Three quarters of businesses' carbon emissions ignored

Despite growing efforts to measure their carbon emissions, almost 75 per cent of firms' carbon footprints are typically going unrecorded, according to a new study from Carnegie Mellon University.

The research, published last week, claimed that the majority of firms publishing greenhouse gas emissions data are failing to account for the carbon impact of their supply chains and partners, instead focusing solely on emissions arising from their direct activities and the energy they use.

"By far, most companies are pursuing very limited footprints – toe prints really – instead of comprehensive ones," said report co-author H. Scott Matthews, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon.

The study found that two-thirds of US industries would overlook around 75 per cent of their total greenhouse gas emissions if they continue to only account for so called tier one emissions arising from their own operations and tier two emissions related to energy use.

It calculated that the average industry has only 14 per cent of its total greenhouse gas emissions in tier one and 12 per cent in tier two, while the remaining 74 per cent arises from the tier three emissions embedded within the supply chain.

The researchers behind the report are urging firms to pay greater attention to supply chain related emissions and have developed a new methodology, called EIO-LCA, that provides firms with average full lifecycle carbon footprints for 500 popular commodities or services.

Paul Dickinson, chief executive of the Carbon Disclosure Project, agreed that many firms were under-reporting their carbon footprint, but argued that growing numbers of firms were aware of the problem and were seeking to better account for the impact of their supply chains.

"Our experience shows that the larger companies in particular are doing a good job at trying to account for their full lifecycle emissions, but it is true that the smaller firms have a long way to go to catch up," he said.