Carbon footprinting

Welcome to the Carbon Footprinting section. Here you will find instructional videos, recommendations and tips to calculate your footprint. These are in line with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and we recommend that you follow them to calculate your organization's greenhouse gas emissions.

To calculate greenhouse gas emissions, we recommend following four steps:

• Step 1 – Define the scope
• Step 2 – Collect data on your scope 1-2 emissions
• Step 3 – Collect data on your scope 3 emissions
• Step 4 - Calculate emissions

Step 1 – How to determine Scope & Boundary

Recommended next steps:

1. Define your organizational boundary using an organizational chart.
2. Map your company's processes and identify direct and indirect emissions, categorize them into Scope 1, 2 and 3.
3. Take a look at the fifteen Scope 3 categories of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and assess whether they are relevant to your organization.

Tips:

• Document your scope and delineation in an accounting handbook to ensure consistent reporting over the years.
• If your organization is part of a group, ensure internal alignment on the consolidation approach.
• Please use the guidelines on our supplier portal, including the Greenhouse Gas Protocol – Corporate Standard.

Step 2 – How to collect data for Scope 1-2

Recommended next steps:

1. Collect activity data by involving your relevant colleagues, such as colleagues in 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) or CO2emissiefactoren.nl (NL).

Tips:

• Be sure to document the sources of emission factors and keep the emission factors updated each year as they are subject to change.
• Pay attention to the correct use of units of measurement (1 MWh = 1000 kWh; 1 tCO2e = 1000 kg CO2e, etc.)
• Before calculating, watch our video on emissions calculations (step 4) and consider using the tools available on this Climate Hub.

Step 3 – How to collect data for Scope 3

Recommended next steps:

1. Make use of the GHG Protocol Scope 3 guidelines and assess the 15 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 your high-priority suppliers with a spend analysis.
4. Engage high-priority suppliers that together account for at least 67% of the total volume and ask for (primary) emissions data.

Tips:

• For spend analysis and activity data collection, be sure to involve colleagues responsible for Procurement, Finance, and/or Business Control.
• Consider using an online Scope 3 screening tool, such as the one from Quantis
• Food emission factors are available at the following links:
• RIVM (Netherlands)
• Concito climate database (Denmark)
• Agribalyse (France)

Step 4 – How to calculate emissions

Recommended next steps:

1. Calculate the footprint of Scope 1-2 using the vendor-specific method. Consider using existing Excel-based tools or create your own.
2. Depending on your experience and access to data, calculate the Scope 3 footprint using the vendor-specific, average, or hybrid calculation method.
3. Please refer to our Documents section for available Excel-based calculation tools.

Tips:

• Provide an audit trail and store data sources in case of external verification of your footprint.
• When updating your footprint annually, don't forget to update the emission factors (electricity, in particular, is subject to change annually).
• Always take into account the correct use of units of measurement (grams, kilograms, tons, etc.)