Calculating your CO2 footprint

Concepts introduced in this video: defining an organizational boundary, defining an operational boundary, defining Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, defining Scope 3 categories.

Recommended next steps

1. Define your organizational boundary using an organizational chart.
2. Map your organization's processes and identify direct and indirect emissions. Categorize them into scope 1, 2, and 3.
3. Review the fifteen Scope 3 categories of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and assess which of these categories are relevant to your organization.

Tips

• Document your scope and boundaries in an accounting manual to ensure consistent reporting.
• If your organization is part of a group, ensure corporate alignment and agree on the consolidation approach.
• Utilize the guidelines available on our climate hub, including the Greenhouse Gas Protocol – Corporate Standard.

Concepts introduced in this video: collecting activity data and emission factors, supplier-specific data vs. industry averages.

Recommended next steps

1. Collect activity data by engaging your relevant colleagues – think of colleagues from Finance and Procurement.
2. Collect supplier-specific emission factors from your electricity supplier.
3. Collect (generic) emission factors from public databases, such as DEFRA (UK), Base Carbone (FR) or  CO2emissiefactoren.nl (NL).

Tips

• Ensure you document your sources of emission factors and keep your emission factors up-to-date every year, as they are subject to change.
• Pay close attention to the units of measurement (1 MWh = 1000 kWh; 1 CO2e = 1000 kg CO2e, etc.).
• Before calculating, first watch our instructional video on calculating emissions (step 4) and consider using the tools available on this Climate Hub.

Concepts introduced in this video: the use of primary vs. secondary data, databases for Scope 3 emission factors.

Recommended next steps

1. Use the GHG Protocol Scope 3 guidance and evaluate the fifteen Scope 3 categories based on a spend analysis.
2. Collect activity data and (secondary) emission factors for all relevant Scope 3 emission categories.
3. Identify the highest priority suppliers based on a spend analysis.
4. Engage the highest priority suppliers, who together represent at least 67% of your total volume, and ask them for (primary) emission data.

Tips

• Involve colleagues from Procurement, Finance, and/or Business Control for the spend analysis and collecting activity data.
• Emission factors for retail producers are available, among others, via the following links:
  • CO2 emission factors (Netherlands)
  • RIVM (Netherlands)
  • Climatiq (Germany)
  • Base Carbone (France)
  • Big climate database (Denmark)
  • CarbonCloud (International)
  • Ecoinvent (International)

See also co2emissiefactoren.nl for a list of additional third-party databases.

Concepts introduced in this video: supplier-specific method, hybrid method, average-based method, spend-based method, calculation tools for Scope 1-2 and Scope 3.

Recommended next steps

1. Calculate your Scope 1-2 footprint using the supplier-specific method. Consider using existing Excel formats or creating your own.
2. Calculate the Scope 3 footprint using the supplier-specific, average, or hybrid calculation method, depending on your experience and access to data.
3. Consult our Documents section for available Excel formats.

Tips

• Ensure an audit trail and save data sources for external verification of your footprint.
• When annually updating your footprint, don't forget to also update the emission factors (especially electricity, which is subject to annual changes).
• Always pay attention to the correct use of units of measurement (grams, kilograms, tons, etc.).
• See here for a useful calculation tool to map your scope 1-2-3 CO2 emissions from our partner ERM.

Concepts introduced in this video: long-list for emission reductions, reduction roadmap, internal CO2 price.

Recommended next steps

1. Create a long-list of potential reduction measures.
2. Enrich the long-list with management information, such as costs and effects. Consider using our reduction template, found in the Documents section.
3. Rank and prioritize reduction measures. Develop a business case if necessary.
4. Involve management and use the reduction roadmap to facilitate decision-making.

Tips

• When evaluating reduction measures, consider desired or undesired side effects.
• In your reduction roadmap, do not postpone complex measures to the distant future. Especially if additional knowledge or experience is needed, start today, for example by conducting market research or a pilot project.
• Do you want external help with calculating your emissions and/or developing a reduction roadmap? Check out our services on Sustainability for an overview of specialized parties who can help with this.

Concepts introduced in this video: spend-based analysis.

Recommended next steps

1. Identify the suppliers you want to engage based on a spend-based analysis and create subgroups of suppliers.
2. Proactively communicate your plans and ambitions with your suppliers, for example, through personal conversations, a letter, or a webinar.
3. Start onboarding the highest priority suppliers and facilitate data exchange.

Tips

• Facilitate knowledge development within the supply chain by referring to e-learning materials such as this climate hub or the SME Climate Hub.
• To accelerate greenhouse gas reduction, you can facilitate the sharing of best practices among similar suppliers.
• To increase engagement, consider including climate KPIs in your standard documents and processes, for example, in a supplier code of conduct, procurement requirements, or annual supplier assessment checklists.
• See the SBTi supplier engagement guide on developing and achieving Scope 3 supplier engagement targets.