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How does Sage Earth work out the comparisons for my carbon footprint in the platform?
How does Sage Earth work out the comparisons for my carbon footprint in the platform?

An article explaining the methodology and references used to work out all comparison references used across the platform

Jordan Edrich avatar
Written by Jordan Edrich
Updated over a week ago

Sage Earth does a lot of heavy mathematics on your behalf to make the act of calculating a businesses' carbon footprint as simple and quick as possible.

In doing this, we also strive to be completely transparent in our workings, because for obvious reasons the data used to further any conversation about the climate emergency needs to be absolutely trustworthy.

For this reason, we've decided to publish a list of the references used across the platform which were chosen to help users understand the scale of their impact. Each was carefully chosen to make carbon footprint contributions relatable to an every-day equivalent.

We've also tried to select a comparison that is relevant to the section of the company profile that has been completed.

People (staff commuting)

Example chosen: a single train journey from Bristol to London.

Numbers and sources for data used in calculation:

  • 171 km = distance between Bristol and London (ref: here)

  • 0.03694 kg CO2e emitted per passenger each km (ref: DEFRA conversion factors, Business Travel for land - National Rail)

Methodology:

  • 171 km x 0.03694 = 6.31674 kg CO2e per journey

Vehicles (petrol)

Example chosen: a single train journey from London to Paris.

Source for calculation:

Energy

Example chosen: the energy used to boil a kettle once

Source for calculation:

F-gases (fugitive GHGs)

Example chosen: the energy used to run a fridge for one day

Source for calculation:

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