Carbon Emission Accounting

Carbon emission contributes to the greenhouse effect which later causes climate change. Industries and companies are tasked in reducing their carbon or greenhouse gas emission and to be more responsible. As such, carbon accounting is a way for organizations to quantify their greenhouse gas emissions. They may then understand their climate impact and set goals to limit their emissions.¹

Carbon emission are accounted by measuring the emission within a three scopes framework. Scope 1 is the emission that is directly produced from activities within the company, such as fuel combustion from facilities of the company. Whereas scope 2 is the emission from electricity consumed by the company either for the AC or computers. Then scope 3 is the emission from all other indirect sources in the company’s supply chain, such as goods transportation.¹ It can be inferred that the scope’s level represent how an emission directly correlates to the company, with number 1 being the company’s direct contribution to carbon emission.

Companies then have carbon accountant that measure their carbon emission. It may also be the job of a sustainability manager. But what they do is clear, to measure how much carbon the company produce or emit. The way of accounting can be done per unit’s output, so that it’s clear which devices are producing more emission compared to the others. Then the company would put strategies and action into place when they know how much carbon they produce. If they produce a lot of carbon emission, they would look into ways to reduce such carbon emission. An example is the high carbon emission output from lighting, the company then can change the lights and use LED lights instead as they are more efficient than fluorescent or incandescent light.

Reference:

¹https://supplychain.edf.org/resources/carbon-accounting/