Step-by-step Guide to Carbon Footprinting for Small Businesses

Reducing your carbon footprint starts with understanding it. For small businesses, carbon footprinting might seem complex or time-consuming—but with the right approach, it becomes a powerful tool to improve both environmental and economic performance.

This step-by-step guide walks you through how to assess, calculate, and manage your carbon footprint as a small business.

Affordable Carbon Audits for SMEs in Eastern Europe: A Lever for the Transition

As the ecological transition becomes a central issue for all businesses, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Eastern Europe often struggle to take the first steps toward climate action. They are held back by a lack of resources, internal expertise, and the complexity of emerging standards. Yet, the carbon footprint of SMEs represents a significant share of regional emissions. So how can carbon audits be made accessible to these agile but often under-resourced structures?

Causes of global warming

Is This Climate Change Like Any Other?

As mentioned in the introduction, the Earth has warmed by an average of 1.5 degrees compared to the period 1850-1900. However, it has been demonstrated that, throughout history, the average surface temperature of the globe has varied primarily based on the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Radiative Forcing and Its Influencing Parameters

At the beginning of this year, we reflect on a significant event of 2024: for the first time, the global average temperature exceeded 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900). This symbolic threshold was previously considered the lower limit of the 2015 Paris Agreement and the most ambitious target for 2100. Although this exceedance does not yet mean that the climate has permanently crossed this threshold (a 20-year average would be required for that), this observation—just 10 years after COP 21—is alarming.

The Hydrogen Journey: Toward a Sustainable Energy Vector

Hydrogen, the smallest chemical element, emerged shortly after the Big Bang and is abundant on Earth, where it is often bonded to other molecules, most notably oxygen in water. However, hydrogen in its gaseous form (dihydrogen), which is of interest for industrial applications, is extremely rare. Currently, only one small natural deposit is being exploited in Mali. In Europe, debates persist regarding the evaluation of hydrogen reserves within rock formations, and its environmental extraction and purification impacts remain uncertain. This natural form of hydrogen is referred to as « white hydrogen. »

Feasibility of Carbon Neutrality in 2050

The Net Zero 2050 scenarios aim to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This objective stems from the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aspires to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. The Net Zero 2050 trajectory has been adopted by 33 countries, including those in the European Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom, which are among the world’s major greenhouse gas emitters (China and Brazil, however, aim for carbon neutrality by 2060).
As explored in our previous article, greenhouse gas emissions are closely linked to energy use, accounting for up to 75% of total emissions. Thus, the energy challenges of the Net Zero 2050 scenarios will revolve around meeting the needs of an economy twice as large, serving an additional two billion people, with entirely decarbonized energy. This challenge is immense, requiring the mobilization of numerous developing sectors and technologies still in their experimental stages. It primarily depends on the electrification of energy needs coupled with the massive deployment of decarbonized energy sources (renewable and nuclear) and the emergence of new, less carbon-intensive energy vectors (hydrogen, e-fuels, e-gas). Residual emissions will be offset by advanced carbon capture systems.

Why minimizing your carbon impact is counterproductive?

Addressing a carbon footprint assessment could be puzzeling as the methodology often meet incomprehension. Indeed, the terms had gained traction in the mediatic sphere but not always used adversely. It was popularized in the 2000s mainly by the petroleum industry in order to gain in popularity facing an undeniable responsibility on the global warming crisis. The communication goal was to minimalize their responsibility and turn it toward the customers. In this article we will go back on the concept of carbon footprint itself, we will discover what it includes and the reason behind, what are the risk of misinterpretation of the term and what are the opportunity when addressed properly.

Why is energy a key factor of climate change?

From photosynthesis to human digestion, from the combustion engine to the electric battery, energy is a fundamental conce

pt that underpins almost every aspect of our daily lives. However, it is difficult to define energy simply, as the topic and its applications are vast and complex.

In this effort of synthesis an

d popularization, we will explore what energy is, both in its definition and in its magnitudes. Then, we will examine its societal repercussions and, finally, explain the central role of energy in the climate crisis.

The Central Role of Energy in the Climate Crisis

As mentioned in aprevious artcile ( Primary energy and energy density) , 81% of the primary energy consumed worldwide comes from fossil fuels. If we now look at the sources of greenhouse gas emissions, we find that 75% come from energy production and use.

Societal Transformations Due to Energy

efore addressing the notion of the energy transition, let’s go back to the Industrial Revolution. Prior to this revolution, all primary energies used were renewable. Agriculture was done by manual labor or animal traction, mills powered by wind or water were used for forges and refining foodstuffs, particularly grains, and transportation was powered by animal traction or sailboats. Naturally, everything took more time and effort. At the time, it was difficult to generate mechanical energy from heat.