Your Annual GHG Inventory, Simple and Headache-Free
Our expert-guided GHG inventory process streamlines the collection of emissions data across Scope 1, 2, and 3. RyeStrategy carbon accounting software provides a step-by-step data collection process customized to your business operations, allowing you to quickly and accurately calculate your carbon footprint.
Start Your GHG Inventory Project Today
“The RyeStrategy team didn’t just give us a worksheet to complete on our own. They guided us through the GHG inventory process, continuously going the extra mile to ensure we had the support we needed.”
Tonia Steed, Account Director, RedCloud Consulting
External Stakeholder Pressure on SMBs
Small to medium-sized businesses begin the carbon accounting process for a variety of reasons, one of the main ones being that they have been asked by a customer or investor to report GHG emissions data each year.
In addition to supplier emissions disclosure requests, many companies pursue sustainability initiatives to appeal to environmentally-focused buyers or simply because they feel it’s part of their corporate social responsibility.
No matter the motivating factor, or most commonly a combination of factors, companies quickly find that a GHG inventory is a tedious and complex job. One that entails looking at every part of the company, collecting data, and calculating carbon emissions according to the GHG Protocol. For small businesses, the scope of work can be daunting but the benefits and cost savings are worth the effort. RyeStrategy aims to make this process simple and cost efficient.
Why do a GHG Inventory?
If you look around, it’s easy to see that more and more small to medium-sized businesses are launching sustainability initiatives. Why? In addition to doing their part to help the planet, they are adopting carbon accounting to unlock long-lasting business benefits, increase revenue, and reduce operational costs - and you can, too.
Customer retention
Rise in employee engagement
Increased win rates
Brand differentiation
Lower operational costs
Stronger talent acquisition
Why RyeStrategy for your GHG Inventory?
RyeStrategy is committed to being the top small business GHG accounting solution, providing a CDP-accredited combination of carbon accounting software and professional services that delivers accurate, reliable GHG data and maximum benefit to your business. Our sustainability experts will manage every step of your journey to guide, advise, and ensure your experience is exceptional.
Learn more about the GHG inventory process
Curious what a GHG inventory project looks like? Schedule a call today. We’ll walk through timeline, pricing, and what to expect.
Greenhouse Gas Protocol Process
A Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventory is a comprehensive accounting of all of your company’s emissions over a specific time, usually a year. It takes into account seven GHGs; carbon, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and nitrogen trifluoride.
Collect Data to Calculate Carbon Footprint
As part of your GHG inventory, you will collect data about all emissions-producing company activities, such as transportation, operations, and waste management. Your company’s emissions include all direct emissions, also known as scope 1, and indirect emissions, broken out into scope 2 and scope 3, which are often more complicated to calculate.. Accurately completing your GHG inventory means measuring emissions from your supply chain and downstream activities such as distribution and use of your product.
The final carbon footprint output is reported as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). This is a standard measure that is comparable across industries, businesses, and over time.
What is a GHG inventory?
What is the GHG Protocol?
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is the most commonly accepted carbon accounting method for calculating greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. The GHG Protocol is the carbon accounting equivalent of GAAP, the international standard for recording and reporting financial data.
Under the GHG Protocol’s guidance for corporations, organizations can track emissions across their entire value chain, from purchased goods and services and supply chain transportation to owned or controlled facilities and business travel. Learn more about the GHG Protocol.
4 small business paths for GHG inventory reporting
There are 4 common options for a small business to perform a GHG inventory, each with their own benefits and drawbacks. Let’s explore.
Especially to a small business, a DIY approach may look attractive as it may appear to be the least expensive route. However, after you add in the cost and time of a staff member learning the GHG protocol, going to each and every department to collect the data, and then taking the time to engineer the spreadsheets, the real costs become readily apparent.
SMBs who tackle a GHG inventory on their own report spending over 150 hours on the project.
Add to that the discomfort of never quite knowing if it’s right or not, and this turns out to be a good option only if you already know what you’re doing.
1. Do It Yourself
There are numerous free carbon footprint calculators. “Free” may look enticing initially but will likely end up costing more once you include staff time and effort to collect, enter, and quality-check the data.
With free tools, the calculations are often based heavily on estimates rather than real data. Without an accurate carbon footprint, it can be risky to report this data publicly and to set decarbonization goals.
Any of the systems that don’t include a specialist to guide you also carry more reputational risk as, if you get things wrong, you could be accused of greenwashing, which can tarnish your brand and impact customer relationships. It’s much like financial accounting; you could learn accounting and do your own books, but you hire an expert because it’s more efficient and accurate.
2. Free GHG inventory calculator
Many large consulting firms now offer GHG inventory and carbon accounting services as part of their full ESG consulting packages. These services are typically built and priced for major enterprises with extremely large carbon footprints and ambitious decarbonization targets.
While highly professional and polished, these firms’ services are broader than what most SMBs actually need, with a corresponding price tag well above the budget of most small companies.
3. Enterprise-focused sustainability consulting
RyeStrategy provides a highly flexible and customizable combination of carbon accounting software and expert-services. We designed the company to meet the needs of SMBs, going beyond just data collection and calculations. We educate and support our clients through every step of their climate journey.
We’ll help you understand and fulfill data disclosure requests and empower you and your employees to implement mitigation strategies to reduce your emissions over time.
Looking to offset GHG emissions you can’t reduce? We help with that, too, by creating custom offset portfolios that meet your goals.
By choosing RyeStrategy, you’ll have the assurance of having an expert partner to call on any time.
4. SMB-specialized software and services, like RyeStrategy
Have questions about your GHG inventory? Let’s talk.
Book a meeting with a RyeStrategy sustainability manager to learn more about how doing a GHG inventory can add value to your business.
Whether you’re ready to start next week or next year, our experts are here to meet you where you are on your sustainability journey.
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