What are process emissions?
Process emissions are gases released during material production due to chemical reactions, such as (but not limited to) carbon dioxide from breaking down limestone in cement manufacturing or from sugar fermentation during brewing.
These emissions are classified under Scope 1.2 (Process Emissions) of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol.
What you’ll need to get started
To calculate process emissions, you’ll need:
Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) value released from your process activities; or
Process type and amount processed (industrial process or activity, and processed volume with volume of measurement)
Providing the exact CO₂e value gives you the highest quality footprint. If you don’t have this, Sage Earth Carbon Accounting will estimate it based on the process type and volume, though this will be less accurate.
Since process emissions aren’t linked to spend data, the process is the same whether your accounting platform is connected or not.
Choosing the right option
There are three scenarios to choose from. Picking the one that best fits your situation helps ensure your footprint is accurate:
1. Your business does not have process emissions
Select “I don’t have these emissions” from the module’s front page. This confirms that your business didn’t carry out any activities that would cause process emissions during the selected quarter.
The module will be marked as complete and a 0kg CO₂e footprint will be applied for this quarter.
2. Your business has process emissions and can provide data
Enter the Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) value emitted from your activities. This gives you the most accurate footprint calculation.
Alternatively, if the CO₂e value is not available, you can enter the industrial process or activity and the amount processed.
Make sure you only add detail of each activity using one of the above two options. Don't add the process activity and amount processed for any activities that you have added the CO₂e value for, otherwise these will be double counted.
You can add as many entries as you need to, to cover all the activities in your business that may lead to process emissions.
If your business uses equipment which causes process emissions, but there were no emissions during this reporting period, you should enter a value of 0 kg.
3. Your business has process emissions, but no data is available
If you know your business may have caused process emissions but don’t have records of usage, select “I cannot provide any details.”
The module will be marked as complete, but your footprint will be created with a gap. You can amend this later if you are able to find a record of this data.
Find out more: See Section 7.3 of our Carbon Reduction Actions Guide