Trace Clearing the Air Series

This week in focus: Can you explain the carbon intensity/assumptions used to calculate supplier associated emissions?

Trace Sustainability and Customer Support Manager, James Simpson explains:

"When we calculate supplier-associated emissions, we follow the GHG Protocol methodology, focusing on 'Purchased Goods and Services' within scope 3 emissions. Essentially, we use the spend-based method, which means we estimate emissions based on how much we spend on different goods and services.

Here's how it works: we look at the economic value of what we buy and then multiply that by average emission factors for each industry (think of it like an average emissions-per-dollar value). This method is widely used in the industry and gives us a pretty solid estimate of emissions across various sectors.

For the most accurate results, ideally, we'd get the total emissions directly from each supplier, then adjust it based on how much we spend with them. This can be quite intensive, as it requires a lot of back-and-forth with each supplier. However, with initiatives like the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) pushing for more transparency, we expect it will get easier to gather this detailed information in the future.”

To stay tuned for more Clearing the Air posts, follow our LinkedIn page Trace | Certified B Corp? and our founders Catherine (Cat) Long and Joanna Auburn . See you next time!