CO₂e = Business activity * Emission factor

Business activities are a company’s actions that generate GHG emissions, for instance electricity use in buildings, and employee travel to work. Cozero Log emission categories cover the breadth of business activities that a business has. To build a Log, enter raw data —utility bills, purchase orders, travel records, cloud usage reports, and more.

Emission factors are conversion factors that translate a business activity or process data point into emission output data. Typically, emission factors are specific footprints of products, semi-finished products, processes or bundles of processes / services. Cozero has an aggregated database of global emission factor datasets that power the platform's calculation algorithms and allow users to easily derive footprint insights based on their business activities.

On Cozero Log we multiply the business activity data entered under emission categories by the emission factor and you get tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, or t CO₂e, a measure of your business’s contribution to climate change.

The granularity is determined by two characteristics:

An emission factor (EF) describes the rate at which a specific activity releases GHG emissions into the atmosphere. We collate emission factors from high quality secondary sources, and validate them through assessment. Data sources include:

In addition, users can also add their own emission factors when entering data into Log (e.g. when the company has supplier-specific data to improve accuracy and relevance).

We have based our methodology on the Ecoact Homeworking Emissions Whitepaper. The calculation takes the number of working days you have reported and makes an assumption based on three impacts of home office working:

This sum then results in the final home office emissions value.

While working from home reduces CO₂ emissions from transportation, this does not always mean that a company’s home office emissions will be lower than emissions from employee commuting. The net sustainability impact depends on several employee behaviors. The majority of the emissions in the Cozero calculation home office are associated with heating.

Accounting employee commuting emission looks at the emissions associated with different modes of transport (eg. car, bus, train) and the total distance of these journeys, assuming the total energy related emissions from transport to and from work. This means that if most employees are commuting to work using public transportation or other low-carbon modes of transport, these emissions could be lower than the total home office working emissions.

The amount of water used can be entered on water management. With this you will obtain the amount of emission related to that water consumption (from treatment and management) as well as recording the amount of water.

Climate actions are where you can enter actions you’ve taken and the CO₂e you’ve reduced. It will show up on your targets and impact your expected future carbon (the line graph showing your emissions over time in the future).

There is no single standard or 'law' for claiming carbon neutrality but offset providers usually provide you with a label and QR code verifying how much you have offset.

Generally speaking, your carbon footprint will only be checked or verified if you choose to undergo verification with a third party auditor.

In the case of offsetting and claiming carbon neutrality, this process would be up to the certifiers who might have varied requirements. If it is of interest to get your footprint audited we would be happy to connect you with our partners at TÜV or GutCERT.