How your organization approaches the process of preparing your greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory depends on the information you can access.
Review these tips to learn how to prepare before collecting data for Climate Smart.
Data collection and management, like all sustainability work, is an ongoing process. A Climate Smart Advisor can recommend how to improve your measurement strategies so you can make informed, impactful decisions around reductions. To get access to a Climate Smart Advisor, contact our Customer Success team.
Determine who’s responsible for collecting data
Will you assemble a team or assign this task to an individual within your organization?
Set your organization’s operational boundaries
This includes deciding which locations and activities you’ll include in your inventory. Learn more about operational boundaries.
Plan for the data you need and where to find it
Before collecting data, figure out the data source for each activity you’re tracking. For example, you might purchase electricity for one warehouse, but rely on unmetered electricity for another. Consider:
- Do you have utility bills, invoices, expense reports, emails, or other documents from the inventory period?
- Can you access data consistently every year?
Reach out to teams within your organization for help finding documents you need, such as operations management or the accounting department.
Pay attention to the units that measure each type of activity data. For example, is the size of your location measured in square meters or square feet? Does every gas receipt measure the fuel in litres or gallons? Use consistent metrics to get the most accurate GHG footprint.
Document additional information about your data
Do you have any questions about an emission source that you want to document? Is there anything that might help you understand your data in the future? This includes details to identify the source of your data, as well as any assumptions or estimations you made. It’s easier to record additional information than to try to remember what you were thinking when it’s time to prepare your next inventory.
Decide how to enter data into Climate Smart
Choose a calculation method for each activity based on the data you have. For example, can you enter the actual amount of electricity you purchased, or will you need to estimate by the size of your location? Review each activity to learn more about calculating emissions. Entering your actual consumption is recommended because it’s always the most accurate method.
Do you have a lot of information to enter? If you’re measuring many locations, you might want to prepare spreadsheets to import data instead of adding each entry individually.
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