Published
June 23, 2025
As climate change continues to be a driving force behind shifts in environmental policy, as well as corporate responsibility, businesses across the UK are looking for meaningful ways to reduce their carbon footprint.
One of the most important tools in this journey is corporate carbon accounting. It is a structured method of measuring and reporting emissions which enables companies to make informed, as well as strategic decisions.
Why Should Businesses Use Carbon Accounting?
Carbon accounting is not just a current corporate trend; it’s very quickly becoming a necessity for many companies. Regulatory pressure, as well as stakeholder expectations, combined with the growing demand for transparency, often mean that companies of all sizes will be expected to understand and report their emissions.
There are many strategic reasons for adopting carbon accounting in your business:
- Regulatory compliance: With initiatives such as the UK’s Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) framework, depending on the scale of your business, reporting your emissions has become a necessity.
- Operational efficiency: Understanding where your emissions are coming from will often reveal opportunities to improve energy use and production methods.
- Investor and customer trust: Consumers and stakeholders are increasingly in favour of companies that take measurable climate action.
- Risk management: Quantifying emissions will help your business assess climate-related risks and also prepare for future regulations and carbon pricing.
Carbon Accounting vs Carbon Assessment: What’s the Difference?
While they are closely related, carbon accounting and carbon assessment do serve different purposes. Carbon accounting is an ongoing process that tracks and reports emissions over time. It forms a huge part of a company’s sustainability strategy, and it can be used for benchmarking in addition to long-term planning.
In contrast, a carbon assessment is usually a one-time evaluation or snapshot of emissions. This is often conducted during the very early stages of a sustainability initiative as it will help to identify hotspots and set priorities. However, it does not provide the structure for regular tracking and improvement like carbon accounting does.
Main Methods of Carbon Accounting
There are two principal approaches that are often used to calculate emissions in corporate carbon accounting:
1. Spend-Based Method
This method will estimate the emissions based on how much money your business spends on goods or services. It uses standard emission factors that are linked to different expenditure categories. For example, if your company spends £10,000 on air travel, an emission factor is then applied to that money spent.
2. Activity-Based Method
The activity-based method will calculate emissions by using specific data. This data usually includes things like the litres of fuel consumed, kWh of electricity, or the miles driven. This approach offers a lot more precision and is ideal for organisations that have access to detailed operational data. This is extremely effective for tracking emissions that are related to energy usage.
In many cases, companies use a hybrid approach. They begin with spend-based data and then refine their accuracy over time using activity-based inputs.
Sustainability Consultancy & Management from Noble Green Energy
Corporate carbon accounting is a powerful tool but navigating it can be very complex. That is where Noble Green Energy can support you. We have extensive experience in helping commercial and industrial clients integrate sustainability into the core of their operations.
Through our consultancy and project management services, we provide expert support in developing sustainability strategies, delivering projects with accuracy, transparency, as well as measurable outcomes. We also help companies understand and manage Scope 3 emissions.
Get in touch with us today so we can discuss your requirements and take the first steps towards a sustainable future for your company.
