The truth about... carbon calcuators
Carbon calculators have flooded the web in all shapes and forms. But can companies rely on them to work out their emissions? Emma Clarke reports.
No green-leaning website is now complete without its own carbon calculator. Whether linked to a carbon-offsetting scheme or designed to raise awareness, there are dozens littered across the web.
The first calculators were designed for personal use. Tools from companies such as The Carbon Neutral Company and Climate Care create a figure that determines a cost to offset. Others from the likes of WWF and Defra are designed to raise awareness.
But with proliferation comes inconsistency. National Energy Foundation’s ‘Carbon Workout’ calculator counted my carbon footprint at 9.7 tonnes, compared with a 5.3-tonne sum on Defra’s ‘Act on CO2’ calculator.
Designers of these carbon calculators say the aim isn’t necessarily to offer the most detailed count of an individual’s carbon emissions. Instead it’s to raise awareness about the scale of the impact or quickly produce figures for a carbon offset.
Fair enough. But can carbon calculators that are aimed at businesses get away with such a lax approach?
Tooled up
Tools designed for measuring a business’s carbon emissions are available from The Carbon Trust, Carbon Neutral Company, BT, Pure Trust and C Level. Enablon, the sustainable development software solution provider, also works with large companies to build online carbon calculators for their personal use.
Unlike tools such as Defra’s, which ask questions about how many lights a house uses, business carbon calculators go straight for the hard data. This centres on annual energy consumption, fuel consumption of company vehicles and details on business travel.
Phil Wolski, head of fundraising at offsetting charity PURE, says the aim of these calculators isn’t just to create an idiot-proof user experience in order to raise awareness. And even though their tool is linked to an offsetting facility, offsetting is not necessarily the main aim: “To reduce emissions you’ve got to manage them, and to manage them, you need to measure them.”
Flight from reality
One major discrepancy between calculators is how they measure emissions from flights. There is still uncertainty concerning the true impact of aviation, but the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recommended that a 2.7 multiplier should be applied to CO2 emissions calculations for air travel to take into consideration radiative forcing.
Only a few (Climate Friendly, Resurgence.org, NEF) go this far. Some (Defra and Climate Care) double the CO2 emission count. Others (C Level and Pure Trust) do not apply a multiplier at all. Some (Carbon Trust) do not make it clear whether a multiplier has been used or not.
Missing details
Another source of inaccuracies is the emissions conversion factor, which is used by online calculators to convert data sources from utility bills, car mileage and fuel consumption etc, into CO2 equivalent data. Most online calculators use Defra’s 2007 GHG conversion factors for companies compiled by consultancy AEA Energy & Environment. The other, and more accurate option, is for companies to use CO2 data from electricity suppliers (available from Electricity Info) But this is detail that online carbon calculators are currently unable to offer.
Slipping through the net
Online calculators also fail to provide a full assessment of a company’s footprint that includes supply chain emissions. Stuart Bond, head of research and metrics at WWF, says they also neglect the issue of drawing boundaries between staff’s personal emissions, for example from commuting, and actual business emissions.
Nor are companies with industrial and agricultural processes that result in the release of greenhouse gas emissions catered for. George Marshall, founder of charity Climate Outreach & Information Network (COIN), advises these companies as well as those that produce their own energy to work with consultancies to get an accurate view of emissions.
Marshall views carbon calculators as a useful starting point for small to medium- sized businesses, particularly in the service industry, where the carbon footprint comes mainly from electricity, heating and transport.
Precision design
For companies considering using an online calculator, the first stage is to determine its scope.
Most calculators, including those from Pure Trust and The Carbon Trust, use the definitions provided in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (the standard from the World Resources Institute) covering direct GHG emissions, indirect GHG emissions from electricity and travel emissions.
But carbon calculators can go into further detail, says Philippe Tesler, co-founder of Enablon. The carbon calculators that his company designs for clients can be designed around the specific operations of a company or industry. The calculator for Air France KLM focuses on detailed emissions details for each stage of a flight, whereas the tool for electronic goods company Canon targets the production process and emissions from suppliers. Developing such tools takes more work up front, says Tesler, but once designed, they run themselves. And because the figures are more accurate, they can be used for reporting on emissions quotas or regulation or for external communication, he says.
