Measure - Carbon Footprint
Measuring your greenhouse gas emissions
Measuring your greenhouse gas emissions, or carbon footprint, helps you to understand and strategically manage those emissions.
Anyone can measure emissions by gathering data about actions taken or goods and services used. That activity data can be turned into a carbon footprint with the help of emissions factors and equations or software.
Members of the Toitū carbonreduce and Toitū carbonzero certification programmes are provided with the guidance, tools, and software needed to calculate the full carbon footprint. Our software guides you to input the activity data required and calculates the emissions automatically using the appropriate emissions factors by geographical region and measurement period.
Organisations measure all operational emissions required under the international standard for carbon footprints, ISO 14064-1, including vehicles, business travel, fuel and electricity, paper, and waste. Programme standards also meet the Greenhouse Gas Protocol requirements for corporate accounting and reporting.
Products and services measure all lifecycle emissions required under the international standard for product carbon footprints, PAS 2050, including source raw materials and components, production of the product, distribution and use of the product, and any disposal of waste
Individuals can measure their household and tourism emissions for free here, using calculators based on the same software and emissions factors as our corporate clients.
Useful links
- Household and Travel calculators - We offer free tools for individuals to measure their carbon emissions and optionally offset those emissions
- The Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative – information, tools, resources and emissions factors for measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions
- International Standards Organization – international standards for measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – guidelines and emissions factors for preparing national greenhouse gas emissions inventories
- New Zealand Ministry for the Environment – New Zealand information and guidance on climate change, reporting and adaptation
- Australian Department of Environment – Australian information, tools and emissions factors for measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions
- Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) – UK guidelines and emissions factors for reporting greenhouse gas emissions