The Cozero category “Office goods” covers the upstream (cradle-to-gate) emissions associated with the acquisition of goods that are purchased for use within the companies’ offices e.g. office furniture, computers, telephone, copy paper.

In this case cradle-to-gate includes:

Emission from material sourcing, extraction, transportation to the point of leaving the tier 1 (direct) supplier. Meaning, these emissions occur before the goods are transported to the consumer. The exact lifecycle boundaries depend on the emission factor source, more information can be found here.

In this case cradle-to-gate excludes:

Emissions from the transportation of purchased products from a tier 1 supplier to the reporting company, as these are accounted for in the Cozero category “Purchased logistics”.

1) How this category aligns with carbon accounting standards

The Cozero category, Office goods, is a source of upstream Scope 3 emissions, as defined by the GHG Protocol. All Cozero emissions calculation methodologies follow the requirements for this Scope of emissions accounting.

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard is an internationally-recognized go-to standard for estimating and reporting corporate GHG emissions. GHG emissions are categorized into three ‘Scopes'. For further information see here.

Scope 1 includes direct GHG emissions that originate from sources that are owned or controlled by the reporting company, e.g. generation of electricity, heat and steam, physical or chemical processing, transportation of materials and fugitive emissions. They are the most important source of emissions because they are the direct result of companies’ activities.

Scope 2 encompasses indirect emissions from the generation of purchased or acquired electricity consumed by the reporting company. These emissions are considered to be indirect because they arise as a result of the reporting company’s activities, but they originate from sources that are owned and controlled by external entities.

In turn, these emissions are categorized as Scope 1 for the energy generator that produced the electricity, given that they arise from their owned and controlled resources.

Scope 3 emissions are all indirect emissions (not included in Scope 2) which occur in the value chain of the reporting company. In other words, the emissions that are linked to the company’s operations but are outside of its control. Scope 3 emissions can be categorized into two high-level groups:

Upstream emissions: Indirect emissions related to the procurement of goods and services, starting from the initial sourcing and pre-processing stages. Upstream emissions can be attributed to the materials’ extraction, production and transportation processes before they reach the company.
Downstream emissions: Indirect emissions related to products and services sold by the reporting company, occurring after the products have been sold to the customer or end-user. Downstream emissions relate to activities such as distribution, storage, usage by consumers, and the eventual end-of-life disposal or recycling of the products.

2) Calculation methods

Here are the various calculation methods available in Cozero for calculating Scope 3 emissions from Office goods. Users should choose the method that is the most appropriate to the data available to them, to their business goals and the significance of the emissions of the category.

2a. Quantity of goods method

Emissions are calculated by collecting data on the quantity of office goods bought during the reporting period and multiplying by the relevant emission factor.

Activity data: amount of office goods bought (e.g. chairs) or consumed (e.g. food) within the reporting period.
Emission factor: Cozero provides a default emission factor of the purchased goods per unit or mass of product but users can also enter supplier-specific emission factors.

How to report emissions in Cozero?

Step 1: Select the category “Office goods”
Step 2: Select the subcategory (type of good) you want to report on
Step 3: Select “Quantity of goods” as calculation method
Step 4: Select the activity data source
Step 5: Enter number of units or mass of goods consumed
Step 6: Select the appropriate data quality and where the data was procured from

Cozero will automatically calculate the emissions for the amount of goods (either in units or weight depending on the item) entered.

2b. Spend method

Emissions are estimated by collecting data on the economic value of office goods and multiplying by the relevant emission factor.

Activity data: amount spent on office goods within the reporting period. The user can select one of the available currencies from the dropdown.
Emission factor: Cozero provides a default emission factor of the office good per unit of economic value. Entered currencies are converted as needed automatically to match the emission factor.

How to report emissions in Cozero?

Step 1: Select the category “Office goods”
Step 2: Select the subcategory (office good) you want to report on
Step 3: Select “Spend” as calculation method
Step 4: Select the activity data source
Step 5: Enter the amount spent on the office good
Step 6: Select the appropriate data quality and where the data was procured from