Carbon footprint & ESG

Carbon footprint & ESG

Quantification of greenhouse gases/CO₂ footprint

The carbon footprint is the quantification of the greenhouse gases caused by the activities of a company or organization. This emissions footprint (carbon dioxide footprint, carbon dioxide footprint, eco-balance, climate footprint, greenhouse gas footprint, CO2e footprint is the total amount of carbon dioxide emissions that are caused directly or indirectly by activities of products (companies, logistics, transport, cargo) or people arise or are caused. The footprint will be expressed in CO2e (equivalents).

Balancing CO2 is also often the trigger to become aware of your emissions and to continuously improve the footprint and thus positively influence the negative greenhouse effect by avoiding greenhouse emissions.

In this sense, there are four stages of the CO2-conscious enterprise. The avoidance of unnecessary operations (process re-engineering), the calculation of the total emissions, the continuous improvement (operational efficiency) and the compensation of the remaining CO2e quantities.

CarbonCare primarily helps to fulfill the last three stages in the area of transport and logistics (green). If there are needs for other sectors such as buildings or travel, we are happy to help with our partner «myclimate». We are happy to confirm the total emissions and the degree of compensation to our customers at the end of the year with our CO2 certificate.

Carbon dioxide and CO2 equivalents

Different values from the calculations

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most common greenhouse gas emitted by human activities in terms of the amount released and the overall impact on global warming. As a result, the term "CO2" is sometimes used as a short expression for all greenhouse gases, but this can create confusion. A more accurate way to refer to several greenhouse gases collectively is to use the term "carbon dioxide equivalent" or "CO2e".

Because CO2 is considered the most important greenhouse gas, some greenhouse gas assessments consider or reports only CO2. They do not consider the other greenhouse gases, which can lead to an understatement of the overall global warming impact. Greenhouse gas inventories are more complete when they include all greenhouse gases and not just CO 2 . "Carbon dioxide equivalent" or "CO2e" is a term used to describe different greenhouse gases in a common unit. For any amount and type of greenhouse gas, C2e denotes the amount of CO2 that would have the same effect on global warming.

A quantity of greenhouse gases can be expressed as CO2e by multiplying the quantity of greenhouse gases by their GWP. For example, if 1 kg of methane is emitted, this can be expressed as 25 kg CO2e (1 kg CH4 * 25 = 25 kg CO2e). "CO2e" is a very useful term for several reasons: it allows "clusters" of greenhouse gases to be expressed as a single number, while also making it easy to compare different clusters of greenhouse gases (in terms of their overall impact on global warming). When comparing total CO2e values, however, it is important to know and consider that the same greenhouse gases are included in the total values to be compared (Econometrica 2012).