Carbon footprint: Measuring and reducing our environmental impact

What is a carbon footprint?

A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases [↧] released into the atmosphere as a result of human activities. These emissions are primarily carbon dioxide (CO₂), but also include methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O) and other gases that contribute to climate change. To make these different greenhouse gases easier to compare, a carbon footprint is usually expressed in carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e) [↧], based on each gas’s global warming potential [↧].

The concept can be applied at different levels:

• Individuals have a personal carbon footprint shaped by everyday choices such as transport, home energy use, diet and consumption habits.
• Products carry a carbon footprint across their life cycle, from raw material extraction and manufacturing to transport, use, disposal or recycling.
• Organizations generate carbon emissions through their operations, supply chains, buildings, services and products.

Even specific events and activities, such as a conference, concert or flight, can be assessed for their carbon impact.

Cookie consent is required
Please view on Vimeo or adjust your privacy settings.

Carbon footprints in business

No two business carbon footprints look exactly alike. The greenhouse gas emissions associated with an organization depend on its activities, supply chains, energy sources and operating model. Understanding where these emissions occur helps organizations identify their greatest environmental impacts and focus efforts where emission reduction [↧] can deliver the most value.

Carbon footprint examples vary widely across industries. For instance:

• A tech company’s footprint might be dominated by data centre energy use, cloud services and employee commuting.
• A manufacturing firm may generate significant emissions from production processes and raw material transportation.
• A retail chain might find its largest carbon impact comes from its supply chain, logistics, packaging and customer travel to stores.

In practice, a company’s carbon footprint usually comes from a blend of direct (Scope 1) [↧], indirect (Scope 2) [↧] and value chain (Scope 3) [↧] emissions. While the first two cover on-site fuel use and purchased energy, Scope 3 – encompassing suppliers, products and customers – often holds the biggest opportunity for reducing the overall carbon impact.

The climate connection

A carbon footprint is more than a measure of emissions; it’s a measure of how human activities contribute to climate change. Every time energy is consumed, goods are transported or products are manufactured, greenhouse gases are released to the atmosphere. Over time, these emissions accumulate, trapping heat and intensifying the Earth’s natural greenhouse effect.

The result is a changing climate with far-reaching consequences. More extreme weather events, rising sea levels and ecosystem disruption are already creating challenges for businesses, communities and governments worldwide.

Understanding a carbon footprint helps make this connection visible. It allows organizations to see where emissions occur, identify opportunities for emission reduction and make choices that support a more resilient, lower-carbon future.

Business case for carbon reduction

As businesses grapple with their environmental responsibilities, assessing and working to reduce their carbon footprint has become a key aspect of corporate sustainability efforts. And while cutting emissions helps tackle climate change, it often delivers something businesses value just as much: improved efficiency and lower costs.

Today, reducing carbon emissions is no longer just seen as an environmental obligation. For many organizations, it forms part of a broader effort to strengthen resilience, manage risks and support long-term growth. Climate scientists have long emphasized the link between business operations and climate change, highlighting the meaningful role companies can play in addressing it.

By tackling their carbon impact, businesses can create value in several key areas:

Operational efficiency and cost savings
For most organizations, energy use sits at the centre of their carbon footprint. Electricity, heating and fuel consumption are among the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions, but they are also areas where businesses have the greatest ability to act. Improving efficiency and shifting to cleaner energy can reduce costs, cut emissions and help companies keep pace with tightening climate regulations and reporting requirements.

Businesses can:

• Realize economic benefits through cost savings from energy efficiency and emission reduction strategies
• Reduce regulatory pressures and compliance costs by proactively adopting greener practices
• Enhance supply chain resilience by mitigating disruptions caused by extreme weather events

Market opportunities and reputation
Beyond operational benefits, reducing a carbon footprint increasingly shapes how companies are perceived by customers, investors and partners. Organizations that take climate action seriously often gain a competitive advantage in markets where sustainability expectations are rising.

Businesses can:

• Tap into shifting consumer preferences with sustainable products that attract environmentally conscious customers
• Strengthen brand reputation by positioning themselves as responsible corporate citizens committed to reducing their carbon impact
• Build investor confidence and improve access to capital through transparent ESG reporting

Broader environmental and societal benefits
Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can also generate positive impacts beyond the business itself. Companies that invest in carbon reduction help support the transition to cleaner energy systems while contributing to healthier environments and communities.

Businesses can:

• Make a positive impact on climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions
• Enhance quality of life and public health through cleaner air and lower pollution levels

As the business case for reducing carbon emissions becomes clearer, more companies are taking a closer look at their carbon footprint. The next step is understanding where those emissions come from – and how to measure them. That’s where the real journey begins.

