Carbon footprint of the organisation and its products

Why the carbon footprint is no longer optional

Sustainability reporting under the CSRD includes the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions under the ESRS E1 standard — across Scopes 1, 2 and 3. The pressure does not come from regulation alone, though. Business customers ask their suppliers about the carbon footprint of what they deliver, because they have to calculate the emissions of their own value chain. Financial institutions want the same data. Smaller companies increasingly answer such requests under the VSME — the voluntary sustainability reporting standard for SMEs.

What these requests have in common is simple: they need data that can be checked. Documented boundaries, data sources, emission factors and assumptions — so that the calculation can be verified and repeated. A figure without a method answers none of them.

Two pillars: the calculation and a self-sufficient team

The service combines two things that are usually bought separately. The first pillar is the calculation of the corporate carbon footprint (CCF), optionally extended to the carbon footprint of selected products (CFP). The second pillar is a training and workshop programme for the ESG team, run on the data collected in the same project.

The order matters. A team that took part in the first calculation knows where every figure came from, which data was incomplete and which assumptions were made. Such a team can repeat the calculation a year later without an external adviser. A one-off report without a transfer of competence has to be commissioned again every year.

Corporate carbon footprint (CCF)

We run the calculation under the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard and ISO 14064-1. It starts with boundaries. We set organisational boundaries under one of the three GHG Protocol approaches: equity share, financial control or operational control. Operational boundaries settle which emission sources and which value chain categories enter the calculation.

Scope 1 — direct emissions. Fuel combustion in stationary installations (gas and oil boilers, generators), fuel used in machinery and equipment (for example forklift trucks), emissions from the owned and leased fleet, and fugitive emissions — refrigerant leaks from air-conditioning and refrigeration installations.

Scope 2 — indirect emissions from purchased energy. Electricity, district heat, cooling and process steam. We calculate Scope 2 using two methods: location-based, on average national emission factors published by KOBiZE, the Polish national centre for emissions management, and market-based, on emission factors from energy suppliers, taking guarantees of origin into account.

Scope 3 — the value chain. We select categories by their materiality to the organisation. Typically these are: purchased goods and services (category 1); fuel- and energy-related activities not included in Scopes 1 and 2, including WTT and transmission and distribution losses (T&D) (category 3); upstream and downstream transportation and distribution, that is external carriers and contract logistics (categories 4 and 9); waste generated in operations, including packaging and pallets (category 5); business travel and employee commuting (categories 6 and 7).

Product carbon footprint (CFP) — the extended option

When customers ask about the footprint of specific products rather than of the whole company, we extend the calculation to a CFP for key products or product groups — under ISO 14067 and the GHG Protocol Product Standard. We set the system boundaries together with the client team:

• cradle-to-gate — from raw material extraction, through production, to transport to the distribution centre or the factory gate;
• cradle-to-grave — the full life cycle, including distribution, use and end-of-life waste treatment.

For the product footprint we use product life cycle databases where the scope requires them — alongside the public emission factors used in the corporate calculation.

Five project stages

Kick-off and project boundaries. Organisational and operational boundaries, the base year and the site structure; for the CFP option also the system boundaries. Output: minutes of the agreed decisions and a data collection schedule.

Data collection and verification. Handing over data collection spreadsheets and checking the completeness of source documents. Output: a verified database of energy, fuel and material consumption.

Emission factor selection. Factors from public sources, including KOBiZE and DEFRA, and for the CFP also from life cycle databases. Output: an emission factor conversion model.

Calculation and modelling. Scopes 1, 2 and 3, uncertainty analysis and analysis of the emissions structure. Output: a draft report and balance statements.

Final report with decarbonisation recommendations. The carbon footprint report and the presentation of results. Output: the CCF report, and in the extended option also the CFP report, in PDF and Word format.

The stages are arranged so as not to burden day-to-day operations beyond collecting documents the organisation already holds.

Training and workshop programme for the ESG team

We run the programme as learning by doing: on the data collected in the project, not on textbook examples. There is one goal — for the ESG team to prepare the next annual calculation on its own. After the programme the team understands the requirements of the CSRD, VSME and the GHG Protocol; prepares and sends out spreadsheets to site managers itself; checks data quality and converts fuel and energy consumption into CO2 equivalent; updates the base year and monitors decarbonisation progress.

Module 1. The carbon footprint and reporting standards

The legal basis and standards: the CSRD, the ESRS E1 standard and the VSME standard, which suppliers use to answer customers’ requests for ESG data. The GHG Protocol versus ISO 14064-1: key concepts and the principles of emissions accounting — accuracy, consistency, transparency. Organisational boundaries: equity share, financial control and operational control.

Module 2. Data records and information flow

Building a data collection system in an organisation with many sites. Analysis of source data: energy and gas invoices, fleet reports, refrigerant registers, waste statements. Managing data gaps: estimates, proxy data and uncertainty analysis.

Module 3. Calculation methodology and a calculation workshop

Converting physical units — kWh, m³, litres, tonne-kilometres — into CO2 equivalent (CO2e) across Scopes 1, 2 and 3. Selecting and updating emission factors from public sources, including KOBiZE and DEFRA, and from life cycle databases where the scope requires them. Scope 3 in practice: methods for estimating emissions from purchased goods and from external transport.

Module 4. Live workshop: the calculation and the report structure

Simulating the data conversion for a selected site on the spreadsheets handed over to the team during the project. Interpreting the results: hotspot analysis, that is the largest sources of emissions. Formulating reduction targets, including a net-zero target, and preparing the report structure for market communication.

Where the emission factors come from and what stays in the organisation

We take emission factors from public sources — from KOBiZE, which publishes the Polish national emission factors for electricity, and from DEFRA — and for the product footprint also from product life cycle databases where the CFP scope requires them. Every factor in the model has a documented source, so the calculation can be checked and repeated.

The client team receives the data collection and calculation spreadsheets — the same ones it worked on in the fourth module — together with the conversion model and a description of the assumptions made. The spreadsheets stay in the organisation and are the basis for the next annual recalculation.

How we define the scope

Before work begins we provide a scoping questionnaire: the number and type of sites, the availability of source data, the material Scope 3 categories, the need for a product footprint and the composition of the ESG team. On that basis we assess the effort for both pillars and present a binding offer.

A boundary worth knowing: we prepare the calculation with documented boundaries, data sources, emission factors and assumptions so that it can be verified. Verification or assurance by an independent body is not part of the service.

The carbon footprint of the organisation and its products is a consulting service with a workshop programme, not an open training course. If you are looking for a training course on sustainability reporting or on measuring the carbon footprint alone, the right route is the training courses linked to this page.