Protocol FAQs

Here are some of the most commonly asked questions in relation to the LSA carbon footprint protocol. If you have an additional question, please contact us:

What do I do about offsets? Why don’t they count?

If your firm offsets its carbon emissions, you should include the amount in the "Carbon Credits" tab of the Measurement Tool. The amount of offsets purchased will then appear in the "Carbon Mitigation Activities" section of the summary page of your footprint calculation. The offsets will therefore be visible if you choose to publicly disclose your footprint.

The LSA considers it is important that all firms calculate their full footprint prior to any reduction for offsetting. This will ensure that the firm's Emissions Profile (see page 7 of the Guidance) is accurate, that any aggregate footprint for the profession is as full as possible, and that, if any attempts at comparison are made, they are as fair as possible.

If your firm has a policy reason for not offsetting its carbon emissions, you are welcome to explain this on the notes page of the Measurement Tool.

How do I get credit for purchasing green energy?

If your firm purchases energy on a Green Tariff, you should include the amount in the "Carbon Credits" tab of the Measurement Tool. The amount of Green Energy purchased will then appear in the "Carbon Mitigation Activities" section of the summary page of your footprint calculation. The proportion of Green Energy used will therefore be visible if you choose to publicly disclose your footprint.

Please see page 4 of the Guidance for details on the LSA's policy of not reducing a footprint because of energy bought on a Green Tariff, which is in line with Defra’s most recent recommendations.

Why is employee commuting not included?

Whether or not to include employee commuting was a difficult decision. Ultimately, as the LSA Protocol is intended to assist firms to calculate their carbon footprints easily, especially if the firm has not calculated it before, it was decided that the information included had to be capable of measurement reasonably accurately.

The LSA Protocol was developed in consultation with the Carbon Trust who agreed that the limits imposed on the boundaries and scope were reasonable and sensible in the Protocol's first year. The Protocol will develop and employee commuting may be included in future years.

In the meantime, the LSA is very keen that firms are encouraged and equipped to address employee commuting choices, and a sample employee travel survey has been developed and is available on the LSA website (www.legalsectoralliance.com/impact/ carbonfootprint).

Where do I get all the data from?

The Guidance documents sets out in pages 7 to 10 where to obtain all the data required to complete the Measurement Tool (for example, information about how to gather data about 'Tab 3: On site combustion' is on page 8).

The Protocol covers emissions from sources which should be capable of measurement reasonably accurately. However, the LSA appreciates that some assumptions may have to be made (for example, you may have to estimate the percentage of floor space you occupy of a shared building). If you make any assumptions, please record them on the notes tab.

Why have you included only business class flights and what are the emissions factors behind this?

The emissions factors used for air travel are provided by Defra, which makes a distinction between CO2 emissions for different cabin classes, due to the relative amounts of space they occupy on a flight.

The Protocol uses the emissions factor for business class for long-haul flights. For short- and medium-haul flights, the emissions factor used is a weighted average across all cabin classes. The LSA considers it would be impractical to expect firms to record the cabin class used for each individual flight, and that this generalisation best reflects the mix of cabin classes occupied on different length flights.

Information about how to gather data on air travel in on pages 8 and 9 of the Guidance. Please remember to include all travel carried out globally by UK staff, not only travel within the UK.

Can I use the Protocol for my overseas offices?

The LSA Protocol has been designed specifically for use in the UK, and as such, all emissions factors relate to UK operations. If you wish, you can use the LSA Protocol to measure the carbon footprint of non-UK locations, but you should be aware that some of factors in the tool - for example emissions from purchased electricity - can vary quite significantly between countries.

How are you distinguishing between taxis and hire cars?

The emissions factor for taxis has been set as for a London Black Cab on a per journey (rather than per person) basis. If you use chauffeur-driven cars and/or minicabs, these are more likely to fit the emissions profile of one of the category of hire cars, which should be used in this case. If in doubt, just use the Taxi category.

What do I do if I can’t get information from my taxi company or don’t have all my taxi receipts?

Information about taxi journeys can be particularly hard to obtain, as the data can get hidden in expense claims and client accounts. To streamline the process of footprinting emissions from taxis, there are a number of calculation methodologies that can be used: distance (either miles or kms), journeys and expense spend. You should enter as much data into the measurement tool as you can using all three of these methodologies, being careful not to double-count taxi journeys (eg by adding both the distance travelled and the expense spend of the same journey).

Where data is completely unavailable, you should estimate the number of taxi journeys taken by your firm using common sense as the overarching rule.

What is the reporting period?

The preferred reporting period is the most recent financial year (April to March). However, any 12-month period is acceptable, provided that the period ends no more than one year before the data submission date.

What if our number of employees varies across the year?

Generally, firms should enter the number of employees they have at the end of their reporting period (where "employee" includes all support staff, partners, associates and fee-earners on the firm's payroll, as outlined on page 7 of the LSA Protocol guidance document). However, some firms will experience a headcount that fluctuates significantly across their reporting period. In this case, the average headcount across the 12 months of the reporting period can be entered.

What do I do if I’m in a tenanted building?

The percentage of the building that you occupy must be applied to the energy bills of the building. eg. If you occupy two floors of a 20-storey building then state 10% of the gross energy usage for the year.

Further information can be found in the guidance on page 7.

Do I count part-time staff?

The simple answer is yes, if part-time staff have their own desk at your office. Further information about how to count staff and who to count can be found on page in the guidance on page 3 and 7.

Why are you not measuring paper, waste, etc?

Paper and other consumables will have a carbon footprint, of course, but that will belong to the manufacturers and transporters rather than to the consumers. Waste does have a climate change impact, principally methane generation from landfill. As this involves a very inaccurate estimate it was not included in this first assessment. It may appear in subsequent assessments when more is known about the carbon impact of different waste disposal options.

Why have you not included all greenhouse gases?

We do with refrigerant losses, but emissions factor calculations from Defra, in general, do not need to break down into all the other constituent greenhouse gases. This is because they either aren’t statistically significant (for instance the CO2 component in power station emissions is about 400 times the nitrous oxide component; counting NOx makes very little difference to the result) or because they are expressed as CO2e or CO2 equivalent meaning that the figure has converted the global warming potential of other gases into the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide.

What do I do if I’m a sole practitioner? Should I use the Protocol?

Although there is no reason why the Protocol could not be used by sole practitioners, it may be unnecessarily complex and time consuming. Using one of the many personal carbon calculators available might be a better bet.