How to Measure Your Business Carbon Footprint
Compare 4 common ways to measure your company’s carbon footprint, ranging in cost from $3k to $120k.
Many businesses are trying to fulfill their customer’s request for carbon emissions data as a part of a supplier climate request. Others are aiming to take action against climate change as part of their corporate responsibility. Both companies often do not know where to start. In either of these scenarios you must first start by measuring your carbon footprint. If you haven’t done this process before, you have options.
What is a Business Carbon Footprint?
A corporate carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gasses (GHGs) produced from all indirect and direct business activities.
Direct activities can include energy consumption, transportation, and waste produced by business operations. Indirect activities can occur throughout the supply chain, from travel, and the usage of a product.
Assessing emission production in both areas is crucial to calculate an accurate carbon footprint. This will give your business a big picture of what activities are producing the most emissions. From there you can create strategies unique to your business that mitigate and minimize your carbon footprint.
How to Calculate the Carbon Footprint of Your Business
There are four ways businesses typically calculate their carbon footprint. They can assign a non-sustainability FTE, sustainability FTE, general services firm, or a specialized small and medium-sized (SMB) sustainability firm. From there each process differs in timeline, budget, and stakeholder hours. Engage in conversations within your business to understand which method suits yours the best.
Non-sustainability FTE: This employee is selected to complete the project from start to finish. They would be responsible for reading the greenhouse gas protocol, researching proper emissions factors, and creating internal methodology. It is also necessary to determine which stakeholders are best and have the data for your business which could take up to 40 hours. The person best suited for this job may have extra time to dedicate towards this area and may be passionate about the environment. This expected timeline would be 12 months since this employee is learning everything during this project. On top of their 60-90k salary the only additional cost would be the software at $3k.
Sustainability FTE: An in-house employee may already exist that focuses on sustainability which is seen in larger organizations. The timeline for this employee would be 6 months, up to 30 stakeholder hours, and on top of their $70-100k salary an additional cost of $3k for the software.
General Services firm: Larger organizations also typically have the capabilities and need for a firm to calculate their carbon footprint. This could be because they are within a complex industry or have hundreds of thousands of employees. This timeline would be around 4 months, up to 20 stakeholder hours, and a budget between $20-120k.
Specialized SMB Sustainability firm: SMB firms are specifically suited to help smaller organizations tackle their carbon footprint. This is where RyeStrategy falls amongst the four methods.This timeline is typically shorter at 2 months, allowing for up to 10 stakeholder hours, and a smaller budget from $3-25k.
At RyeStrategy, we offer businesses affordable carbon accounting software and sustainability expert guidance. Our goal is to help companies meet environmental standards, stay up to date on climate regulation, and fulfill emission disclosure requests. We are invested in supporting our clients through each step of the process. Whether your business is beginning to calculate its carbon footprint or in the middle of implementing sustainability solutions, RyeStrategy can help. Connect with us today to learn more about our offerings and how they can suit your business’ decarbonization needs.
Learn about our affordable carbon footprint solutions for small and medium-sized businesses
Book a free strategy session to discuss your climate goals with a sustainability manager.
Check out our blogs about how and why to implement decarbonization below.
About RyeStrategy
Based in Seattle, RyeStrategy is a CDP-accredited, mission-oriented company specialized in carbon accounting, mitigation coaching, and climate disclosure solutions for organizations at any point in their sustainability journey. Learn how RyeStrategy helped Salesforce, Ideascale, and Wazoku achieve their sustainability goals.
From exhaustive carbon footprinting and mitigation coaching, to setting science-based targets and reporting climate data to CDP, SBTi or custom reporting platforms, RyeStrategy acts as a hands-on extension of the team, custom-tailoring services to fulfill climate disclosure requirements easily and accurately.
Meet with a sustainability specialist to learn more about RyeStrategy solutions.
