Carbon Footprint from A to Z

A flagship initiative in CSR efforts, the carbon footprint assessment is a recurring topic for businesses in France and internationally. This key tool for measuring carbon impact of their activities is required by many frameworks, such as the CSRD or the VS, and dictates access to certain markets (via CSR criteria in tenders) or financing (preferential rates for carbon footprint reduction).

In this article, we explain everything you need to know about carbon footprint assessments: who is affected, how to measure it, what the famous scopes are, and much more!

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What is a carbon footprint assessment?

Let's start at the beginning: what exactly is a carbon footprint assessment?

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Understanding the Carbon Footprint

The Bilan Carbone® is a tool developed by ADEME (the French Environment and Energy Management Agency), and whose management has been overseen since 2011 by ABC (the Association for Low Carbon Transition).

It is a methodology for accounting for greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) associated directly or indirectly with a company's activities.

The registered trademark Bilan Carbone® popularized the term "carbon footprint assessment," which now refers to any process aimed at evaluating CO₂ as part of an environmental impact reduction strategy.

What is the difference between a carbon footprint, a BEGES, and a GHG Protocol? Carbon footprint, BEGES, and GHG Protocol are three distinct frameworks for accounting for a company's GHG emissions:

• Bilan Carbone®: French methodology publicly recognized for guiding companies on how to account for their emissions
• Bilan d'émissions de GES (BEGES): this is the French regulatory framework for publishing carbon footprint results. Specifically, the Bilan Carbone® methodology helps you calculate, and you must publish your results in a regulatory format – this is the BEGES.
• GHG Protocol : it is the international framework for formalizing results based on a methodology slightly different from the Bilan Carbone®. It is requested by stakeholders and international standards, such as CSRD.

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What are the objectives of a carbon footprint assessment?

Far more than just a tool for measuring environmental impact, the carbon footprint is a strategic tool driving companies towards reducing their impact. This measurement is expected to raise awareness among companies, as well as facilitate the identification of the flows that generate the most emissions to be able to identify reduction levers.

The objective of a carbon footprint assessment is therefore not a one-off measurement, but rather a regular measurement interspersed with reduction actions of GHG emissions to demonstrate that companies are on a path to reduce their environmental impact.

One might wonder how to reduce one's carbon footprint : organizations must identify the biggest emission sources in their carbon footprint (e.g., oil-fired boilers, employee air travel, etc.) to implement actions to remove, reduce, or replace them to cut down on their emissions.

By reducing their GHG emissions, companies can position themselves on a path towards "carbon neutrality" compatible with the Paris Agreement - a "positive carbon footprint" is sometimes referred to when GHG emissions are entirely absorbed by carbon sinks.

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Which companies are required to conduct a carbon footprint assessment?

Any company, administration, local authority, or even an individual can carry out a carbon footprint assessment of their activities.

Under French regulations, companies with more than 500 employees are required to conduct a carbon footprint assessment in the regulatory format (BEGES) and declare it on the ADEME website. In addition to the carbon footprint results, companies must publish an action plan for reducing their emissions, known as a transition plan.

Where there's an obligation, there's an audit. Some stakeholders, particularly financial institutions, require companies to conduct an audit of their carbon footprint to certify their results.

But what is a carbon footprint audit? A carbon footprint audit helps to verify and enhance the credibility of the approach and information shared with your stakeholders, through an in-depth analysis of your data, typical errors, and harmonization of results. It involves an external expert who validates your data sources and methodologies used, to strengthen the robustness of your approach.

In addition to regulatory requirements, more and more companies are conducting a carbon footprint assessment for various reasons :

• Access funding
• Respond to tenders
• Boost their brand image
• Enhance the reliability of their CSR approach
• Meet stakeholder demand.

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What is the cost of a carbon footprint assessment?

The cost of a carbon footprint assessment varies greatly depending on company size, data complexity, its level of maturity, and the type of support desired. For expert-led support, prices can range from €5,000 to tens of thousands of euros. For a self-service carbon assessment on a dedicated platform, prices are much lower.

The cost of a company's first carbon footprint assessment can be partially covered by BPI France through the Diag Decarbon’action program.

