What is a Carbon Footprint ?

The sum of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs) of any particular Human Activity is generally referred to as a Carbon Footprint.

A CFP is a measure of the impacts of an activity on global warming by calculating the greenhouse gas emissions of these activities, usually stated as a ‘CO2e’, or carbon dioxide equivalent. This is done to show all key greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) expressed as a common unit, allowing easy comparison across organisations, industries and countries. What are carbon footprint scopes? Emissions are defined under three categories, or ‘Scopes’ – Scope 1, 2 and 3.

A Carbon Footprint (CFP) may be attributable to an Individual Citizen, an Organisation of Citizens such as a School or University, or a Business Related activity.

Taken all together, for an Individual State such as the United Kingdom, the sum of all such CFPs is termed a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDA).

A CFP is calculated through the evaluation of the different GHG ‘Scopes’. These are Scope 1 (direct emissions ), Scope 2 (indirect emissions), and Scope 3 (supply chain emissions). More detailed information may be found here.

The CFPs of Organisations and Individual Citizens are usually only comprised of Scope 1 and Scope 2 totals, and are relatively easy to calculate based upon the accounting of energy sources and usage.

There are many online software programs available that can help those Organisations to estimate their total CFPs, and how they can be reduced in line with the objectives of the Nation State.

Some businesses are also only responsible for Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, but larger companies are also being increasing asked to calculate their Supply Chain Scope 3 emissions.

Scope 3 calculations are very complex because they involve the emissions of many companies involved in a particular supply chain. In effect, some parts of a Scope 3 calculations actually comprises the Scope 1 emissions of those companies, some of whom may be quite small. Building a picture of how these different Scope 1 emissions link together can be likened to solving a complex jigsaw puzzle with many hundreds of thousands of different pieces