What is carbon footprinting?

Schéma Bilan Carbone

What is carbon footprinting?

It is an assessment of the quantity of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted (or captured) into the atmosphere over one year by the activities of an organisation or an area. CO2 is just one of the many gases taken into account: methane, fluids, refrigerants, nitrous oxide, etc.

Methodology

ADEME, the French Agency for Ecological Transition, has developed a carbon footprinting tool. The first step is to define its scope:
 
  • Define the organisational scope: which parts of the organisation are concerned?
  • Define the operational scope: what emissions are taken into account?
  • Set emissions factors or monetary ratios: determine the mass of CO2, equivalent to the GHG emissions linked to an activity, to the amount of purchases.
Schéma d'un bilan carbone : les données de l'activité et les facteurs d'émissions permettent d'obtenir la masse CO2 équivalente

Legal Framework

According to decree no. n° 2022-982 of 1 July 2022, a regulatory GHG emissions report is compulsory for government departments, legal entities under private law with more than 500 employees in mainland France and more than 250 employees in overseas territories; legal entities under public law with more than 250 employees; and local authorities and their groupings. The full report (scopes 1, 2 and 3) has been compulsory since 1 January 2023.
Failure to comply could result in a fine of €10,000.

For more information on the scope of the GHG balance and the applicable penalties: https://www.citepa.org/fr/2022_08_a02/ (in French)

Centrale Nantes carbon footprint from 2018 to 2022 (in French)

Évolution du bilan carbone de Centrale Nantes : scopes 1 et 2 (en valeur tCO2eq)
Nom du thème 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Scope1 Espaces verts -9 -9 -9 -9 -9
Scope 1 Émissions directes 98 98 47 84 64
Scope 2 Émissions indirectes liées à l'énergie 392 392 340 342 299

 
Évolution du bilan carbone de Centrale Nantes : scope 3 (en valeur tCO2eq)
Nom du thème 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Produits et services 3811 3867 2445 2443 3442
Déplacements 1730 1730 2445 2443 3442
Constructions 929 929 974 931 1319
Alimentation 653 653 653 653 653
Vie associative 300 300 0 0 172
Published on February 13, 2024 Updated on June 6, 2024