Measure Your Organisation’s Carbon Footprint or Greenhouse Gas Inventory

For an organisation, the term carbon footprint or greenhouse gas inventory includes the carbon emissions and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated directly from the organisation’s activities or use of fuels, and also indirectly from the use of electricity and from the use and disposal of materials, products and services.

By measuring its carbon footprint or GHG inventory, the organisation can manage and reduce emissions over time, and also use it for disclosure to stakeholders or for marketing and corporate social responsibility (CSR) purposes.

After calculating the carbon footprint, it is then possible for the organisation to take active steps to manage the emissions. The organisation can:

• Set emissions reduction targets
• Identify opportunities for energy efficiency and reduction of emissions
• Take action to implement emissions reduction projects
• Monitor the performance of the projects and improve accordingly

The approach to an organisation’s carbon footprint usually involves five steps:

1. Define a consistent methodology
2. Specify the boundary and scope involved
3. Obtain the emissions data and calculate the carbon footprint
4. Verify the results with a third party
5. Disclose the carbon footprint in a report and to stakeholders

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GHG Protocol

If your organisation wishes to calculate your carbon footprint or GHG inventory, you can follow the GHG Protocol produced by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD):

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard provides standards and guidance for companies and other organizations preparing a GHG emissions inventory. It covers the accounting and reporting of the six greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol — carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).

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ISO 14064

You can also follow the ISO 14064 from the International Organization for Standardization, which comprises three standards on specifications and guidance for the organisational and project levels, and for validation and verification. Read more about the standard here.

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Carbon Footprint Calculators

Or you can use these online carbon footprint calculators to estimate your carbon emissions:

• Carbon Trust
• Carbon Footprint
• The CarbonNeutral Company
• ClimateCare

Some of the above websites provide carbon offsets to help your organisation become carbon neutral.

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Carbon Disclosure Project

If you wish to study how companies disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, visit the Carbon Disclosure Project website:

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an independent not-for-profit organisation which holds the largest database of corporate climate change information in the world. The data is obtained from responses to CDP’s annual Information Requests, issued on behalf of institutional investors, purchasing organisations and government bodies. Since its formation in 2000, CDP has become the gold standard for carbon disclosure methodology and process, providing primary climate change data to the global market place.

Image credit: CMSeter; Plusverde.

Calculate Your Carbon Footprint

You can take individual action on climate change and the best way to start is to understand the size of your carbon footprint, which is the amount of carbon emissions that result directly and indirectly from your daily activities and lifestyle.

By calculating your carbon footprint, you can find out which activity generates more carbon emissions and take steps to change your lifestyle accordingly and reduce your emissions.

There are several online carbon footprint calculators that help you calculate your emissions and compare with the rest of the world. However, your carbon footprint may vary according to the calculator you use as these calculators vary by country, by activity and by the methodology behind the calculations.

What you can do is to calculate your carbon footprint using different calculators and take the average, or use a calculator that is catered for Singapore.

Here are some online carbon footprint calculators:

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• SEC Climate Portal (for Singapore)
• Singapore Polytechnic (for Singapore)
• My Carbon Footprint by Hemispheres Foundation (for Singapore)
• The GreenAsia Group (includes Singapore)
• BP Energy Calculator (includes Singapore)
• BeGreenNow
• Carbon Footprint
• Carbonfund.org
• ClimateCare
• EarthLab
• Friends of the Earth
• Resurgence Carbon Calculator
• SafeClimate
• TerraPass
• The CarbonNeutral Company
• WWF Footprint Calculator
• Zerofootprint

Some tips for using the calculators:

• Check the electricity consumption from your utility bill or use the monthly national average
• The average amount of domestic waste generated per person per day in 2008 was 0.84 kg
• Use gothere.sg to check vehicle distance
• Check distance between countries

Most of the websites above offer carbon offsetting schemes, where you can buy carbon offsets to neutralise your carbon emissions as the payment is used to fund carbon-reducing projects such as renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects. You should first find ways to reduce your carbon footprint before offsetting your remaining emissions. Also, choose carbon offsets that meet standards such as the Voluntary Carbon Standard and the Gold Standard VER.

Check out our other tips on reducing your carbon footprint or watch this video:

Image credit: Plusverde; bunchkles; dlnny.

Be Conscious of the Food You Eat

The food we eat could have travelled long distances and be produced in an unsustainable way. We need to be conscious of what we eat – how our food is grown and produced.

But the 20th-century industrialization of agriculture has increased the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the food system by an order of magnitude; chemical fertilizers (made from natural gas), pesticides (made from petroleum), farm machinery, modern food processing and packaging and transportation have together transformed a system that in 1940 produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil-fuel energy it used into one that now takes 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food. Put another way, when we eat from the industrial-food system, we are eating oil and spewing greenhouse gases. – Michael Pollan, Farmer in Chief

Choose Locally Produced Food

In Singapore, we import most of our food from all over the world, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, China, New Zealand, Australia, US, and Brazil. According to a recent Straits Times article, only about 3% of the land area in Singapore is used for farming and local produce makes up 7% of leafy vegetables and 4% of fish consumed here (there’s no local production of meat). This means that we are contributing to more carbon emissions and fuel usage for shipping and transporting food from overseas.

You can choose to buy food that are grown locally such as vegetables and seafood from supermarkets and wet markets. Or you can buy directly from some of the farms at the Kranji Countryside. By buying local, you are helping to reduce your carbon footprint and support the livelihood of local farmers.

Grow Your Own Vegetables

Growing your own vegetables is fun and helps to reduce resources and energy for food import, transportation and packaging. Seeds for growing vegetables are easily available from horticultural shops and supermarkets. You can choose to grow them in soil or using hydroponics. Visit the Green Culture Singapore gardening website and forum for tips and resources on growing your own vegetables.

You can also join the Community In Bloom programme, which encourages community gardening in housing estates and allows residents to create gardens for flowers, herbs, spices, or vegetables.

Choose Healthier Food

Go vegetarian once a week or more, and eat less meat especially beef. Animal farming, meat processing and shipping waste a large amount of resources. Eating more vegetables and vegetarian food is generally good for your health and helps you reduce your carbon footprint. Visit the Vegetarian Society (Singapore) website for more tips and locations of vegetarian food outlets.

Choose natural and organic food products that do not use chemical fertilisers and pesticides. It is good for your health, prevents less chemicals from entering the environment and reduces the resources used in fertiliser production. You can check out this article on “A guide to organic shopping” for more details on organic products and local shops that sell them.