What is carbon reporting?

The Pilio Carbon Footprint tool is built on the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, which is a comprehensive international standard framework for companies to measure and report GHG emissions from their operations, value chains and mitigation actions. The GHG Protocol has developed over the course of a 20+ year partnership between the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

Under the Protocol, GHG emissions are organised under three scopes:

- Scope 1 (direct emissions) emissions are those from activities owned or controlled by the reporting organisation. Examples of Scope 1 emissions include emissions from combustion in owned or controlled boilers, furnaces and vehicles, and emissions from chemical production in owned or controlled process equipment.

- Scope 2 (indirect energy-related) emissions are those released into the atmosphere that are associated with the reporting organisation’s consumption of purchased electricity, heat, steam, and cooling. These indirect emissions are a consequence of the reporting organisation’s energy use but occur at sources you do not own or control.

- Scope 3 (all other indirect) emissions are a consequence of the reporting organisation’s actions that occur at sources not owned or controlled by it and are not classed as Scope 1 or 2 emissions. Examples of Scope 3 emissions are business travel by means not owned or controlled by the reporting organisation, waste disposal, materials, or fuels that the reporting organisation purchases. Scope 3 emissions can be from activities that are upstream or downstream of your organisation.

The Pilio carbon footprint tool

In this context, Pilio has developed a tool to help companies understand their total carbon footprint.

We have made Scope 1,2,3 carbon emissions reporting quick and understandable, with an interactive tool supported by guidelines and templates on data collection.

The tool helps users in reporting across 6 different "Impact" sections, which are then categorised by "Impacts" or "Scopes" when presenting the results:

• Energy

• Transport

• Water

• Waste

• Procurement

• Other

In order to reflect the diversity of data collected by organisations, users can import or manually input various data types:

• energy (e.g. kWh and more),

• usage (e.g. litres, m³ and more),

• mileage,

• weight,

• carbon (CO₂-equivalent),

• and cost (£).

To learn more about how we calculate carbon emissions, please check our FAQ on the Carbon Footprint tool methodology.