Carbon accounting is a new profession, created in response to the climate crisis. Governments around the world are mandating businesses supply carbon data to meet new regulations, and at the opposite end, customers are demanding climate accountability from the businesses they support. To meet this demand, there has been an upswing in carbon accounting services, from dedicated and accredited firms, to consultants pivoting from other industries, to even less qualified individuals looking to take advantage of the demand. When the service being provided is vital to your regulatory and customer-facing performance, it pays to demand more from your carbon accountant. Here are the three key offerings to look for.

Accounting For Your Value Chain

No matter what industry your business is in, what products or services you offer, you sit within a supply chain that affects your carbon footprint more than you might think. Example:  If you’re a business that manufactures a product, the carbon footprint of your facility, raw materials, packaging, equipment, logistics, your employee’s travel methods, and more, are all smaller chunks of your value chain, and the overlap between those items can often lead to incorrect reporting. This has knock-on effects through the entire carbon accounting system, leading to misreporting on the national level. This is why you should always chat with your prospective carbon accountant about how they manage the process of defining what is in and out of your value chain and the methodology for their supply chain analysis.

Simplification

There are a ton of climate related frameworks, methodologies, and standards all professing to be an authority. For the uninitiated, it's a space where a business can spend a lot of money and not get the result they want. Coupled with the obscure terminology, this can make the process of having your carbon assessment undertaken ripe for exploitation, where it’s quick and easy to rack up extra unforeseen costs for clients who might not know exactly what to look for. That’s why it’s vital to look for a carbon accountant who can simplify, translate, and clarify exactly what your business needs to comply with, if anything at all. The focus should be on a pragmatic approach that addresses your business needs at the lowest cost possible. They should also be able to demonstrate exactly what the output of any assessment will look like – all in plain language. Carbon accounting is one of the primary ways that businesses can quantify their climate performance and prove they’re staying accountable, and that needs to be clear for all parties involved.

Actionable Next Steps

The clearest way for a carbon accountant to prove they stand above the rest is to provide their clients with more than just a set of numbers. Now, it should be said: numbers are the core of this service, and if that’s all your business needs, then those services are a perfect fit. But wouldn’t it be good to have an experienced and trusted advisor in your corner who can show you the steps to take to make those numbers even better? Continually improving your services is a core ethos of all businesses, and that applies just as strongly to your carbon footprint.

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That’s why we founded Carbonhalo: to help bring this field forward and provide businesses with everything they need to work towards net zero emissions. If you’d like to know more about Carbonhalo and how we work, reach out today at https://www.carbonhalo.com/. We’d love to chat.