Small business carbon footprint: what data do I need?

You usually do not need emissions figures before you begin. Start with the activity behind them—kilowatt-hours, kilometres, passenger-kilometres, cubic metres, tonnes and pounds spent—covering one clearly defined 12-month period.

Start with the period and boundary

Choose one consistent 12-month reporting period—often your most recent complete financial year—before asking colleagues for records. Then write down which legal entity, sites, vehicles and operations are included. A simple independent business may have an obvious boundary; groups, joint ventures, franchises, leases and shared premises can require more judgement.

Record the approach you use and apply it consistently. A genuine “not applicable” is different from missing data: do not enter zero simply because a bill or record has not yet been found. If a boundary or lease arrangement is unclear, retain the contract and seek professional advice where it would help.

The practical data checklist

Where the records usually live

• Finance: utility bills, expenses, travel bookings, hotel stays, invoices and the purchase ledger.
• Facilities or your landlord: energy, water, refrigerant and waste records.
• Fleet and logistics: mileage, vehicle types, fuel and freight information.
• HR: full-time-equivalent employee count and commuting survey responses.
• The owner or company secretary: legal details, reporting period, boundary and approval.

Ask for records using the same start and end date. That one discipline prevents a surprising number of mismatches.

Actual data, estimates and missing information

Use bills, meter readings or measured activity wherever reasonably available. If you have to estimate, label the figure as estimated and record the method, assumptions and source used. Whether an estimate is suitable depends on the purpose of the footprint and any buyer instructions.

Carbon Verify opens in Standard CRP · PPN 006. Its focused questions cover supported Scope 1 and Scope 2 sources and the five required Scope 3 categories: upstream transport, waste and wastewater, business travel, commuting and downstream transport. Purchases are outside that subset. You do not need to complete a purchases estimate for the standard route unless your buyer asks for more.

If you need to include purchases, turn on Extended footprint. For supported purchases, you do not need to research a factor before starting. Choose separately billed legal services, accountancy, bookkeeping or tax advice, or IT consultancy and bespoke development services; then enter the fees in pounds sterling excluding VAT and choose the spending period. Carbon Verify selects a documented Defra industry-average factor and applies an ONS service-price adjustment where the required published data are available. Check that you have not included hardware, licences, capital assets, disbursements, a mixed bundle or costs already counted elsewhere.

The guided factors describe 2023 emissions and 2023 prices, even though the dataset was released in 2026. They estimate the average supply-chain emissions associated with spending, not your supplier's actual footprint. Legal and accountancy use a combined price index as an approximation. For a reporting-period total, Carbon Verify assumes spending was spread evenly across that period; choose the actual spending quarter if you know it. If the needed price data are unavailable, the record stays pending rather than receiving a guessed result or counting as zero.

Keep the evidence trail

Give each figure a short evidence reference, such as “Electricity annual statement 2025/26” or “Commuting survey, 31 of 35 responses”. Carbon Verify stores that reference alongside the working record; it does not upload or retain the underlying invoice, log, survey or certificate. Keep originals in your own secure filing system.

For electric vehicles, document how charging electricity has been treated. If premises electricity already includes charging, do not count the same energy again through a distance-based estimate. Where only distance is available, record the estimation method and review the scope treatment.

Keep collection records and projects separate

Use the Standard CRP collection spreadsheet or CSV to gather supported inputs from colleagues. If you need the additional activities, use the separately labelled Extended footprint spreadsheet after turning on Extended in Carbon Verify. These are input aids, not complete editable projects. Optional source records and separate emissions figures can be entered in the app; do not put them into an unrelated spreadsheet row. Check the organisation and period in the project bar, then review the import preview before applying changes. Each imported activity should have one total for the reporting period; resolve duplicate rows rather than assuming they will be added together. Use Save project file to retain a portable .carbonverify copy.

For another business, save the current work and choose New project; do not simply rename the previous organisation. Keep original records in that business's own folder. The project guide explains autosave, reopening and safe switching.

Baseline, employee count and floor area

A baseline is a calculated footprint for a comparison year, not a guessed starting number. If this is your first footprint, complete the current year's activity and use the app's Use this reporting year as my first baseline control. Review the figures before confirming. For an existing baseline, check the same operations, sources and electricity basis are covered; document any restatement. Keep a short recalculation policy for acquisitions, disposals, boundary changes or material corrections.

In Extended footprint, employee count and floor area can produce useful intensity measures, such as tCO₂e per employee or per square metre. These are not required Standard CRP inputs. They help you compare your own performance over time; they are not automatically like-for-like industry benchmarks.

If a buyer asks for a Carbon Reduction Plan

Not every small business has to publish a footprint or Carbon Reduction Plan. Where PPN 006 applies, the published plan covers Scope 1, Scope 2 and its defined subset of Scope 3 categories. Your calculation record should retain more detail than the public plan, and the tender documents remain definitive.

For a fuller explanation, see PPN 006 explained and which carbon-reporting document to use.

What Carbon Verify currently covers

Standard CRP covers Scope 1, Scope 2 and the five PPN 006 Scope 3 categories, with the boundary, baseline, reduction measures and approval. Its normal questions cover common activities. Open an optional panel only when you have another relevant source; these Scope 1 and Scope 2 panels do not require Extended footprint.

