Carbon dioxide equivalent purchase calculations
Consumer methodology
Connecting consumption with its impact on the planet
Our everyday decisions have an impact on the planet. By measuring the carbon emission related to your consumption you can get an understanding of your carbon footprint and the impact you have. Every action counts.
Carbon emissions are directly linked to climate issues
There is an undeniable scientific consensus that emissions due to human activities are the main driver for global warming. In the Earth’s atmosphere there are naturally gases that helps to trap heat from the sun, so called greenhouse gases. This trapped heat causes the Earth's temperature to rise, a phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect. Due to human activities resulting in releasing greenhouse gases, such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation, there is a large amount of greenhouse gases being released to the atmosphere, leading to an increase in the Earth’s temperature. Some gases such as carbon dioxide can stay in the atmosphere for thousands of years which means that greenhouse gases released today will continue to cause global warming long after they are released.
A standard way to measure the amount of greenhouse gases that are released into the atmosphere is CO₂e or CO₂ equivalent or carbon dioxide equivalent. It is used to compare the warming effect of different greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, by considering each gas’s effect on climate change. Each greenhouse gas has a different global warming potential and persists for a different length of time in the atmosphere. Methane for example contributes to global warming 28 times more than carbon dioxide. The gases are converted to the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide to enable comparison. From now on we will use the term CO2e emissions.
There are many aspects when talking about climate, such as biodiversity loss, ocean acidification and chemical pollution. We only provide an estimation of the CO2e emissions.
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Data behind the calculations
All the data comes from S&P Global which is a financial service company and experts in environmental data for financial analysis and evaluating risks related to climate change. S&P Global has extensive industry experience and have been collecting and analyzing environmental data for over 20 years.
The CO2e emissions for the calculations are based on reported data from public companies all over the world. Typically, it is publicly traded companies that are subject to requirements and standards to report their CO2e emissions. The dataset contains data for more than 20,000 companies and this corresponds to about 95% of Global Market Cap, where most of the world's largest companies are represented.
Since companies are not always reporting on all the emissions in the whole value chain, it is complemented with modelled data, based on scientific research and public datasets (including life cycle assessment studies, research papers, and government databases).
There is a global standard developed to guide companies on how to calculate and report their CO2e emissions; the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol). The GHG Protocol has different "scopes" that describe emissions related to different parts of the organization. The scopes are used to divide the emissions into different categories, so it is easier to understand where the emissions come from and how they can be reduced. In this methodology, all three emission scopes from the GHG Protocol are included.
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Emissions
Scope 1 emissions are emissions that come directly from sources that the company or organization controls, such as from burning fossil fuels or from the vehicles the company owns.
Scope 2 emissions are emissions that come from the generation of electricity, heat, or steam that the company or organization uses.
Scope 3 emissions are emissions that come from other sources that the company or organization does not have direct control over, for example their suppliers’ energy consumption or how the sold products are used. Scope 3 emissions can be divided into upstream and downstream activities. Upstream activities are for example emissions coming from the production of goods, transportation of materials and fuels that are used by the organization. Downstream activities are more related to the using phase, such as emissions from transportation from store to end-user, energy consumed when charging e.g., the phone, or washing of clothing.