirect because it is the production of electricity that generated greenhouse gas emissions, not its consumption.
- Scope 3: Other emissions related to services or products sold, stemming particularly from suppliers (emissions related to the manufacturing and transport of purchased products) and customers (emissions related to the use and end-of-life of sold products).
For most companies, 70-90% of emissions come from Scope 3. Hence the importance of distinguishing a "true" Carbon Footprint® that includes Scope 3 from a simple GHG (Greenhouse Gas) Assessment that only includes Scopes 1 and 2.
2. What scope is required by the various national and international organizations?
To date, in France, only the GHG assessment (without Scope 3) is mandatory for companies with more than 500 employees but legislation is evolving. The Citizens' Climate Convention thus proposes several measures to enhance the usefulness of the Carbon Footprint Assessment:
a) Annual obligation (vs. every 4 years today)
b) Extension to Scope 3 (thus making a Carbon Footprint Assessment® mandatory vs. a GHG Assessment)
c) Conditioning public aid on the positive evolution of the carbon footprint
d) Extension to all companies with more than 50 employees (with accompanying measures)
Internationally, the complete Carbon Footprint Assessment® defined by France (through the ABC methodology) is more comprehensive than international reference methodologies.
A company that has completed a Bilan Carbone® should therefore be able to extract its carbon reports in all formats: GHG Protocol, CDP, ISO 14069. Traace offers this extraction directly within the tool, without requiring new data collection.
3. How are greenhouse gas emissions calculated?
For each emission category, the CO2 equivalent (the official unit of measurement) is calculated by multiplying a raw operational data by an emission factor directly associated with it.
For example, to calculate emissions related to in-house electricity consumption, one can multiply the raw data "number of kWh of electricity consumed" by an emission factor "CO2 emitted per 1 kWh of electricity".
However, it is important tomatch the granularity of the raw data and the emission factor to the significance of the emission category. In our example, it would be more beneficial to multiply the "number of kWh per electricity source" by the emission factor associated with each of these electricity sources (nuclear, gas, coal, photovoltaic, etc.).
This granularity is essential for identifying actionable levers that will be reflected in the company's future carbon footprint (e.g., increasing the share of electricity from low-emission sources) and pragmatically define the data to be collected.
With multiple methods available today, there is an urgent need to impose on carbon accounting requirements comparable to financial accounting. Traace anticipates and applies the key principles of reliable and transparent carbon accounting to its carbon assessments: comprehensiveness of scope (no half-measures), continuity of methods (changes only to improve accuracy), non-compensation (induced, avoided, and financed emissions clearly identified).
4. Is a Carbon Footprint simply a measurement exercise?
A Carbon Footprint® must produce at least 2 deliverables:
Measuring the company's carbon footprint
This involves accounting for emissions, divided into significant categories. Most often, these figures are accompanied by ratios adapted to the company's activity and size – essential for decoupling the evolution of the carbon footprint from the company's growth.
The plan for reducing emissions induced by the company's activity
Hence the importance of having sufficiently precise information on the key areas to define actionable levers whose results can be measured. These levers must then be managed by responsible parties to ensure their implementation.
Tennaxia provides "experts on demand" to find new levers for reducing induced emissions in each exercise to achieve the objectives set by the company. More information on this topic can be found in our dedicated article.