• Other fuels: choose the exact fuel and a published unit, then enter the quantity used in operations you own or control. Do not also count the same fuel through vehicle mileage or another fuel entry. Do not choose a similar-looking fuel if yours is not listed.
• Other refrigerants or gases released: choose the gas or blend from the service record and enter kilograms released. The quantity installed or purchased is not a leak. Keep the engineer's method where a top-up is used to estimate a loss.
• Other purchased energy: record delivered heat or steam in kWh only where the published UK CHP-average method is suitable. It is not a universal heat factor. Prefer a better documented supplier calculation where available; purchased cooling uses a suitable separate figure, not a guessed heat factor.

Biomass and biofuel combustion can still produce methane and nitrous oxide included in Scope 1. Their biogenic CO₂ is shown separately, not deducted as a credit. Non-Kyoto gases, or the non-Kyoto part of a gas blend, are also disclosed separately from the CRP's Kyoto-gas total. Read the treatment shown with the selected source; a missing factor is not a zero-emissions result.

Shipment weight and distance lets you estimate supported shared-load freight from your goods' weight × the distance travelled, with a matching road, rail, air or sea option. For example, 2 tonnes carried 200 km is 400 tonne-kilometres; that is not 400 vehicle-kilometres. Record each different transport leg separately. Select category 4 for transport your business buys, including outbound delivery you pay for; select category 9 for after-sale delivery you do not pay for. Relevant storage follows the same purchased/not-paid category distinction, but needs a suitable separate calculation, not shipment distance. Your own controlled fleet belongs in Scope 1, not this hired-transport route.

A parcel count, delivery charge or shipment weight without distance is not enough. Do not treat your parcel as a whole truck or count the same delivery through both shipment and whole-vehicle records. The road shipment method uses national-average payload assumptions, not a measurement of your carrier's vehicle. Suitable carrier fuel data or an appropriately allocated calculation can be better; the GHG Protocol transport guidance explains the methods.

When a supplier or someone else has calculated a figure

Use A figure from a supplier or separate calculation for a relevant source that is not already included. Enter the missing activity's gross emissions and select the report's exact tCO₂e or kgCO₂e unit; the app converts kilograms to tonnes. Do not add an entire footprint that would duplicate your other entries. One tonne is 1,000 kg. Keep offsets or avoided-emissions claims separate.

1. Choose Scope 1, Scope 2 or the correct Scope 3 category, and describe the activities included.
2. Match the figure's start and end dates exactly to this project's reporting period, and confirm that the organisation, operations and source boundary fit.
3. Record the calculation source, method, evidence reference and any estimates or allocation assumptions. Retain the underlying calculation securely.
4. Check the figure against existing fuel, mileage, electricity, freight and other records, then confirm that the same emissions have not been counted twice.

These figures are active in Standard for Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 categories 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9. Other Scope 3 categories become active only in Extended; their saved entries are excluded from Standard totals and reports. The app checks the required information, not the correctness of the supplier's method or evidence. Seek appropriate help if you cannot establish the period, boundary, allocation or completeness.

For a supplied zero figure, choose one truthful explanation: either no relevant activity occurred, or documented activity occurred with zero gross emissions. Give the reason and keep the same source, method, period, evidence, boundary and overlap checks. A renewable label, missing record or carbon-credit deduction is not enough to establish zero.

Extended footprint also adds selected purchases, water supply, detailed UK hotel inputs, optional electricity transmission/distribution losses, supplier-specific electricity disclosure, intensity measures and optional credits. Its 15-category assessment records relevance and coverage; it does not calculate those emissions on its own. Both modes retain saved projects, personalised documents and the Evidence Pack under the same licence.

It is not a universal calculator. Unlisted fuels or gases, industrial process chemistry, complex leases, international operations and other value-chain sources may need a suitable separate calculation or professional review. Use the early source-coverage check to identify these cases, then record the documented result where suitable. Missing required sources cannot be made complete by writing an exclusion note. You can prepare a clearly marked working draft, but resolve required coverage before issuing a final conformity declaration.

Carbon Verify's main totals and targets use grid-based electricity so comparisons remain consistent. In Extended footprint, an evidenced market-based tariff result can be disclosed separately. Do not select a renewable zero claim simply because a tariff is called green; retain supplier or instrument evidence covering the electricity and reporting period.

From checked records to documents

Use stage 6, Reduction plan, for agreed targets, measures and management approval. All document generation is in stage 7, Check & download. The CRP and Evidence Pack are the main outputs; open Need a draft for review? for draft preview or draft Word. The separate Carbon Footprint Statement is optional and does not replace the declaration within the CRP. Unfinished required coverage blocks final documents; working drafts still label what needs checking.

Want to see the process first? The guided demo locks its fictional activity inputs but lets you work through review controls and choose Standard or Extended coverage. Its sample downloads match the selected business and document style; they are not reports to submit for your own organisation.

Final check before you calculate

• One reporting period is used throughout.
• The organisation and operational boundary are recorded.
• Units have been checked before figures are entered.
• Actual and estimated data are labelled correctly.
• Missing items and exclusions are explained rather than entered as zero.
• Evidence references are recorded and the original files retained securely.
• The conversion-factor edition matches the reporting period and purpose.
• The baseline and any recalculation policy are documented.
• Gross emissions remain visible separately from any offsets.