What Data is Required to Calculate a Company’s Carbon Footprint?
Are you tearing your hair out when it comes to working out which data you need in order to calculate your company’s carbon footprint? Or perhaps you know what data you need, but can’t seem to be able to lay your hands on it?
Don’t stress, you are most definitely not alone. Embarking on a data-gathering mission of this nature for the first time can be daunting, frustrating and time consuming but we promise it will be worth the effort. It will also be A LOT easier the second time around.
To achieve tangible, long-lasting carbon reduction, data is king. Having good quality, primary data allows you to identify genuine and cost effective emission reductions strategies that fit in with your other business objectives too.
“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.”
What is Primary data?
Primary data is information that relates specifically to your company. It comes in various forms such as kilowatt hours, kilograms of waste, number of meals, litres of fuel, kilometres travelled etc. Primary data is not based on industry averages or estimates and is not a spend-based approach either since these don’t provide the insight required for a successful decarbonisation strategy.
To calculate your company’s carbon footprint, we typically ask for data related to your:
electricity, gas and water consumption
website - hosting and number of visitors
employees - how many and their home-working patterns
business travel - mode of transport and distance travelled
waste - how much is sent to landfill / recycled
company events - where they are held and what was included (meals / activities)
company vehicles - either litres of fuel purchased or mileage
and the list goes on (think postage, merchandise, brochures, suppliers)
Where can I find this information?
Every company logs information differently. Worst case scenario, you do the rounds of your organisation and suppliers to collect this data from the relevant departments.
The first time you do this will be the hardest BUT you will learn a lot and start to put systems in place for collecting this information in the future without the added time drain.
A good Carbon Consultancy partner (like, ahem… ecollective) will help you collect the information. We provide you with an initial checklist, a series of ready-to-populate spreadsheets and some additional questionnaires to gather data from your suppliers too.
Good data results in better next steps
The best way to explain this is with an example. Let’s assume your company makes sandwiches. If you have no data on the fillings, we can only really suggest emission reduction strategies you may already be aware of (you know - less food waste, more vegetables instead of beef, etc.)
However, the more we know about what you sell, the smarter the reduction strategies we can identify, from suggesting lower carbon but delicious alternatives, to how you store and source your ingredients etc.
Another way data can help is by focusing your efforts on areas where reduction will make a REAL difference. A great example can be found in the events industry. It’s too easy to focus a disproportionate amount of time and energy on reducing the impact of things that are very visible to visitors such as lanyards, flyers and small items of merchandise when actually, these things typically represent less than 1% of an event’s footprint.
Data shows that delegate / customer travel to an event makes up a huge percentage of its carbon footprint. Knowing this means the events company can take action, perhaps by holding the event closer to public transport hubs, or by educating visitors of the low carbon transport options available and the importance of using them.
How much detail do I need to provide?
This is one of our most frequently asked questions, but most people actually know the answer already. The more detail you are able to gather, the clearer the opportunities for reducing your carbon footprint will become.
Let’s take the example of employee commuting. The first example is best in class (gold), the second (silver) is less detailed but still useful and the third (bronze) is less useful but still valid.
Gold-rated data
In this example each employee is listed individually with their mode of transport, the number of journeys they make and their journey distance.
Silver-rated data
Employees are grouped based on the mode of transport they take to work and the distance they travel. This could work well for SMEs that have more employees.
Bronze-rated data
In this case we ask you to estimate the most common mode of transport and the average distance travelled to work. This gives us an idea of your company’s commuting emissions but doesn’t provide much insight.
In every company, there is a sweet spot between the time involved in getting hold of the data and the benefit of doing so. If it will cost you hours of your life (and your sanity) to obtain that gold-rated data, then go for the next level down. This will still allow you to get the desired outcome: a handle on your company’s emissions and an actionable strategy for reducing them.
Strive for data improvement
Your first carbon footprinting exercise is the ideal opportunity to put systems in place to make your life easier for your year 2 carbon audit. We strongly advocate doing at the time because you’ll know where the data gaps are and where systems could be improved to get the information you need.
Be demanding with your suppliers too. At the end of the day, all businesses need to go on a decarbonisation journey. You might be surprised how much progress you can prompt by asking those niggly questions to get a clearer picture each year.
Pick our brains
We’re self-confessed data geeks with experience across a variety of sectors. If you want to chat about the ins and outs of the data you need to calculate your organisation’s carbon footprint then either book a free 30 minute call or drop us an email.
