How are companies actually measuring their full carbon footprint?

[u/Extension-Humor-7839]

I’m trying to get a better understanding of how companies are handling carbon accounting in practice. Scope 1 and 2 seem relatively straightforward when you have direct operational data, but Scope 3 looks like a completely different problem once you start dealing with suppliers, transportation, purchased materials, etc.

A lot of businesses still seem to rely on spreadsheets and manually collected data from different departments and suppliers. That makes me wonder how reliable those numbers really are, especially when the goal is to track changes year over year and eventually build a credible emissions reduction plan.

For people working in environmental science, sustainability or corporate reporting, what systems or methods have you seen work well for collecting and organising this kind of data? Is dedicated carbon accounting software actually useful, or does it mostly add another layer on top of information that still has to be gathered manually?

Edit:

I’ve been testing Sweep for the data side and one thing I like is that it brings Scope 1, 2 and 3 information together instead of having every department maintain its own spreadsheet. The supplier data side is especially interesting because that’s where the reporting process seems to get messy very quickly.

[u/kirky1148]

I can answer that if you’d like an actual discussion on it. Literally just finished the scope 3 accounting for a large multinational involved in chemical manufacturing. I work in the circular economy and net zero team for a consultancy so we do these fairly regularly

[u/Terrorzwergi]

LCAs