Produce an annual report on carbon emissions

Why?

Properly understanding your emissions and environmental impact is a first crucial step to reducing them. An audit is a review process of identifying the environmental impact of your organisational operations. The results will give you a benchmark to not only compare yourself with others but also help you identify those areas of your operations that are most carbon intensive. This information can then be used to draw up a decarbonisation plan. Numerical results of an audit can also be shared with stakeholders, staff or members and you can engage them more easily in the process of planning your next steps. A complete audit should not only include greenhouse gas emissions, but also other environmental impacts like pollution, waste or water.

How?

Getting your head around your organisation’s carbon emissions might be a challenge at first, but there are standard principles that you can follow. Smaller businesses and organisations that don’t want to pay for help with this, can follow the available guidance and use free online tools to calculate their carbon emissions themselves.

The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) identifies the following steps organisations should take to calculate their carbon footprint:

Identify which parts of your business you need to include
Identify which activities in your business release greenhouse gas emissions
Collect data
Convert the data
Identify ways to reduce your emissions
Continue to monitor your emissions
Report your emissions

An important part of working towards net zero and learning how to your carbon emissions is by understanding your scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and how you calculate each of them. Scope 1 and 2 relate directly to your own operations, however to reach net zero you also need to include emissions from your value chain – scope 3. Learn more about understanding your carbon emissions and reaching net zero as a business with Allia’s slides from their Social enterprises and the two dimensions of sustainability event with Anne Miller. Watch the full workshop below.