Carbon Accounting Basics

Emissions Sources

Emissions sources represent enterprise assets that generate carbon emissions. You can classify emissions sources in Net Zero Cloud as:

Stationary Asset Environmental Sources

Assets that are stationary in nature, such as office buildings, data centers, or warehouses.

Vehicle Asset Emissions Sources

Assets that are mobile in nature, such as company vehicles or private jets.

Scope 3 Emissions Sources

Scope 3 activities, such as transportation, purchase of raw materials, and business travel.

For more information, see Determine the Sources to Inventory.

Energy Use Records

Energy use records are created for a specific date or date range and are associated with an emissions source. Examples include monthly electricity consumption for a stationary asset, a specific commercial flight, or the shipment of a package. You can enter energy consumption information, such as the quantity of electricity, diesel, or natural gas consumed over a specific period, in various units of measure that are specific to the activity or fuel being consumed. The energy use record references the emissions factors that are used to convert the entered consumption into carbon emissions.

For more information, see Create Your Carbon Inventory.

Emissions Factors

Emissions factors are used to convert energy consumption into carbon emissions. Net Zero Cloud comes with preconfigured emissions factors in the form of reference datasets from standard government or private sources. You can also create your own records with emissions factors specific to a region, business sector, or country. For more information, see Load Reference Data and Emissions Factors That Affect Calculations.

Carbon Footprints

A carbon footprint is an estimate of the amount of CO2e released to the environment during an activity. Carbon footprints summarize values from multiple energy use records. You can classify carbon footprints in Net Zero Cloud to correspond to the emissions sources:

Stationary Asset Carbon Footprint

Contains overall emissions by scope, summarized from underlying energy uses for a stationary asset across all fuel types. Net Zero Cloud automatically creates Stationary Asset Carbon Footprint Item records to see summarized emissions information for a single fuel type.

Vehicle Asset Carbon Footprint

Contains overall emissions by scope, summarized from underlying energy uses for a vehicle asset.

Scope 3 Carbon Footprint

Contains overall emissions by scope 3 category, summarized from underlying energy uses for a scope 3 activity. You can associate a carbon footprint record to a scope 3 emissions source or a stationary source. For example, a warehouse can be the epicenter of scope 3 activities, such as purchase of goods and services, transportation and distribution, and waste generation. You can associate the required energy use records and procurement summary records to determine from which activities you want to calculate emissions.

Waste Footprint

Contains the aggregated waste and carbon emissions from waste generated either as part of operations or during the end-of-life of a product.

For more information, see Manage Your Carbon Footprint.

Here’s how the emissions sources, energy uses, emissions factors, and carbon footprints are mapped in Net Zero Cloud.

Watch this video to understand more about how Net Zero Cloud's carbon accounting capabilities can help you track, measure, and reduce your carbon emissions.

If you can’t watch the video in full screen, open the video on a new tab: Intro to Net Zero Cloud Carbon Accounting.