Ways to measure your carbon footprint

There is no single way to calculate a carbon footprint. The most appropriate approach depends on what is being measured, the data available and the level of detail required. Over time, however, several widely recognized methods have emerged to help organizations assess greenhouse gas emissions and better understand their carbon impact.

• Life-cycle assessment [↧]: This approach evaluates the environmental impact of a product or service throughout its life cycle, from raw material extraction and manufacturing to use, disposal and recycling. It provides a comprehensive view of emissions but can require significant data and resources.
• Greenhouse Gas Protocol: One of the most widely used frameworks for greenhouse gas accounting, the GHG Protocol categorizes emissions into three scopes:
  • Scope 1: Direct emissions from sources owned or controlled by the organization, such as company vehicles or on-site fuel combustion.
  • Scope 2: Indirect emissions associated with purchased energy, including electricity, heating and cooling.
  • Scope 3: All other indirect emissions across the value chain, including those associated with suppliers, transportation, business travel, product use and end-of-life treatment.

• Input-output analysis: This method estimates emissions based on financial transactions and industry-average emissions data. It can be useful when detailed greenhouse gas activity data [↧] is unavailable.

• Emissions calculators: These tools use standardized emission factors [↧] to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from specific activities. While generally less detailed than a full carbon footprint assessment, they can provide a useful starting point to work from.

7 easy steps to carbon assessment

Measuring a carbon footprint may appear complex, but the process is often more straightforward than many organizations expect. Success depends less on sophisticated calculations than on defining clear boundaries, collecting reliable data and applying a structured methodology.

The process can be broken down into a series of practical steps:

1. Define the scope: Start by deciding what you want to measure. This could be a product, a facility, a specific activity or the entire organization. Establishing clear boundaries and a reporting period helps ensure that results are meaningful and can be compared over time.
2. Collect data: Gather data that reflects your activities and resource use. This may include utility bills, fuel consumption records, travel logs, procurement information and supplier data. The quality of your assessment will depend largely on the quality of the information collected.
3. Calculate emissions: Use a recognized methodology to convert activity data into greenhouse gas emissions expressed in carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e). Carbon accounting tools and emissions calculators can help streamline this process and improve consistency.
4. Account for removals: In some cases, organizations may also consider carbon sinks [↧] and greenhouse gas removals [↧]. Forests, soils and other natural systems can absorb carbon from the atmosphere, helping provide a more complete picture of overall climate impact.
5. Identify key sources: Once emissions have been quantified, focus on the activities that account for the largest share of your carbon footprint. For many organizations, these include energy use, transportation and supply chains, making them natural priorities for emission reduction efforts.
6. Develop a reduction plan: Use your findings to set priorities and establish realistic targets. Actions may include improving energy efficiency, adopting renewable energy, reducing waste, optimizing transportation or working with suppliers to lower emissions throughout the value chain.
7. Monitor progress: A carbon footprint is most valuable when it forms part of an ongoing improvement process. Regular reviews help track progress, evaluate the effectiveness of actions taken and identify new opportunities for improvement. Many organizations also choose to report their results publicly or seek independent verification to strengthen credibility and transparency.

How to reduce your carbon footprint

Once you understand your carbon footprint, the next step is taking action. A range of practical strategies can help organizations reduce emissions and minimize their carbon impact.

• Improve energy efficiency: For many organizations, the greatest opportunities lie in reducing energy consumption. More efficient equipment, optimized processes and better building performance can lower both greenhouse gas emissions and operating costs.
• Accelerate the transition to renewable energy: Replacing fossil-fuel-based energy with clean energy sources such as solar, wind or certified green electricity can significantly reduce carbon emissions while improving long-term resilience.
• Rethink transportation: Whether through fleet electrification, more efficient logistics or reduced business travel, transportation remains an important area for emission reduction across many sectors.
• Work with suppliers: A significant share of a company’s carbon footprint often sits beyond its direct control. Collaborating with suppliers and partners can help reduce emissions throughout the value chain and strengthen overall sustainability performance.
• Reduce waste and resource use: Designing products for durability, extending asset life cycles and improving material efficiency can reduce both environmental impacts and operational costs.
• Embed sustainability into decision-making: Procurement, product design, investment decisions and operational planning can all influence long-term carbon impact. Integrating sustainability considerations into these processes helps ensure that emission reduction becomes part of everyday business practice rather than a standalone initiative.

