Once you've entered data into Sage Carbon Accounting and have visibility of your footprint, you're ready to share the results. You may wish to share your Sage Carbon Accounting footprint:
Externally with customers, suppliers or investors: You may wish to share your results and progress to highlight the actions your business is taking to reduce emissions. This could be shared directly with key customers, or more broadly by publishing the information in a sustainability report or on your website. Alternatively, you may have had requests to share your carbon footprint with certain suppliers or investors.
Internally within your business: Sharing your results internally can help educate your team about your business’s emissions and support initiatives aimed at reducing them.
Sharing your footprint externally
Sharing your footprint with customers or suppliers is a good way to show your action on climate change; however it is important to understand and abide by the UK Government Green Claims Code to avoid greenwashing. When sharing your carbon footprint, here are a few key things to include to make it useful and transparent:
Your footprint covers your whole business, not just one product. It’s great to be transparent, but make sure people understand that your carbon footprint reflects the emissions of your entire business, not the emissions from making or selling a specific product. We don't recommend sharing your carbon footprint as a way of marketing a specific product.
Don’t directly compare your footprint with other businesses. Every business might use a different method to calculate their emissions. Unless you’ve used the exact same method, it’s not fair (or accurate) to say your business is “greener” or has “lower emissions” than someone else’s.
Shout about what you’re doing to reduce emissions. Customers value businesses that take climate action. Sharing the steps you're taking to cut your carbon footprint can help build trust and show your commitment to sustainability. For help finding inspiring actions see our Carbon Reduction Actions Page.
Break down your Scope 3 emissions: It's helpful to show a breakdown of your Scope 3 emissions into smaller categories (sub-scopes). Keep in mind: Your footprint does not include downstream Scope 3 emissions (categories 3.8 to 3.15). It’s important to be clear about this.
Include a statement about the methodology used: We have provided statements for you to used, they are dependent on if you followed our Greenhouse Protocol Compliance Guide.
If you followed our Compliance Guide: "Our carbon footprint has been calculated using the Sage Earth Carbon Accounting tool. Our carbon footprint is compliant with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol for Scopes [X] using an operational control approach."
If you did not follow our Compliance Guide: "Our [X] Scopes of emissions have been estimated using methods based on the principles of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, but do not comply with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol standards. The methods used are designed to provide practical estimates for small businesses."
Combine these statements if you used the compliance guide, but not for all scopes.
Some of your suppliers or investors may request your carbon footprint to include it in their own reporting (such as Scope 3 emissions). In some cases, sharing this information could even lead to benefits like improved payment terms. Here is an example of a report you may share with stakeholders:
Sharing your footprint internally within your business
Sharing your carbon footprint internally is a great way to engage your team and drive action.
Share results together with a call to action: Pair your results with a clear next step, such as an internal campaign or challenge, to help turn insights into meaningful action.
Invite ideas from the team: Sharing results can be a great moment to ask employees for suggestions on how the business can cut emissions. This helps build ownership and may surface creative, low-cost solutions.
Tailor the message to your audience: Different teams may connect with different aspects, finance may focus on cost savings, operations on efficiency, and employees on values. Framing the results in a way that resonates with each group can increase engagement.
Include some educational context: many employees may not be familiar with terms like Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. For some help with the content, see our Net Zero Hub.
Link to your broader sustainability or business goals: Connecting your footprint to company values or objectives (like cost savings, innovation, or resilience) reinforces its relevance and importance.
Focus on action over numbers: When discussing the results in detail, it's important to note that improved data quality can significantly change your estimates. This is especially true for your Scope 3 emissions. Your carbon footprint is most valuable as a tool to guide decarbonisation, with action being the most important outcome.
For further guidance or support, please consult the Help Centre or contact us.
Find out more:
Carbon Reduction Actions