What is Carbon Accounting?

In summary, carbon accounting is the measurement of a company’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions - that is, the greenhouse gases that are emitted by the company from its activities and operations. To calculate your carbon emissions, you would be following a standard called the GHG Protocol, Sumday makes it easy for you to calculate emissions in line with that standard in an audit ready way, so your stakeholders can relay on the numbers.

Carbon Accounting for the first time?

No worries, you’ll be performing a ‘baseline emissions assessment’. This involves identifying and quantifying all of the sources of emissions within your operation, including direct emissions from activities like burning fossil fuels (driving a car), as well as indirect emissions associated with the consumption of electricity, freight of materials, or from the purchase of goods and services. This will give you a starting point, and from here you can track your emission reduction progress. Your stakeholders will be thrilled to see you’ve made a start and are ready to track progress on the journey to net zero.

It feels like I need a lot of data that I don’t have?

It can feel overwhelming but the main thing is making a start with what you do have, using averages and assumptions for what you don’t, documenting those things so you are transparent about them and consistent with it. You can then improve the quality of your carbon accounting as you go. This is the same process for the largest companies in the world who have a regulatory obligation, down to the smallest companies in their supply chain. Book a kick off for support with this.

How do you make a start?

We make it easy for you to start.

You can complete your baseline in Sumday, we’re here to help you every step of the way.

Perhaps you’ve already started with your scope 1 and 2 emissions, you can use Sumday to complete your scope 3 emissions as well.

Tips 💡

✅ Set up a kick off meeting to understand how we can help you get started

✅ If you don’t have the time to complete this kind of work, consider inviting your existing accountant in, we can help them get your baseline sorted

✅ Check out what data you need and where to find it as you step through the questions in the requests section, or go to the GHG Accounting section

✅ Use the Carbon Accounting tools in Sumday to complete your assessment and confidently share your progress with customers, financiers and other stakeholders