What are energy emissions?
Energy emissions come from the use of fossil and/or biomass-based electricity or fuels (e.g. coal, natural gas) to generate electricity or heat a building. This includes fuels burned on-site and electricity from the grid. This module does not include any energy used in vehicles.
These emissions are classified under Scopes 1 (Direct Emissions), 2 (Indirect Emissions from Purchased Energy), 3.3 (Fuel and Energy related activities) and 3.8 (Upstream Leased Assets) of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol.
What you’ll need to get started
To calculate your energy emissions, you’ll need:
Type of energy or fuel purchased (such as electricity, solid fuels)
Payment method (direct to supplier, included in rent/lease)
Quantity of energy or fuel used or bought
Choosing the right option
The options available will depend on whether you have connected your accounting platform or not and the data you have available.
If you have connected your financial accounting platform
If you have connected your financial accounting platform
There are a number of possible scenarios when completing this module. Follow the steps that best describes your situation:
1. Your business did not use energy during this period
Select “I don’t have these emissions” from the module’s front page. This confirms that your business didn’t use any energy during the selected quarter.
The module will be marked as complete and a 0kg CO₂e footprint will be applied for this quarter.
2. If you know how much energy or fuel you used or bought
Where you know the amount of energy or fuel used, select energy type, payment method, and quantity purchased. Choose the energy category and how you pay for it (direct to a supplier or as part of rent/lease). Then, add the amount and unit. This ensures the most accurate footprint calculation.
Usage data will override any spend data for the same category within this quarter. Add all your usage data for this category to ensure accurate calculations. You can add this as one item or choose "Add another energy quantity" to add multiple items of the same or different categories.
Repeat this process for all categories where you have usage details, even if there's no spend data in the system. If you don’t have usage data for certain categories, we’ll estimate emissions based on spend data.
3. If you don't know how much energy or fuel you used or bought
If you can't provide any usage data, don’t worry. The system will calculate your energy emissions based on the spend data available.
If you can't provide any usage data, don’t worry. The system will calculate your energy emissions based on the spend data available.
To check your energy spends for this period, go to the Transactions screen. Apply a date filter for this financial quarter and a category filter for Energy. If you have any energy spends, you'll see the option labelled “I confirm my energy expenses are accurate and I cannot provide further details."
Choose this option to confirm that you can't provide usage data and want the system to calculate your energy emissions based on your spend data. Your footprint for this module will be recorded, and the module will be marked as complete.
If you don’t have any energy spends, you'll see the option labelled “I confirm I have no energy expenses and I cannot provide further details." Selecting this option will mark the module as complete, but your footprint will have a gap. You can always amend this later if you find the data.
If you have not connected a financial accounting platform or if the date range for this module is prior to your integration start date
If you have not connected a financial accounting platform or if the date range for this module is prior to your integration start date
There are a number of possible scenarios when completing this module. Follow the steps that best describes your situation:
1. Your business did not use energy during this period
Select “I don’t have these emissions” from the module’s front page. This confirms that your business didn’t use any energy during the selected quarter.
The module will be marked as complete and a 0kg CO₂e footprint will be applied for this quarter.
2. If you know how much energy or fuel you used or bought
Where you know the amount of energy or fuel used, select “Energy type, payment method and quantity purchased”. Select the category of energy. Choose details of how you pay for this energy - direct to a supplier or as part of a rent, lease or service charge. Add the amount and the unit. This gives you the most accurate footprint calculation.
Make sure you add usage data to account for your business's entire spend and usage within this category for this quarter. You can add this as one item or choose “Add another energy quantity" and add multiple items of the same or different categories.
Repeat this process for all categories that you have detail of how much you've bought or used by choosing “Add another energy quantity" and providing the data for each activity.
3. If you do not know how much energy or fuel you used, but you do know how much you spent on energy or fuel
Where you don't know how much you used but you do know how much you spent, select “Energy type, payment method and cost.” Select the category of energy. Choose details of how you pay for this energy, direct to a supplier or as part of a rent, lease or service charge. Add the amount paid including VAT or any other taxes. Make sure you do not add cost details for any activities for which you've already provided the usage data (the amount used or bought).
If you add detail of what you spent on a category in this section and you've also added detail of how much you used in the above section, the system assumes these datapoints refer to different activities and will count both entries in your footprint.
Make sure the data you add between usage and cost accounts for your business's entire spend and usage within this category for this quarter. You can add this as one item, or choose “Add another energy cost" and add multiple items of the same category. Repeat this process for all relevant activities by choosing “Add another energy quantity" and providing the data for each activity.
4. If you know energy was used but have no spend or usage records
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.
Dual Fuel Tariffs
If you’re on a dual fuel tariff, the simplest approach is to use spend data only within the "Dual fuel" category and skip entering usage. If you do wish to add usage details for both electricity and gas paid for on a dual fuel tariff, contact our support team for guidance.
Points to note
Gas supplied via the grid is categorised as Natural gas via pipeline.
Multiple bills for the same energy type or energy for multiple workplaces can be consolidated into one entry or can be added as distinct items.
What if I track the same type of energy usage differently across sites?
If you're recording energy usage in different ways for different locations - for example, using meter readings for Office A and tracking spend for Office B - that's not a problem.
In this case, simply add separate entries for each site:
Office A: Enter the meter readings.
Office B: Enter the energy spend.
Just make sure not to duplicate the same usage. You don’t need to provide both the usage and the spend for the same site. Choose one method per site to avoid double-counting.
Find out more:
See Sections 3, 4 and 5 of our Carbon Reduction Actions Guide