Introduction
Step 2 is the most important step for establishing a baseline greenhouse gas inventory, and the time allocated for it depends on the level of information already available and accessible within the organisation. Understanding the emissions produced by your organisation has many benefits; you can use this as an opportunity to show value to your customers and residents in your area and demonstrate you are measuring your impact in a structured and consistent way.
Step 2 requires you to gather data on corporate greenhouse gas emissions arising from organisational activities including service delivery and the exercise of your functions. To calculate the greenhouse emissions of your organisation you will need to collect data from each relevant emission-releasing activity. In many cases you may already have the information you need; it’s usually a case of contacting the right person and gathering the information together in one place. It will take a bit more work in year 1 to get all your data in the right format, but once you have a process in place for data gathering, following years will be much easier and less time-consuming.
The quality of your data will be important to ensure the measurement of your greenhouse gas emissions is as accurate as possible.
Aims
Collect your organisational emissions data
Objectives
Develop a methodology to gather emissions data within your organisation
Set a baseline year
Define sources of emissions (Scope 1, 2, and 3)
Collect emissions data in a GHG inventory
Share initial emissions results for validation.
The following documents will provide you with the key information on the relevance of climate change reporting in Northern Ireland, as well as an overview of the relevant international and national climate change policy in Northern Ireland.
Setting the boundary of your Mitigation Plan
Governance and Stakeholder Engagement
Find out more
Public Body Reporting
Find out more
The following documents will provide you with the key information on what you need to do to complete this Step and get your Net Zero plan underway.
Scope what emissions to include in your organisational boundary
Gather data for your baseline year in a greenhouse gas inventory
Analyse and present your initial results
The following documents will provide you with additional information regarding this step which can assist the completion of this step and improve your understanding.
The GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard
Greenhouse Gas Accounting Tool
Government conversion factors for company reporting of greenhouse gas emissions
Catalyzing Value Chain Decarbonisation
Step Two Complete
-Read the contents of ‘What do you need to Know?’:
- Setting the boundary of your Mitigation Plan
- Consider Governance and Stakeholder Engagement
- Understand Public Body Reporting requirements and support
-Complete the tasks in ‘What do you need to do?’
- Scope what emissions to include in your organisational boundary
- Gather data for your baseline year in a greenhouse gas inventory
- Analyse and present your initial results
