How to understand your business carbon footprint

A carbon footprint becomes useful when you can explain the figures, see what is missing and decide what to look at next. Carbon Verify can help you do that with the business activity you enter. You do not need to start with a reduction target.

Know what your total covers

The gross footprint is shown in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, or tCO₂e. This combines the climate effect of different greenhouse gases into one comparable unit. It is not the physical volume of carbon your business produces.

Before interpreting it, check three things: the reporting dates, the business sites and activities included, and the selected reporting mode. Standard CRP focuses on the supported sources for a PPN 006 plan. Extended footprint adds selected activities and disclosures. Neither setting means every possible business or supply-chain source has automatically been included.

A small total can reflect low emissions, missing records or limited coverage. An unfinished activity is not zero. Note what you know, what you estimated and what you still need. The small-business data checklist can help you find gaps.

Find the largest sources in the figures you have entered

Start with the Scope 1, 2 and 3 totals, then use the activity lines in the Evidence Pack to see which entered sources contribute most. Scope totals group emissions; they do not tell you on their own whether heating, driving or another activity deserves attention. Our guide to the three scopes explains those groups.

Fictional example: a business has entered a gross total of 40 tCO₂e, including 12 tCO₂e from business travel. Travel accounts for 30% of that entered total. It is worth investigating, but this does not prove travel is the largest source across the whole business. If emissions from making the goods it buys are missing, its wider footprint could look different.

Use the result to ask a specific question, such as “Which journeys account for most of this travel?” That is more useful than treating the total as a score.

Check the record behind an important figure

An activity figure describes what happened, such as electricity used in kWh or distance travelled. An emission factor converts that activity into an emissions estimate. The resulting figure depends on both.

The Evidence Pack records the active calculation, quantities, methods, applicable factors, evidence references and review status. Open the relevant source or activity line and check its units, dates and original record. A typed reference to a bill is not the bill itself; keep the source documents separately.

Not every result has the same strength of evidence. A guided purchase estimate based on service spending is a screening estimate, not a measurement of that supplier’s emissions. More detail in an estimate does not make it equivalent to suitable supplier-specific data. Read the recorded method and limitations before using it to make a claim.

Compare results only when the basis is consistent

A lower figure is not automatically evidence that your actions reduced emissions. Check whether business activity changed, an estimate was replaced, sites were added or removed, or a different method or factor was used. Electricity emissions can change when the grid factor changes even if your kWh stay the same.

Retain your reports and working records so you can compare reporting dates, coverage and methods. The current Carbon Verify edition supports reporting periods ending in 2026. Do not put an earlier period into the app under different dates to force a comparison. Use retained reports, and ask an adviser how to handle material changes in the calculation basis.

The GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard supports tracking a business’s supply-chain emissions over time; differing coverage and methods make comparisons between businesses unreliable.

Use intensity figures for your own business

In Extended footprint, emissions per full-time equivalent employee and per square metre relate the entered gross footprint to business size. Use a consistent, relevant denominator when reviewing your own business. These are not sector rankings. Intensity can fall while total emissions rise, for example when a business grows faster than its emissions.

Choose the next question, not just a target

For each significant source, ask:

• Is the record complete enough to trust this figure?
• What causes the activity, and who understands it?
• Could we reduce the activity or use a lower-emission alternative?
• What would that change cost, and what evidence would show it worked?

Lower emissions do not always mean a lower bill. Keep carbon, cost and practical constraints visible. Carbon credits are recorded separately; they do not reduce the gross footprint used for reduction targets.

See how to choose practical reduction actions before recording agreed measures in stage 6, Reduction plan. Stage 7, Check & download, holds the document controls. Our documents guide explains what to retain or share. You can also try the guided demo with fictional business data.

Related guides

• Preparing carbon data for a consultant
• How to choose practical carbon reduction actions
• What to send when a customer asks for your carbon footprint