CarbonTrack User Guide

1About the tool

CarbonTrack calculates and reports a company’s corporate carbon footprint under the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and ISO 14064-1:2018. It brings Scope 1 (direct), Scope 2 (purchased energy, with dual location- and market-based reporting) and all fifteen Scope 3 categories into one workbook, and adds embedded-emissions and cost analysis for CBAM-exposed exporters. It is built for sustainability teams, energy managers and consultants.

2Quick start

1. 1

   Complete the company profile

   Company name, reporting year and NACE code are required; the reporting country sets every factor default.

2. 2

   Set the organisational boundary

   Skip it for a single entity; for a group, define subsidiaries and the consolidation approach.

3. 3

   Enter Scope 1

   Fuel use, vehicle fleet, process and fugitive emissions.

4. 4

   Enter Scope 2

   Enter electricity use on the location-based page; if you hold certificates or contracts, complete the market-based page too.

5. 5

   Assess the Scope 3 categories

   Calculate the relevant categories and mark the others “not relevant”.

6. 6

   Produce the report

   The Emission Report page builds the full report with ISO 14064-1 categories, dual Scope 2, uncertainty and data quality.

3Company profile

• Reporting year and period: ISO 14064-1 recommends a calendar year; a non-standard period is flagged.
• NACE code: 80 activities are defined; the profile shows which scopes matter most for the chosen activity.
• Reporting country: the grid emission factor, T&D losses, residual mix and EXIOBASE region all follow this choice. For an unlisted country, factors are entered manually on the relevant rows. Select the country first: until you do, no grid, residual mix or EXIOBASE default is applied and the profile shows a warning.
• Boundary approach: Equity Share, Financial Control, Operational Control.
• Base year: between 1990 and the current year.
• Scope 2 reporting method: “both” by default, because the GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance requires the location-based figure alongside any market-based claim. Both figures are always calculated; the choice only sets which one leads the report.
• Verification status: none, self-declared, third-party limited or reasonable assurance; the verifier’s name is printed on the report.

4Organisational boundary and consolidation

In a group, each subsidiary, associate or joint venture is defined with its ownership share and control. The tool consolidates the group under the chosen approach (Equity Share, Financial Control, Operational Control), flags inconsistencies in the structure and carries excluded entities into the report with their justification and emissions (ISO 14064-1 §5.2.4). The entity tree can be uploaded in bulk from an Excel template.

5Scope 1 — Direct emissions

• On any row you can replace the default with your own measured or supplier CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O factor; the source of the factor used is printed on the report.
• Fuels can be entered in different units (t, kg, Nm³, litre); density and calorific conversions happen in the tool.
• Refrigerants use one of two methods: screening (charge × leak rate) or mass balance (new charge + recharge − recovered). GWP follows the selected IPCC version.

6Scope 2 — Purchased energy

• Location-based: consumption-based grid emission factors for 208 countries (213 entries). The factor follows the reporting country and can be overridden on the row.
• Market-based: energy attribute certificates (I-REC, GO, etc.), power purchase agreements and supplier-specific factors; consumption not covered by a contract uses the residual mix of 34 markets.
• Each certificate is checked against the GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance quality criteria; a certificate that fails them should not be used to lower the market-based figure.
• Steam, heat and cooling: 8 heat and 3 cooling factors, or the supplier’s declared factor.

7Scope 3 — Value chain

• Spend-based factors: EXIOBASE 3.8 (2024), 200 sectors and 49 regions. Spend is converted from the profile currency.
• Material factors: 44 materials in 11 groups (Category 1 mass-based method).
• DEFRA catalogue: well-to-tank factors for 22 fuels, 13 freight, 21 travel and 39 hotel factors.
• Category 15 (investments) follows PCAF: Listed Equity & Corporate Bonds, Business Loans & Unlisted Equity, Project Finance, Commercial Real Estate, Mortgages, Motor Vehicle Loans.
• The method used is recorded per category for the report (GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard Ch. 7). Categories marked “not relevant” are kept apart from “not reported”.

8CBAM readiness

Embedded-emissions and certificate-cost analysis for companies exporting CBAM goods to the EU. The product is chosen by CN code (the tool maps 39 HS prefixes); default intensities apply when installation-specific data is missing. Imports below 50 tonnes a year fall under the de minimis exemption.

• Annual calendar (year after the reporting year): verification 31 March, declaration and certificate surrender 31 May.
• A carbon price paid in the country of origin is deducted from the CBAM obligation when documented.
• The same page produces the XML file for the CBAM quarterly report.

9Emission report

• Scope 1-2-3 totals and the mapping to the six ISO 14064-1:2018 categories.
• Location- and market-based Scope 2 side by side; removals on a separate line.
• Uncertainty (ISO 14064-1 §6.3) and a per-scope data-quality indicator; every score is shown with its reasons, and a scope without data is not scored.
• Base-year recalculation: acquisitions, divestments, mergers, boundary or methodology changes and error corrections trigger a recommendation once they cross the significance threshold; organic growth and facility openings or closures never do (ISO 14064-1 §5.3.2).
• Methodology appendix: source, year and version of every emission factor used.

10Links to other tools

• MRV Pro reads the Scope 1 worksheets of the same year as candidate source streams; nothing is imported without confirmation and CarbonTrack data is never changed.
• The ETS tool can take the operator name from the company profile.
• The MRV Pro annual emissions report uses the statutory GWP table, so the same raw data can give a different total in CarbonTrack.

11Troubleshooting

12Glossary

13References

• GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (revised edition).
• GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance (2015).
• GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard.
• ISO 14064-1:2018.
• PCAF Global GHG Accounting and Reporting Standard, Part A.
• Regulation (EU) 2023/956 (CBAM).

Revision history