+27 87 073 6525 info@sustainableit.com

Quantify your business carbon footporint

With more than 10 years of experience in carbon emissions measurement, we provide the skills, expertise and tools to assist our customers measure, manage and reduce their carbon emissions.

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Measurement, reporting and reduction

We leverage internally developed technology to help organisations of varying complexity measure, manage and report and their carbon footprint.

Regulatory and programme reporting

We provide services in assisting you with your voluntary and/or regulatory reporting requirements such as The Carbon Disclosure Project.

Awareness and eductation

Awareness sessions around carbon tax, business and environmental impacts as well as training on GHG organisational accounting

Mitigate future risks and facilitate your long term business sustainability

Additional offerings

Verification

Assurance and verification of GHG emissions data, calculations and reporting to ensure data integrity, accuracy and completeness.  The process and extent of this review varies by client but may include a review of GHG management systems and processes, organisational boundaries, calculation methodologies, factors, estimations and assumptions, reporting structures and sampling of source data.

Carbon Tax

We map out all emission sources in a business to identify which sources will fall under the scope of the carbon tax.  We quantify these emissions and translate them into potential tax liability and risk exposure.  Where appropriate we also map out the supply chain to identify potential financial risks outside of direct emissions as well as identify tax reduction and tax mitigation opportunities for the specific client.

Strategy / Consulting

We offer a range of sustainability services over and above a traditional carbon footprint, tailored to meet both your immediate business needs and your budget, which can be provided on an outsourced model through a monthly retainer or bespoke/project based.  This ensures that your business addresses these issues with skilled resources without the financial overhead of taking these scarce skills in house.

You cannot manage what you don't measure. Know your footprint

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a carbon footprint?
A carbon footprint is a calculation of the total greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by an organisation or company. This is typically calculated and reported over a period of 12 months.

What often makes a carbon footprint complicated is defining the boundaries of the audit. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol provides the guidance to assist in determining both the organisational and operational boundaries of the carbon footprint.

The organisational boundary of a carbon footprint is determined through one of two approaches, namely the equity or control approaches.

Once the organisational boundary is determined, the operational boundary defines which operations and sources of emissions will be included in the carbon footprint.  If this sounds complicated, our team of experts at The Carbon Report can assist as our solution is specifically geared to demystify this complexity.

The next step in doing a carbon footprint involves sourcing business activity information such as electricity consumption or fuel purchases.  This business data is converted into carbon dioxide equivalents using factors that are relevant to the organisation and geography concerned.

Greenhouse gas emissions (often referred to as carbon emissions) are categorised as direct and indirect and accordingly grouped into Scopes for accounting and reporting purposes.

Direct emissions of a carbon footprint

Greenhouse gas emissions are ‘direct’ when they are generated from company owned or controlled sources and activities. These are called Scope 1 emissions and are accounted for as such.  Scope 1 emissions largely include fuel burned in company owned assets and air conditioning and refrigerant use.

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Indirect emissions of a carbon footprint

‘Indirect’ greenhouse gas emissions sources are those emissions related to the company’s activities, but that are emitted from sources owned or controlled by a third party. These are categorised as either Scope 2 emissions for purchased electricity or as Scope 3 for other non-owned or controlled emissions e.g. air travel or paper use.

A carbon footprint is an important step in embarking upon a low carbon strategy, as it acts as a baseline from which to measure the success of carbon and energy reduction initiatives.

When will South Africa introduce Carbon Tax?
The South African government is looking to introduce a carbon tax in 2017.  The objective of this form of taxation is to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions.  60% of emissions will be tax-exempt up to 2020 to lessen the impact on industry according to the latest information available.

Over and above the basic 60% tax-free threshold for all sectors, additional allowances apply to various sectors and businesses.

So what is a carbon tax?

A carbon tax simply penalises companies and individuals that emit more carbon.  Emissions can occur from various sources although the most common being fuel combustion in transportation and electricity generation.  To put this into perspective, 1kg of carbon dioxide is emitted for every kilowatt hour of electricity generated in South Africa.  The net result is that becoming energy efficient  and lowering energy consumption becomes increasingly important.

Companies have said that a carbon tax that places too heavy a burden on the key energy, mining and manufacturing sectors will hit profits and wider economic growth.   These sectors as we know are already under pressure due to rising power and wage costs and the current economic climate.

The draft carbon tax bill sets the carbon tax rate at R120 per ton of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) for emissions above the thresholds.

The carbon tax will be designed to create incentives for companies, businesses and individuals to change their behaviors and consumption patterns to reduce the reliance on polluting fossil fuels.  This is simply illustrated in the Carbon Tax Cycle diagram set out below.

Carbon tax cycle

Feel free to contact us if you have any queries around the impending carbon tax.  Our consultants can assist you in understanding your risk exposure and work with you to develop a strategy to mitigate this risk.

How do we become carbon neutral?
Many companies that we work with want to become carbon neutral. What this means is that emissions that are created in business operations are neutralised through the purchase of a carbon offset. Because global warming is by definition a “global issue”, the purchased offset, if equivalent to the emissions produced renders the organisation in question carbon neutral.

Obviously when deciding to become carbon neutral, the first step is to measure your emissions and that is precisely what The Carbon Report can help you achieve. Not only this, once quantified we are able to issue you with certified carbon offsets through our preferred partners.

The carbon offsets we provide are fully traceable through carbon registries and are certified by one of the recognised carbon standards.

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Don't Be Shy

If we didn’t answer all of your questions, feel free to drop us a line anytime.

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