Measure & Verify
- Introduction
- Step 1: Set boundaries
- Step 2: Collect & Calculate
- Get started: the GHG emissions calculation formula
- Identify and collect activity data for your GHG inventory
- Identify and collect relevant emissions factors
- Consolidate your company GHG footprint
- Digitize your inventory: streamline and automate GHG accounting
- Define and analyze metrics to prepare for decarbonization action
- Step 3: Verify
- Step 4: Improve and update
Identify and collect activity data for your GHG inventory
How to identify and locate relevant activity data for your company GHG inventory.
1. What is activity data?
Activity rate or consumption amount is the total amount of the product or service consumed/used. Typical units are the amount consumed or used (e.g., gallons, sq. ft.) or the amount spent (e.g., $)
Example: A construction company purchases 30 liters of Diesel as raw materials: 30 liters is the activity data.
2. What type of activity data can be collected?
Activity data can be classified into 3 main types, with different levels of specificity. Best practice is to use the most specific one as much as possible.
Activity data, where it cannot be reliably estimated at first, needs to be updated over time as higher-quality information becomes available.
What are the best practices in terms of accounting maturity?
3. How to locate the relevant activity data?
Sources for transactional system data are spread across business units, ERP systems, site managers, and more.
The likely source for where real estate and asset footprint data might be found is the procurement team
For existing sustainability reports, it might be the communications team
Contrarily, for headcounts it is probably found in Human Resources
3.1. Scope 1
For most companies, Scope 1 GHG emissions will be calculated based on the purchased quantities of commercial fuels (e.g., natural gas, heating oil).
3.2. Scope 2
Scope 2 GHG emissions will primarily be calculated from metered electricity consumption.
3.3. Scope 3
As data collection is the main challenge for Scope 3, supplier data should be leveraged whenever available.
