Step 2: Measuring your business' carbon emissions

To calculate your emissions, you’ll need a few pieces of information including:

• 

  A reporting period

  This is the span of time you’re measuring your emission source or sources across. Most businesses use a 12 month reporting period, aligning to the calendar or financial year.

• 

  A measurement unit for each of your emissions sources

  • kilowatt hour (kWh) for electricity used
  • miles for your employee commuting
  • litres for how much petrol you have used

  You can find this from your bills, meter readings, odometer, own records, or from your suppliers.  

• 

  The total quantity of unit for your emission sources

  • how many kWh of electricity used
  • how many miles each employee has commuted
  • how many litres of fuel bought

  You can get the amount used in a year from different emission sources from bills, expenses, accounts or your supplier. If you are not already monitoring on a regular basis, you can use Business Energy Scotland's energy usage tracking guide on their website.

• 

  A greenhouse gas conversion factor for each emission source.

  This is a figure that allows you to calculate how much emissions have come from each of your emission sources.

  You need to use a conversion factor that calculates all your carbon equivalent emissions (CO₂e) and not just your carbon (CO₂). 

  Please note that many carbon footprint calculation tools already include conversion factors, published by the UK Government every year.

  Use the UK Government carbon footprint calculation tools on their website.