Clear and simple
Tesler says getting data at the lowest level, such as recording the number of litres of fuel used or how much gas and electricity is consumed in kilowatt hours, also helps make the calculator more user-friendly. “The more complex the system, the more likely they are to make mistakes, and the less likely they are to use it again,” he says.
A good system also needs to have a clear audit trail, Tesler adds. “It must allow the user to understand where each figure comes from, how it was calculated and which emissions factors were used.”
Most calculators aimed at businesses give information about the sources of figures and limitations of the tools.
Progress by numbers
Calculators on the web lack sophistication in terms of targeting advice. All are linked to advice on reducing emissions but not one suggests, for example, that it might be greener to take the train if you enter emission figures for a short-haul flight. But this will change, says Tesler.
Enablon has already built mechanisms into its carbon calculator software that triggers actions to reduce emissions. One option is to set thresholds. If a user enters an emissions figure above a threshold, it will trigger an alert so that the company can react to what is causing the increase.
Currently less than 30% of Enablon’s customers use this mechanism. “The issue was first to have accurate and auditable reporting of emissions. The second step is to make sure information can be used to reduce emissions,” he says.
And until calculators such as PURE’s that are aimed at small to medium-sized businesses have reached this level of sophistication, Wolski doesn’t think users should ignore them. “With such a culture change as this, one risk is trying to run before you walk and building in a cost perception so great that companies just turn off. It’s a case of taking things step by step.”
Online carbon calculators for businesses
The Carbon Trust: www.carbontrust.co.uk/footprintcalculator
BT: http://www.btplc.com/ClimateChange/CarbonCalculator/air.cfm
The Carbon Neutral Company: http://www.carbonneutral.com/sbc/index2.asp
Footprinter: http://www.footprinter.com
C Level: http://www.clevel.co.uk/business-calc.htm
Pure Trust: http://www.puretrust.org.uk/Home/Business/Calculator.asp
NEF: http://www.nef.org.uk/greencompany/co2calculator.htm
Terrapass: http://www.terrapass.com/business/
ClimateCare: http://www.climatecare.org/business/business-co2-calculator
No green-leaning website is now complete without its own carbon calculator. Whether linked to a carbon-offsetting scheme or designed to raise awareness, there are dozens littered across the web.
The first calculators were designed for personal use. Tools from companies such as The Carbon Neutral Company and Climate Care create a figure that determines a cost to offset. Others from the likes of WWF and Defra are designed to raise awareness.
But with proliferation comes inconsistency. National Energy Foundation’s ‘Carbon Workout’ calculator counted my carbon footprint at 9.7 tonnes, compared with a 5.3-tonne sum on Defra’s ‘Act on CO2’ calculator.
Designers of these carbon calculators say the aim isn’t necessarily to offer the most detailed count of an individual’s carbon emissions. Instead it’s to raise awareness about the scale of the impact or quickly produce figures for a carbon offset.
Fair enough. But can carbon calculators that are aimed at businesses get away with such a lax approach?
Tooled up
Tools designed for measuring a business’s carbon emissions are available from The Carbon Trust, Carbon Neutral Company, BT, Pure Trust and C Level. Enablon, the sustainable development software solution provider, also works with large companies to build online carbon calculators for their personal use.
Unlike tools such as Defra’s, which ask questions about how many lights a house uses, business carbon calculators go straight for the hard data. This centres on annual energy consumption, fuel consumption of company vehicles and details on business travel.
Phil Wolski, head of fundraising at offsetting charity PURE, says the aim of these calculators isn’t just to create an idiot-proof user experience in order to raise awareness. And even though their tool is linked to an offsetting facility, offsetting is not necessarily the main aim: “To reduce emissions you’ve got to manage them, and to manage them, you need to measure them.”
Flight from reality
One major discrepancy between calculators is how they measure emissions from flights. There is still uncertainty concerning the true impact of aviation, but the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recommended that a 2.7 multiplier should be applied to CO2 emissions calculations for air travel to take into consideration radiative forcing.