Some emissions may remain difficult to eliminate. In these cases, organizations may resort to carbon offsetting [↧] as part of a broader climate strategy. While offsets can play a role, they are generally most effective when used alongside sustained efforts to reduce emissions at the source.

When carbon calculations get complicated

Carbon footprints are often presented as precise figures. In reality, measuring greenhouse gas emissions is rarely an exact science. Organizations must decide what to measure, where to draw boundaries and how to account for activities that may span multiple locations, suppliers or stages of a product’s life cycle.

The challenge becomes even greater when emissions occur beyond an organization’s direct control. Scope 3 emissions, for example, can extend across complex value chains and often rely on data provided by suppliers, customers and other external partners. Many calculations also depend on emission factors, which estimate the emissions associated with activities such as electricity use, transport or manufacturing.

This does not mean carbon footprint assessments are unreliable. Rather, it highlights the importance of using consistent methodologies, transparent assumptions and reliable data. The goal is not to achieve perfect precision, but to build a credible picture of where emissions occur and how they can be reduced.

Technology supported by standards

This is where International Standards play a critical role. Rather than leaving organizations to develop their own approaches, standards provide a common framework for measuring, reporting and managing greenhouse gas emissions. They help ensure that carbon footprint assessments are more transparent, credible and comparable, allowing organizations to track progress with greater confidence and communicate results more effectively.

The ISO 14064 series provides guidance for greenhouse gas accounting and verification, while ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 support life-cycle assessment. For transport and logistics activities, ISO 14083 helps organizations quantify the emissions generated across increasingly complex supply chains.

The focus, however, is no longer limited to measurement. Reflecting this evolution, the newly published ISO 50100 offers a more structured approach to decarbonization, helping organizations achieve emission reductions through improved energy management and long-term planning.

Together, these standards help transform carbon management from a reporting exercise into a practical framework for action.

• ISO 14040:2006Environmental management — Life cycle assessment — Principles and framework
• ISO 14083:2023Quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions arising from transport chain operations

New trends in carbon management

Carbon management is moving from a specialist sustainability exercise to a core part of business decision-making. As reporting expectations rise and climate targets become more ambitious, organizations are looking for better ways to measure emissions, reduce them and demonstrate progress with confidence.

Several trends are shaping this evolution:

• More advanced carbon accounting tools: Digital platforms are making it easier to collect data, calculate emissions and track progress over time. As these tools become more sophisticated, they can help organizations identify hotspots, compare scenarios and make more informed decisions.
• Greater integration across business functions: A carbon footprint is no longer confined to sustainability teams. Procurement, logistics, finance, facilities management and product design all have a role to play in understanding and reducing emissions.
• A growing focus on Scope 3 emissions: As organizations seek a more complete picture of their carbon impact, attention is increasingly turning to emissions across the value chain. Supplier engagement, product life-cycle data and transport emissions are becoming central to carbon management strategies.
• Expansion of carbon removal and nature-based solutions: Forest restoration, wetland conservation and emerging technologies such as direct air capture are attracting growing interest. While these approaches are not a substitute for emission reduction, they may play a complementary role in broader climate strategies.
• Circular approaches to products and materials: Designing products for reuse, repair and recycling can help reduce waste, lower demand for virgin resources and cut carbon emissions throughout the product life cycle.

Carbon pricing is also becoming an important consideration. For decades, greenhouse gas emissions were largely treated as an environmental externality. Increasingly, however, they are being assigned a tangible economic value. As this trend accelerates, understanding a carbon footprint will become not only a sustainability imperative, but a business necessity.

Reducing our carbon impact

A carbon footprint is often presented as an environmental metric. In reality, it is something much more practical: a source of insight.

Every tonne of greenhouse gases tells a story about how energy is produced, how materials are sourced, how products are designed and how businesses operate. Understanding that story helps organizations see connections that might otherwise remain hidden: inefficiencies that increase costs, dependencies that create risk, or opportunities that support innovation and growth.

As the transition to renewable energy gathers pace and expectations around transparency continue to rise, carbon footprint assessment is becoming an increasingly valuable business capability. Organizations that understand their carbon emissions are better positioned to make informed decisions, strengthen resilience and identify where meaningful emission reduction can deliver the greatest impact.

The future will belong not simply to those that emit less, but to those that understand more – about their operations, their value chains and the consequences of the choices they make every day.

