Corporate Carbon Assessment: 5 Steps to Success

A corporate carbon footprint assessment is a key tool for understanding your company's environmental impact and implementing concrete actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But where do you start? What data should you consider? How do you calculate your company's carbon emissions?

This article guides you through the five key steps of conducting your company's carbon footprint assessment. Follow this process to not only address environmental challenges but also reduce your company's carbon footprint with a robust and achievable low-carbon strategy.

‍

Step 1: Committing your company to the Bilan Carbone®

‍

The first essential step to a successful corporate Bilan Carbone® is commitment. It starts by creating an environment conducive to the project's implementation.

Here are the key elements for a successful first step:

• Involve management : This is crucial. Leadership involvement ensures the necessary support for the carbon assessment, whether in terms of human resources, budget, or allocated time.
• Kick off the project : Organizing an official launch helps clearly define the scope of the carbon assessment, set objectives, and rally the team around the project.
• Communicate regularly : Communication is essential to ensure transparency and engagement from everyone. Keep the project team informed of progress and share the carbon assessment results with management and other employees.
• Anticipate the workload: A carbon assessment can be a significant undertaking, so it is necessary to distribute responsibilities effectively and anticipate the human and material resources needed for each team member.
• Look beyond legal requirements : Beyond mere compliance, view this project as an opportunity to improve long-term practices. The carbon assessment can become a driver for corporate transformation, not just a legal obligation.

These actions help lay a solid foundation for your project and motivate all stakeholders involved.

‍

👉 To fully understand what a carbon assessment is, check out our article: https://www.altopi.eco/blog-rse/quest-ce-que-le-bilan-carbone

‍

Step 2: Identifying the data needed to calculate the company's greenhouse gas emissions

‍

The second crucial step in conducting a corporate carbon assessment is identifying the data to be collected. This involves determining exactly what information is required to calculate greenhouse gas emissions.

1. Define the time and geographic scope
   1. You will need to define a time frame, i.e., the period during which you will measure your greenhouse gas emissions. This could cover a year, a quarter, or any other period relevant to the company.
2. Map the company's activities
   1. Once the time frame is defined, you must establish the company's activity scope. This means understanding which activities are covered by the carbon assessment.

To do this, it is important to map your value chain. This mapping will identify all production stages, from suppliers to final consumption, and thus determine what is included and what is excluded from the emission calculations.

Several types of activities are distinguished here:

• Scope 1 : These are direct emissions linked to company activities, such as energy consumption (electricity, gas), emissions from company vehicles or air travel, or those generated by internal industrial processes.
• Scope 2 : These are indirect emissions linked to energy consumption (e.g., electricity or heat consumed by the company but produced by another entity).
• Scope 3: These are the most complex indirect emissions to identify, as they stem from supply chains, purchased products or services (upstream scope 3), and the management of products or services after their use (downstream scope 3). This scope is broad and covers interactions with suppliers, partners, and final consumers.

‍

.

‍

3. Pinpoint the necessary data

Once you have mapped your activity flows, the goal is to precisely define the data to be collected. This may include data on energy consumption, business travel, raw material purchases, or transport activities related to the distribution of your products or services.

This step is very important, as it will help clearly define what you are measuring and ensure you have all the necessary information to calculate emissions.

Once you have identified all the necessary data, you will be ready to move on to the next step: data collection.

‍

Step 3: Collect data for analysis

‍

The third step of the Carbon Assessment is the data collection phase. This is a crucial stage, as the reliability of your assessment depends directly on the quality of the data you gather.

Here is how to structure this step to make it effective:

1. Identify data collectors

The first sub-step is to determine who will be collecting data within the company. These are usually the people in charge of the various departments (Human Resources, General Services, Logistics, etc.).

2. Specify the required data

Next, it is important to clearly define the specific data you need to obtain.

Take commuting as an example: you will need to know how your employees get to work, the distance they travel, and the mode of transport they use.

Several options are available for this:

1. Employee survey: You can ask them directly via a survey.
2. Human Resources: HR departments may have information on employee residences and commutes via payroll or other location-based data.
3. Company vehicles: For company vehicles, you will need to obtain fuel consumption data from the general services department that manages the fleet.
4. Freight and external transport: If you use third-party providers for shipping goods, you will need to ask them directly for information on the CO₂ emissions related to their services.

3. Set a deadline for collection

To avoid wasting time during the collection phase, it is essential to set a deadline. This provides a clear timeframe for the team and prevents the process from dragging on.

4. Organize regular check-ins with collectors

To track progress, it is recommended to hold regular check-ins. These meetings help resolve any obstacles encountered and keep the collection process moving forward.

5. Create a communication channel for the team

Another key tip for a successful collection process is to set up a dedicated communication channel, such as a Teams group, a Slack channel, or an email thread. This will facilitate exchanges between project members, allow for quick questions, and encourage mutual support.

6. Verify data consistency

Once the data has been collected, it is important to verify its consistency.

For example, compare energy consumption across different company sites: if two sites have similar square footage and similar activities, their energy consumption should be relatively equal. If one consumes twice as much as the other, you may need to verify the accuracy of the information.

7. Collect supporting evidence for the data

Finally, in some cases—especially if you are subject to the CSRD or audits—you will need to collect evidence for the data you have recorded.

For example, for energy consumption, you will need to keep electricity and gas bills, etc., so you can prove the reliability of the information reported during audits.