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What are Scopes 1, 2, and 3?

Regardless of the methodology chosen, the carbon footprint assessment is broken down into 3 main categories of emissions, called Scopes. But what are the scopes of a carbon footprint assessment?

• Scope 1: Direct GHG emissions related to energy
• Scope 2: Indirect emissions related to energy consumption
• Scope 3: Other indirect emissions, generated upstream or downstream of the value chain

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What are Scope 1 emissions?

Scope 1 emissions correspond to direct GHG emissions related to fossil fuels within the scope of operations.

The activities concerned include fuels burned during operations (boilers, company vehicles, etc.), industrial processes (chemistry, etc.), refrigerant leaks, and biomass transformation.

If I am a primary sector company, my Scope 1 includes fuel consumption by my machinery and emissions related to land-use change.

If I am a secondary sector company, my Scope 1 includes fuel consumption by my machinery and vehicles, my fossil fuel heating consumption, and GHG emissions from my industrial processes and air conditioning.

If I am a tertiary sector company, my Scope 1 includes my fossil fuel heating consumption, my air conditioning, and the fuel for my company vehicles.

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What are Scope 2 emissions?

Scope 2 emissions, known as indirect GHG emissions related to energy, correspond to fossil energy consumption that occurred upstream of the supply chain for your own energy consumption.

Simply put, your energy supply (electricity, urban heating network, etc.) generated fossil fuel combustion during its production: the associated emissions are accounted for in your Scope 2.

In France, we consider our electricity to be decarbonized because nuclear fission does not release CO₂. However, the processes of mineral extraction and power plant construction generated GHG emissions: this portion of emissions is accounted for in your Scope 2.

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What are Scope 3 emissions?

Scope 3 emissions cover all other emissions: these are the emissions generated by physical flows upstream or downstream of your value chain.

Many activities are included in Scope 3:

• Purchases of goods and services
• Transportation of people (business travel, commuting, visitors, etc.)
• Waste management
• Freight transport of goods to or from your sites
• Use of your products

Scope 3 is generally more difficult to reduce for companies because these are emissions over which they have less control. We advise you to identify purchases and flows that you can do without to directly avoid these emissions. You can then identify items where there is a potential for reduction, particularly through dialogue with your suppliers to support them in the process.

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How is a carbon footprint calculated?

Calculating a carbon footprint requires following a rigorous methodology.

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What are the steps to calculate your carbon footprint?

To conduct your carbon footprint assessment, we recommend that you:

1. Define the scope of the assessment : what activities are involved? which sites? for which year?
2. List the data to collect : across the 3 scopes, using the Bilan Carbone® methodology.
3. Identify and train data owners : who are the internal contacts for obtaining the data? how to explain the carbon footprint project to them to secure their participation?
4. Organize your data collection : what are the deadlines for collection? what format is ideal in your context? is a tool necessary?
5. Calculate your carbon footprint : what emission factors should be chosen for each data point? what assumptions should be made for missing data? is a tool necessary?
6. Share the results : what reporting format? what are the main emission sources?
7. Identify emission reduction actions : which emission sources will actions have the most impact on? what types of actions are accessible and easily implementable? do any actions require investment?

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What are the carbon footprint indicators?

Once completed, you can share your carbon footprint results internally and externally, and track progress KPIs year after year.

In addition to your raw results, the carbon footprint indicators are your emissions per unit of revenue or per unit of production (e.g., per product), and emissions per employee. This allows you to verify that you are reducing your emissions relative to your production growth.

The units commonly used in carbon footprints are therefore tCO₂e and tCO₂e/k€ or tCO₂e/FTE.

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Conclusion

The carbon footprint is a widely used tool by companies as part of their CSR strategy, particularly to get on track to reduce their environmental impact. Carbon footprinting is an exercise governed by numerous standards, such as BEGES in France and the GHG Protocol internationally. This exercise can be a real challenge for companies, especially regarding the measurement and improvement of their Scope 3 emissions.

At Kiosk, we support you in conducting your carbon footprint assessment thanks to a dedicated expert guiding you throughout the process, or with our tool to conduct your assessment independently. Request a demo of our tool.

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