Carbon footprinting is a form of impact measurement specifically focused on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is perhaps the most commonly used non-financial measure of performance and there is a huge range of sector-specific frameworks and standards that describe how to apply it within different contexts.

As with other forms of impact measurement, carbon footprinting can be used at the product, project or at an organisation level.

At the corporate and organisational level most of these frameworks tend to lead back to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, which is generally considered to be the best practice standard for greenhouse gas reporting. Within the UK, there is also the Government’s Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) guidelines which are a simplified version of the GHG Protocol that organisations above certain thresholds are required to report against.

Under SECR and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol emissions are typically divided into the following three scopes:

• Scope 1 - arising directly as a result of the on-site combustion of fuel. Examples include the emissions from gas boilers or the fuel that is used in company vehicles.
  
  
• Scope 2 - arising indirectly as a result of the purchase of other forms of energy. Examples include the emissions from electricity, steam, heating and cooling.
  
  
• Scope 3 - arising from an organisation’s wider value chain; both those that are associated with the upstream supply-chain and those that are associated with the downstream provision of goods and services.

Conducting a carbon footprint is sometimes referred to as delivering a baseline assessment. Many organisations use their carbon baseline to develop a net zero strategy or zero carbon roadmap. This has a number of steps including scoping, data collection, emissions calculations, definition strategy and measuring progress.

Decarbonising housing associations

One area where we are seeing more interest in footprinting is with housing associations, helping them to develop robust carbon baselines and decarbonisation roadmaps. 

When working with housing associations, we use GHG protocol to measure their corporate emissions and to estimate the emissions associated with their property portfolios.

Emissions considered in the assessment include:

• Scope 1 - direct emissions associated with organisational facilities, refrigerants and vehicles.
  
  
• Scope 2 - indirect emissions associated with purchased energy.
  
  
• Scope 3 ­- purchased goods and services, expenditure on capital goods, disposal and treatment of waste, business travel, employee commuting and emissions from tenanted properties.

These assessments need to comply with the requirements of the SECR guidelines and can be used to provide the basis for planning a decarbonisation roadmap.

When creating these roadmaps, particular emphasis is placed on developing an ‘attribution orientated strategy’ which sets out areas of focus that can achieve the greatest impact.

With most decarbonisation pathways occurring over a 30 years or so period, it is important to focus attention on nearer term commitments over the next 5-10 years rather than overly fixating on pathways beyond that.

Further information

Contact Tom Hill

Decarbonising the housing association sector