Made to Measure: Calculating Your Carbon Footprint

By Emily Richardson

With so many green buzzwords swirling about, this growing language of sustainability jargon can easily overwhelm us. But when we hear businesses, governments, academics and average consumers discussing carbon footprints, it stands to reason the phrases shelf life may last longer than even the most efficient compact fluorescent light bulb.

Now that the link between increasing carbon dioxide concentrations and climate change is all but proven, your companys carbon footprint may well emerge as a strategic business measure on par with revenues, share appreciation and inventory turnover.

So what is a carbon footprint? The term is widely defined as a measure of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with an individual, product, event or organization. While carbon dioxide is just one of the usual climate change suspects methane, nitrous oxide and ozone are others a carbon footprint is often expressed in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) to incorporate the impacts of these less-scrutinized, but equally culpable compounds.

So why is carbon footprinting important? It would be tempting for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to dismiss the relevance of carbon footprinting, shrugging it off as either too peripheral a concern or the responsibility of heavily polluting multinationals. But the reality is that SMEs in Canada are responsible for nearly half of the countrys contribution to global climate change.

Nearly everything that goes into your companys operation emits greenhouse gases, both directly (through daily commuting and business trips) and indirectly (through the demand for electricity to run lights and equipment).

Whats more, when the worlds largest retailer Wal-Mart announced last fall it would begin to request carbon footprints from a number of its 60,000 suppliers, the impetus for these firms to determine their footprints began to domino through the supply chain.

So how do you begin to calculate your carbon footprint? Ask business owners for their annual profits or growth in sales and many can respond immediately. However, ask for their carbon footprint and the response may not be so confident.

Mindful of the resources of SMEs, a number of simple but cost-free calculators are now available online. Carbon footprint calculators ask users to input several figures, such as energy consumption and number of business trips per year, then multiply these inputs by constant values.

These constants can vary dramatically in accuracy and methodologies. For example, the carbon footprint for a manufacturing company in British Columbia where hydro is the predominant form of electricity generation should be vastly different from one in Nova Scotia where coal comprises the lions share of the electricity system mix. Most calculators will not account for this difference, and with this in mind, users are advised to consider the calculated figure as something of a rough estimate.

Still, the figure shouldnt be discounted entirely because measuring your companys footprint is the first step in reducing it. The Eco-Efficiency Centres website, found at www.dal.ca/eco-efficiency, features a section with links to calculators and other related resources.

The businesses adage of you cant manage what you dont measure rings just as true for carbon emissions as it does for costs and revenues. As environmental considerations can now sway corporate decision-making like never before, the day when your carbon footprint becomes an influential business metric is becoming an ever-brighter glimmer on the horizon.

Emily Richardson is an intern with the Eco-Efficiency Centre and a Master of Resource and Environmental Management candidate with the School for Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University.

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