---

Glossary

• Carbon footprint
  sum of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and GHG removals of the subject expressed as carbon dioxide equivalents
  Notes:
  - For a product, the carbon footprint is based on a life-cycle assessment using the single impact category of climate change in accordance with ISO 14067.
  - For an organization, the carbon footprint is equivalent to the sum of the direct GHG emissions, indirect GHG emissions and GHG removals, if applicable, within the boundary of the subject quantified in accordance with ISO 14064-1.
  [ISO 14068-1:2023, 3.2.4]
• Carbon dioxide equivalent
  CO₂e
  unit for comparing the radiative forcing of a greenhouse gas (GHG) to that of carbon dioxide
  Note: The carbon dioxide equivalent is calculated using the mass of a given GHG multiplied by its global warming potential.
  [ISO 14064-1:2018, 3.1.13]
• Carbon offsetting
  mechanism for compensating for all or a part of the carbon footprint of a product or the partial carbon footprint of a product through the prevention of the release of, reduction in, or removal of an amount of greenhouse gas emissions in a process outside the product system under study
  Example: Investment outside the relevant product system, e.g. in renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency measures, afforestation/reforestation.
  [Adapted from ISO 14067:2018, 3.1.1.7]
• Global warming potential
  GWP
  index, based on radiative properties of greenhouse gases (GHG), measuring the radiative forcing following a pulse emission of a unit mass of a given GHG in the present-day atmosphere integrated over a chosen time horizon, relative to that of carbon dioxide (CO₂)
  [ISO 14064-1:2018, 3.1.12]
• Greenhouse gas
  GHG
  gaseous constituent of the atmosphere, both natural and anthropogenic, that absorbs and emits radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of infrared radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface, the atmosphere and clouds
  [Adapted from ISO 14064-1:2018, 3.1.1]
• Greenhouse gas activity data
  GHG activity data
  quantitative measure of activity that results in a greenhouse gas (GHG) emission or GHG removal
  Example: Amount of energy, fuels or electricity consumed, material produced, service provided, area of land affected.
  [ISO 14064-1:2018, 3.2.1]
• Greenhouse gas emission
  GHG emission
  release of a greenhouse gas into the atmosphere
  [ISO 14064-1:2018, 3.1.5]
• Greenhouse gas emission factor
  GHG emission factor
  coefficient relating greenhouse gas (GHG) activity data with the GHG emission
  Note: A GHG emission factor could include an oxidation component.
  [ISO 14064-1:2018, 3.1.7]
• Greenhouse gas emission reduction
  GHG emission reduction
  quantified decrease in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between a baseline scenario and the GHG project
  [ISO 14064-2:2019, 3.1.7]
• Greenhouse gas removal
  GHG removal
  withdrawal of a greenhouse gas from the atmosphere by greenhouse gas sinks
  [ISO 14064-1:2018, 3.1.6]
• Greenhouse gas sink
  GHG sink
  process that removes a greenhouse gas from the atmosphere
  Note: A process can be natural or anthropogenic.
  [ISO 14068-1:2023, 3.2.10]
• Life-cycle assessment
  LCA
  compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle
  Note: “Environmental impact” is defined in ISO 14001:2026, 3.2.4.
  [ISO 14067:2018, 3.1.4.3]
• Scope 1 emission
  Direct GHG emission
  greenhouse gas emission from sources owned or directly controlled by the organization
  Example:
  - Process emissions (such as CO2 that arises from the breakdown of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) during cement manufacture)
  - Emissions from stationary combustion
  - Emissions from mobile combustion
  - Fugitive emissions (such as methane emissions from coal mines and refrigerant leaks)
  Notes:
  - Scope 1 emissions do not include those occurring from natural ecosystems owned or controlled by the organization that are not under management or remain in a natural state and have not been modified.
  - A source is a human-based activity or process that releases a GHG into the atmosphere.
  [Adapted from ISO 50100:2026, 3.5.4]
• Scope 2 emission
  Indirect GHG emission from purchased energy
  greenhouse gas (GHG) emission from the generation of purchased electricity, heat, cooling or steam consumed by the organization
  Notes:
  - Purchased electricity is brought into the organizational boundary.
  - Scope 2 emissions can include other purchased energy sources brought into the organizational boundary (e.g. compressed air).
  [Adapted from ISO 50100:2026, 3.5.5]
• Scope 3 emission
  Indirect GHG emission
  greenhouse gas (GHG) emission that is a consequence of the organization’s activities but arises from sources that are not owned or directly controlled by the organization
  Example: Extraction and production of purchased materials, transportation of purchased fuels, use of sold products and services.
  Note: Scope 3 emissions include all attributable value chain GHG emissions not included in Scope 1 emissions or Scope 2 emissions.
  [Adapted from ISO 50100:2026, 3.5.6]