‍

Step 4: Calculate the company's carbon footprint

‍

Now we reach the stage of measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated by the company's activities, using the carbon footprint method. Once all the data has been collected, it is time to apply emission factors to obtain the results in terms of carbon weight.

1. Apply carbon emission factors

An emission factor is a coefficient used to convert physical data (such as electricity consumption) into CO₂ equivalent emissions. It represents the carbon weight associated with a specific activity.

For example, for electricity consumption, the emission factor varies depending on the energy mix used. In France, for every 100 kWh of electricity consumed, a specific factor is applied to provide a carbon weight in CO₂ equivalent. This means that each type of consumption or activity (heating, travel, production of goods, etc.) will have a different emission factor, calculated using databases such as the ADEME Emprunte database or European databases like IcoInvent.

‍

2. Use physical data rather than monetary data

When calculating a carbon footprint, it is essential to avoid using monetary ratios (such as the price of a plane ticket) to ensure the results are not skewed. Monetary factors can fluctuate based on market prices and introduce uncertainty.

That is why we prioritize concrete physical data, such as the amount of fuel consumed, the kWh of electricity used, or the distance traveled for a given trip.

3. Take into account sector-specific emission factors

Emission factors come from various databases that are regularly updated to reflect industry changes. For example:

For a company heated by natural gas, the emission factor for 1 kWh consumed is 222g of CO₂. If the company uses electricity for heating, its impact is about four times lower.

These differences highlight the importance of choosing the right energy sources and seeking less polluting alternatives to help the company transition to greener energy and reduce its carbon footprint.

4. Measuring the carbon footprint of business travel

Let's take another example: business travel. The emission factor for a trip by high-speed train (TGV) will be significantly lower than for a flight or a car trip, which can help a company reduce its emissions by favoring certain modes of transport.

This calculation not only measures the carbon impact of the mode of transport but also identifies levers for action to reduce it.

5. Overall calculation

The overall carbon footprint calculation is the sum of emissions from all the categories and data analyzed. This step allows the company to precisely quantify its carbon footprint and establish a baseline before implementing reduction measures.

‍

Step 5: Reducing your company's carbon emissions

‍

This is the most critical stage of your corporate carbon footprint assessment, as it allows you to not only reduce your greenhouse gas emissions but also implement concrete actions to achieve your goals. Here is how to proceed:

1. Define a corporate carbon trajectory

The first step is to define a carbon trajectory, which means setting long-term greenhouse gas reduction targets. This trajectory must align with the findings of your carbon footprint assessment as well as national commitments, such as the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims for a 42% reduction in emissions by 2030 to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

2. Identify the main emission sources

Once your reduction strategy is defined, the next step is to identify the primary areas for reduction. This means focusing on the activities that generate the most emissions. For example, if employee commuting accounts for a large share of your emissions, you will need to explore solutions to reduce it, such as limiting car travel.

3. Inventory existing initiatives within the company

Before proposing new actions, it is crucial to take stock of initiatives already in place. This will allow you to see what the company is already doing, maintain those efforts, or strengthen them if they are insufficient to meet the targets set in your carbon trajectory.

4. Brainstorm reduction actions

Next, it’s time to come up with concrete actions to reduce emissions. For example, regarding commuting, this could include solutions like increasing remote work, offering a sustainable mobility allowance for employees, or encouraging the use of public transport or active travel (cycling, walking). For larger organizations, it is also possible to provide company shuttle buses.

5. Quantify reduction actions

It is then essential to quantify the impact of these actions on your carbon footprint. How much CO₂ equivalent will you save by implementing these initiatives? This helps measure the relevance and effectiveness of each action and track your progress against the targets set in your carbon trajectory.

6. Prioritize actions

Not all actions have the same impact. It is therefore necessary to prioritize them based on the highest emission sources. Some actions will yield immediate results, while others will require more time and investment. The goal is to be as efficient as possible in implementing your reduction measures.

7. Define tracking indicators

Once actions are defined, it is important to set performance indicators. For example, for commuting, you could set a target for the percentage of employees using public transport or active mobility. These indicators will be used to track progress and adjust actions based on the results.

8. Implement a transition plan

Finally, to achieve emission reductions, it is essential to implement a structured transition plan.

This includes:

1. Forming a project team dedicated to emission reduction.
2. Involving management to ensure support at all levels of the organization and guarantee that adequate resources are allocated.
3. Monitoring the plan's progress by holding regular meetings to evaluate achievements.
4. Engaging employees so that everyone is involved and informed about the actions being taken.
5. Communicating internally and externally: internally to keep employees informed of progress and involved, and externally to share your efforts with partners and clients, potentially encouraging them to adopt similar approaches.

In short, the reduction phase is about turning your carbon footprint data and goals into concrete, measurable actions. It’s not just about cutting emissions; it’s about weaving these actions into your overall business strategy for a lasting, meaningful impact.

Conducting a carbon assessment is a vital step in any company's green transition. By measuring and reducing your carbon footprint, you’re not just helping fight climate change—you’re also transforming your business model to boost efficiency, competitiveness, and appeal. It’s more than just compliance; it’s a chance to build a more responsible and sustainable business.

To learn more, watch our webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwVoJRllVug&t=529s&ab_channel=ALTOPI

Altopi is here to help with your 2025 carbon assessment

Our online carbon assessment tool makes it easy to accurately calculate your company's greenhouse gas emissions. We’ll guide you through data collection, entry, and the development of an action plan to lower your carbon footprint.

Get in touch!

‍