What is carbon accounting?
Carbon accounting is the name commonly given to the process of assessing an organisation’s impact on climate change by calculating its emissions of carbon-based greenhouse gases (GHGs). This often means some digging around in your purchasing records and a bit of number crunching, but it doesn’t have to be a hard task.
We work in an office, so we don’t make carbon emissions, do we?
I’m sorry to say that yes, you do. Everyone has a carbon footprint. This can be generated from everything such as the electricity used to power your office, to the fuel you put in your fleet cars, to the energy used to produce your copy paper, and the list goes on (see the scopes below). Nearly everything generates emissions. The good news is that these can sometimes be avoided or reduced, and they can always be mitigated. The first step is to be aware of them.
Scopes
The carbon emissions generated by a business are often separated into 3 scopes.
Scope 1: Direct emissions that come from sources owned or controlled by the company. This includes driving a petrol vehicle, powering a diesel generator or operating a fuel-powered forklift.
Scope 2: Indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity.
Scope 3: Indirect emissions that are a result of your operations, generated by the goods and services in your supply chain. Examples include business flights, third party delivery services, cloud hosting services or employee commuting.
Isn’t carbon accounting really complicated?
It can be. Global standards like the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064 mean that there is now a widely recognised framework and knowing what details you need is getting easier. However, if you don’t have the time or resources to figure it all out, we can help!
Tandem Energy is a Climate Active carbon neutral organisation which means that we’ve been through it all before ourselves. Our CEO, Rachel, is a Climate Active Registered Consultant so she certainly knows what it’s all about.
Are you planning on certification?
If you want to get a Climate Active certification, or join one of the internationally recognised sustainability certifications such as B Corp, you will need to do some form of carbon reporting. Most certification options require you to calculate your baseline before you start your annual reporting. As the old saying goes: “you can’t improve what you don’t measure”, which isn’t technically true. You can always improve, but without a baseline you won’t know how well you’re doing.
If you want to make changes to the way you do business, either to reduce emissions, or just to save money, it makes sense to keep records so that you can analyse how effective your changes are. It also gives you an idea of what other similar businesses to yours are doing and can open the possibility to build networks and work collaboratively.
It’s just good business
We’re seeing a global shift towards a low carbon economy, driven by legislation as well as consumer, business, and investor preferences. Besides helping you apply for certification, its future proofing your business because, even if you aren’t required to report your carbon emissions right now, there’s a good chance that you will have to in the future. Transparency is always a good thing (unless you have something to hide).
Mandatory climate reporting is starting in Australia. Small businesses are not legislated to report at this stage but if you are in the supply chain of a larger organisation you may be required to report to them so that they can do their reporting. If you can’t provide the data they require, they may remove you from the supply chain altogether. Doesn’t it make sense to get your ducks in a row and practice good data hygiene?
Click here to talk to Rachel about carbon accounting or certification.
