Carbon footprinting

The first step for any business wanting to take action on climate change is to understand the impact of its activities on the environment and the most common way of doing this is to measure its 'carbon footprint'. The problem is that there are a number of ways that it can be calculated using various tools and methodologies and including a variety of activities within its scope.

For example, one firm might calculate its carbon footprint measuring only those things for which it is directly responsible, such as energy use and greenhouse gas emissions while another may include indirect impacts such as staff travel to and from work or the emissions of its suppliers. This not only makes it difficult for individual firms to benchmark their performance, it can also lead to unfair comparisons between firms.

In order to address this, the Legal Sector Alliance has developed a protocol which, if adopted widely, will not only help firms to easily calculate their footprint, but will also improve transparency, consistency and comparability within the sector.

The protocol comprises a spreadsheet-based measurement tool (Excel, 666kb) and accompanying guidance. The measurement tool has been adapted from the existing GHG Protocol measurement tools. The LSA protocol has been developed in consultation with the Carbon Trust. The calculation methodology and technical content of the measurement tool have been verified by the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management.

If you have any difficulties using the measurement tool or have questions about why certain emissions are being measured and others are not, please contact us or see the FAQs for some of the most popular questions. If you send us your completed footprint we will only use it for the purposes of analysing and reporting on trends across the sector. It will not be disclosed or attributed to a particular firm, without first obtaining consent.

Please note that employee commuting is not measured within the LSA protocol, however we do encourage firms to promote green travel. Visit the green travel page for more on this and a sample workplace travel survey (Word).