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Ian Mitchell  
#1 Posted : 15 April 2013 13:48:24(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Ian Mitchell

All In 2010 and 2011 I used the excellent 'Carbon Footprint Calculator' on the Carbon Trust website. I see that it is now gone and instead refers to a paid service. A Google search (other search engines are available) brings up domestic calculators or chargeable services. For those of us with Environmental roles has anybody located a suitable calculator online? Thanks
wclark1238  
#2 Posted : 16 April 2013 10:41:30(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
wclark1238

Hi Ian, I can't point you at any free calculators per se but there is a lot of information available from the Carbon Trust still. http://www.carbontrust.c...rting/conversion-factors That link will give you appropriate conversion factors used to calculate emissions from various different sources. I've just gone through a carbon-footprinting program and it was an absolute nightmare. A huge amount of manual work needed to extract data to input into the calculations. After the data gathering the calculation side was fairly easy..........but the gathering was painful (in year one). Now I have systems in place for on-going data collection so year two and beyond will so much more straightforward. We've thrown a huge amount of money at Achilles to use their CEMARS scheme as our framework for this. Waiting with bated breath for the final audit report and certificate to arrive.
boblewis  
#3 Posted : 16 April 2013 10:53:56(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
boblewis

Wonder what the carbon foorprint of all that effort was!!??:-) Seriously though one has to ask questions of any system that needs so much management effort and whether the super accuracy actually provides extra benefit in achieving the stated objectives. - It is a Cost Benefit analysis pure and simple. For example does a random series of snapshots of what waste is in the landfill skip over a year provide that much less information than a careful analaysis of every landfill skip for a month period. Then doess careful analysis for the next 11 months improve the answer. Certainly it improves the bank balance of the auditors. Bob
wclark1238  
#4 Posted : 16 April 2013 11:16:29(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
wclark1238

Well, it kept me out of trouble for several months :-) One of the very good points, in my view anyway, of the CEMARS program is that in year one you must quantify pretty much all operational sources of emissions - hence a very painful year one. In subsequent years the program - certified as compliant with international best practice as defined in ISO 14064-1 - allows you to effectively ignore insignificant aspects. For our business the largest source - >60% of the overall - was as a result of our vehicle fleet emissions. After that the other 'biggies' were gas and electricity for heating and lighting our building. Only 2 other sources were large enough to require on-going monitoring - air travel and outbound freight. Therefore under the rules of 'de minimis' I could stop monitoring trains, taxis, water usage and waste to landfill. In total those 4 sources accounted for <2% of the overall. Obviously, as I went through the pain in year one I implemented systems to ensure that data was collected at source so the future year's work will be much, much less painful.
Ian Mitchell  
#5 Posted : 18 April 2013 12:23:05(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Ian Mitchell

Hi Thanks for the pointer to the Carbon Trust info; I have already looked at that. They obviously realised that they were giving something for nothing with the free online calculator tool hence the paid service now! It is a shame there is nothing else comparable as we have a formal objective to reduce our carbon footprint year on year (pro rata to turnover/employment) which we have been achieving. I am baulking at the amount of time and resource I am going to have to put in to get the equivalent level of useful data output that previously took just a day to collate!
chris42  
#6 Posted : 18 April 2013 12:55:09(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
chris42

A quick google search brought up :- http://www.carbon-target.co.uk/calculators.aspx This seems to be free and allow you to calculate for a business. I would be tempted to set up a spread sheet that did the calculations myself. That way I understand exactly what is going on and the resource will not just disappear on me. You already know what info you fed into the other site, so a good starting point. Is it a business requirement that it is externally verified? I hate paying for old rope.
Ian Mitchell  
#7 Posted : 18 April 2013 13:10:35(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
Ian Mitchell

Hi Chris Would you believe I literally located this site immediately after responding - great minds think alike. I changed my search criteria by adding the word 'commercial'. As you say, I have the data to hand as I know what to collate from previous years. With this in mind, the whole data input operation took one hour from start to finish! It also offers the chance to offset for those interested in going down that road. Interestingly, we have had a contract in the Channel Islands, necessitating a lot of air and ferry travel so this one factor alone has seen a 15% increase on 2011's figures. I may recalculate and exclude that contract as it is burying any other improvements in the rest of the business. There are lies, damn lies and statistics!!
chris42  
#8 Posted : 19 April 2013 15:12:24(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
chris42

Ian I started to look at this for the company I worked for and had a spreadsheet. The problem with this is that if you have a good business year then your footprint is pants. It of course all depends on what business you are in but, If you say manufacture widgets then it may be better to calc per unit (or thousand units). Otherwise express it as a percentage of turnover. As you say Lies, Dam lies and Statistics (you know I always thought the word politician was in there somewhere, near the end of the sentence)
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