Only a few (Climate Friendly, Resurgence.org, NEF) go this far. Some (Defra and Climate Care) double the CO2 emission count. Others (C Level and Pure Trust) do not apply a multiplier at all. Some (Carbon Trust) do not make it clear whether a multiplier has been used or not.
Missing details
Another source of inaccuracies is the emissions conversion factor, which is used by online calculators to convert data sources from utility bills, car mileage and fuel consumption etc, into CO2 equivalent data. Most online calculators use Defra’s 2007 GHG conversion factors for companies compiled by consultancy AEA Energy & Environment. The other, and more accurate option, is for companies to use CO2 data from electricity suppliers (available from Electricity Info) But this is detail that online carbon calculators are currently unable to offer.
Slipping through the net
Online calculators also fail to provide a full assessment of a company’s footprint that includes supply chain emissions. Stuart Bond, head of research and metrics at WWF, says they also neglect the issue of drawing boundaries between staff’s personal emissions, for example from commuting, and actual business emissions.
Nor are companies with industrial and agricultural processes that result in the release of greenhouse gas emissions catered for. George Marshall, founder of charity Climate Outreach & Information Network (COIN), advises these companies as well as those that produce their own energy to work with consultancies to get an accurate view of emissions.
Marshall views carbon calculators as a useful starting point for small to medium- sized businesses, particularly in the service industry, where the carbon footprint comes mainly from electricity, heating and transport.
Precision design
For companies considering using an online calculator, the first stage is to determine its scope.
Most calculators, including those from Pure Trust and The Carbon Trust, use the definitions provided in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (the standard from the World Resources Institute) covering direct GHG emissions, indirect GHG emissions from electricity and travel emissions.
But carbon calculators can go into further detail, says Philippe Tesler, co-founder of Enablon. The carbon calculators that his company designs for clients can be designed around the specific operations of a company or industry. The calculator for Air France KLM focuses on detailed emissions details for each stage of a flight, whereas the tool for electronic goods company Canon targets the production process and emissions from suppliers. Developing such tools takes more work up front, says Tesler, but once designed, they run themselves. And because the figures are more accurate, they can be used for reporting on emissions quotas or regulation or for external communication, he says.
Clear and simple
Tesler says getting data at the lowest level, such as recording the number of litres of fuel used or how much gas and electricity is consumed in kilowatt hours, also helps make the calculator more user-friendly. “The more complex the system, the more likely they are to make mistakes, and the less likely they are to use it again,” he says.
A good system also needs to have a clear audit trail, Tesler adds. “It must allow the user to understand where each figure comes from, how it was calculated and which emissions factors were used.”
Most calculators aimed at businesses give information about the sources of figures and limitations of the tools.
Progress by numbers
Calculators on the web lack sophistication in terms of targeting advice. All are linked to advice on reducing emissions but not one suggests, for example, that it might be greener to take the train if you enter emission figures for a short-haul flight. But this will change, says Tesler.
Enablon has already built mechanisms into its carbon calculator software that triggers actions to reduce emissions. One option is to set thresholds. If a user enters an emissions figure above a threshold, it will trigger an alert so that the company can react to what is causing the increase.
Currently less than 30% of Enablon’s customers use this mechanism. “The issue was first to have accurate and auditable reporting of emissions. The second step is to make sure information can be used to reduce emissions,” he says.
And until calculators such as PURE’s that are aimed at small to medium-sized businesses have reached this level of sophistication, Wolski doesn’t think users should ignore them. “With such a culture change as this, one risk is trying to run before you walk and building in a cost perception so great that companies just turn off. It’s a case of taking things step by step.”
Online carbon calculators for businesses
The Carbon Trust: www.carbontrust.co.uk/footprintcalculator
BT: http://www.btplc.com/ClimateChange/CarbonCalculator/air.cfm
The Carbon Neutral Company: http://www.carbonneutral.com/sbc/index2.asp
Footprinter: http://www.footprinter.com
C Level: http://www.clevel.co.uk/business-calc.htm
Pure Trust: http://www.puretrust.org.uk/Home/Business/Calculator.asp
NEF: http://www.nef.org.uk/greencompany/co2calculator.htm
Terrapass: http://www.terrapass.com/business/
ClimateCare: http://www.climatecare.org/business/business-co2-calculator
