What is carbon footprint?

	mytem360 / General information on carbon footprint
	Know the significance of carbon footprint

1/ Carbon footprint: what is it?

The carbon footprint is a diagnostic tool invented by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) to understand and analyze the activities of individuals, companies, local authorities and administrations in terms of direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions.

It counts 6 gases according to a method whose rules are public and officially recognized by international agreements:

- carbon dioxide or CO²
- methane
- nitrous oxide
- hydrofluorocarbon
- perfluorocarbon
- sulfur hexafluoride

CO2 is the most common gas and has therefore become a reference when it comes to carbon balance data. Indeed, the five other gases are converted into carbon equivalents and the final result of the carbon balance is expressed in tons or kg of CO² equivalent.

The carbon footprint has become a registered trademark that is part of a real approach to reducing the environmental impact of greenhouse gases. Often, companies value the carbon footprint in their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). Its scope is wide and its process is divided into several distinct steps.

First of all, it raises awareness about global warming and its consequences on our planet. Then, the objective is to establish a perimeter of analysis in order to collect the information to be taken into consideration and to exploit it. From the results obtained, it will remain to define an action plan to limit carbon dioxide emissions and to apply the new measures.

In summary, the carbon footprint involves the following six key steps:

Raising awareness of the greenhouse effect
Definition of the scope of the study
Collecting the data
Exploiting the results
Establishing courses of action to reduce GHG emissions (greenhouse gases)
Launching of GHG reduction actions (with particular emphasis on change management methods)

2/ The carbon assessment: a mandatory assessment

Since the Grenelle II law of July 2010, the carbon footprint has become mandatory for a certain number of public and private actors. It is called a "regulatory GHG assessment" because, in addition to including the method for calculating the carbon footprint, it must also summarize the measures and actions planned as a result of the results.

This mandatory carbon footprint concerns companies with more than 500 employees in metropolitan France and more than 250 employees in the French overseas departments; local authorities with more than 50,000 inhabitants; public establishments with more than 250 employees and government departments. Since 2015, the law on the energy transition for green growth has established that companies have to carry out the assessment every four years, as opposed to three years for government departments, local authorities and other public establishments.

3/ How is a carbon footprint calculated?

The method for calculating the carbon footprint considers the entire life cycle of the products and services offered by a private or public actor. It is compatible with the ISO 14064 standard and the GHG Protocol initiative. This method obviously takes into account the six gases mentioned above, but is also based on the following emission items

- energy, for which the direct consumption of the activity is listed (kilowatts, for example)

- inputs, which represent the quantities purchased (the amount in euros, the volume, etc.),

- freight, where the weight, distances and modes of transport of goods are recorded,

- travel, in terms of people, mode of transport and distance travelled,

- the energy required to use a product or service.

All these data will then be translated into emissions using the emission factor from the Base Carbone ® (database administered by ADEME).

The latter is a coefficient that will allow public and private actors to convert their data into kilograms (kgCO2e) or tons of CO² equivalent (tCO2e).

source: https://transitionmalvernhills.org.uk/sldies2019/

Key definitions:

ADEME:

The Agency for Ecological Transition, formerly the Agency for the Environment and Energy Management, is a French industrial and commercial public establishment created in 1991. For several years, France has chosen to change its development model to one that is low in energy and resources, limiting greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants.
In this context, ADEME is the State's operator to support the necessary transition, whose issues are of course environmental, but also the social and societal dynamics essential to support the change, as well as the essential basis for the competitiveness of our companies and our territories.

Greenhouse gases:

Greenhouse gases (GHG) are gases that absorb part of the sun's rays and redistribute them in the form of radiation within the earth's atmosphere, a phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect. The increase in their concentration in the Earth's atmosphere is one of the factors responsible for global warming.

More than forty greenhouse gases have been identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), including Water Vapor (H2O), Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Ozone (O3), Nitrous Oxide (N2O), Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6).

Carbon dioxide is mainly produced by the combustion of fossil fuels (oil, coal) and biomass.
Nitrous oxide (N2O) comes from agricultural activities, biomass burning and chemicals such as nitric acid.
Methane (CH4) is mainly generated by agriculture (rice fields, livestock). A part of the emissions comes from the production and distribution of gas and oil, coal extraction, their combustion and landfills.
Fluorinated gases (HFCs, PFCs, SF6) are used in refrigeration systems and in aerosols and insulating foams. PFCs and SF6 are used in the semiconductor industry. F-gases have a warming power 1,300 to 24,000 times greater than carbon dioxide and a very long lifetime. This is why they represent a real danger despite their modest share in total GHG emissions.

In order to limit the accentuation of the greenhouse effect and the rise of temperatures on the surface of the planet, policies of reduction or limitation of the emissions of certain GHG were set up by many countries of which France in particular within the framework of the Kyoto protocol (1997).

Carbon dioxide (CO²):

Carbon dioxide, a natural substance composed of carbon and oxygen, is also called "carbon dioxide" or "CO²". It takes the form of an odorless and colorless gas. Its discovery dates back to the 18th century by a Scottish physicist named Joseph Black.

Carbon dioxide is one of the main greenhouse gases. As such, it helps control the temperature of the planet by trapping the infrared rays released by the sun in the atmosphere. Without greenhouse gases, the Earth's temperature would not exceed -18°!

Human activity significantly increases the amount of CO2 in the air. Between 1970 and 2010, according to the COP21 report, industry and the use of fossil fuels accounted for 78% of CO2 emissions. This disruption of the natural balance can have unpredictable effects on the Earth's temperature. Excess CO2 in the atmosphere is one of the main causes of global warming.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, in 2015 the planet reached a record level of carbon dioxide. An estimated 32.1 billion tons of CO2 were released into the atmosphere that year.

ISO 14064 standard:

The ISO 14064-1 standard developed within the ISO/TC207 technical committee "environmental management", specifies, for organizations, the principles and requirements for quantifying and reporting on greenhouse gas emissions and removals.

GHG Protocol Initiative:

In 1998, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the World Resources Institutes (WRI), in partnership with companies, NGOs and government representatives, developed a GHG accounting and reporting methodology for companies: the GHG Protocol "A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard".

This protocol, widely distributed internationally, served as the basis for the development of ISO 14064-1.

In October 2011, the GHG Protocol was supplemented by the "Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard", which specifies the potential indirect GHG emissions of an organization.

Since July 2014, a method dedicated to the Territories is available: the Global Protocol for Community-scale GHG emissions.

The Base Carbone ®

The Base Carbone ® is a public database of emission factors necessary for carbon accounting exercises.
The articulation and convergence of environmental regulations requires a homogenization of data. The Base Carbone ® aims to be this centralized data source. Today, it is the reference database of the article L229-25 of the Environment Code. And it is fully consistent with article L1341-3 of the Transport Code and the default values of the European Emissions Trading Scheme.
The data in the Base Carbone ® can be consulted free of charge by all. Moreover, the originality of this tool is that it allows third parties to propose their own data. These data are then evaluated on their quality and transparency, then validated or refused for inclusion in the Carbon Footprint ®.
The administration of the Base Carbone ® is provided by ADEME. However, its orientations and the data it contains are validated by a governance committee comprising various public and private players.
Finally, transparency is one of the key elements of the Carbon Footprint ®. Documentation details the assumptions used in the construction of all the data in the database and refers to the studies that enabled their construction.