1. Understand an organisation’s carbon footprint
2. Look into your organisation’s environmental strategy
3. Look into existing networks
4. Look into existing standards and certifications
Educate yourself on current issues
1. Understand an organisation’s carbon footprint
The greenhouse gases emitted by companies and organisations are partly responsible for climate change. In order to reduce or mitigate these emissions, a methodology must first be devised to measure them. Carbon emissions are usually classified in three categories, also known as scopes.
Scope 1 covers emissions that result directly from the products or services delivered by the company. It encompasses the use of vehicles or, for example, the use of oil or other fuels in a product’s manufacturing cycle.
Scope 2 covers emissions that result indirectly from the company’s activity. It encompasses all the energy used in the on-site production process (the electricity that powers the factories, the use of heating or cooling systems).
Scope 3 encompasses all other indirect emissions that are not linked to on-site production but occur either upstream or downstream of the company’s value chain: the extraction of raw materials, their transport to the factories, and the product’s life cycle, transport and recycling, amongst other things.
Scope 3 emissions account for the biggest proportion of most companies’ carbon footprint. However, it is not compulsory for these emissions to be factored into carbon reporting.
The following infographic show examples of a company’s carbon footprint, divided by scope and industrial sector.
Investigate further
Climate Action Network-France (RAC) has analysed data from the compulsory greenhouse gas emission assessments and carbon reporting of 20 French companies active on a global scale to determine whether indirect emissions are taken into account in reporting and setting potential climate targets.
The goal is to underline the importance of the data selected to be included in a company’s carbon reporting. Take an international bank, for example: if the bank’s total emissions were calculated to include the emissions linked to all the activities it finances, the bank alone would be responsible for a third of French territorial emissions. Compared to this total, the direct emissions resulting from the running of the bank’s offices and the travel undertaken by its employees account for less than 1% of all emissions.
2. Look into your organisation’s environmental strategy
Gathering information within your organisation
Call your CSR/Sustainable development department
Calling your Corporate Social Responsibility department is the most direct way to learn more about any concrete action your company may be undertaking.
Your company’s carbon reporting
Carbon reporting assesses the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by your company’s yearly activity. It helps provide strategic focus to reduce emissions.
Browse the assessment reports published by French companies
Internal reports
For legal reasons or on a voluntary basis, organisations publish general or thematic activity reports on a yearly basis. These documents provide insight into the strategies adopted by the organisation in responding to overarching societal challenges.
An international initiative designed to measure the progress achieved in corporate sustainable development programmes. Their database includes reports from several major French groups.
Sustainable development reports
A sustainable development report is an official document – often published every year – in which an organisation details the efforts and outcomes it has achieved in responding to societal challenges. Issues relating to the climate and the environment are often present. Type the following keywords into your search engine to find the relevant document: “name of your organisation”, “sustainable development”, “responsibility” and “report”.
Available data on your company’s environmental impact
The Carbon Disclosure Project is an international NGO that publishes reports and notes on how the world’s biggest companies integrate climate issues into their corporate strategy.
3. Look into existing networks
Networks allow a wide range of actors – companies, non-profits, local and regional councils – to come together around a common environmental and ecological strategy. These networks provide their members with technical resources, funding, and contacts. They connect various actors and support strategic projects to combat climate change.
The Global Compact is a voluntary commitment framework built on ten principles in the fields of human rights, labour rights, environmental rights, and the fight against corruption.
This page allows you to access local networks by country.
4. Look into existing standards and certifications
International standards define a framework, which companies and organisations can use to implement an efficient environmental management system. While certified organisations do take environmental issues into account in their productive processes, these standards do not question their economic model in any depth and do not require them to develop a real environmental strategy.
This standard provides a framework for corporate social responsibility.
This standard sets a number of criteria to which a company’s environmental management system must adhere with the aim of improving its performance as regards environmental protection.