Carbon footprint essentials : how to conduct a CO2 inventory

Everything you need to know to start measuring and reducing the CO2 emissions of your organization.

I designed this course for every manager who would like to start measuring and reducing the CO2 emissions of its organization. 

The training content is based on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP) and ISO 14604-1 frameworks. 

This is not a complete GHG accounting course following one of the main methodologies (GHGP or ISO 14064 for example). This type of "advanced" course is usually 3 to 4 days long, with a certification at the end and a cost of more than $1.500. 

The course I offer on Udemy is an "essentials" course, with about 1h of video content + about another hour of quizz. Usually learners take around 3 to 4 hours to complete it. It's a good first step that you can take to understand well how to start measuring and reducing CO2 emissions for your company. 

The course is as condensed and as immediately actionable as possible. Concrete examples and exercises enable you to practice what you learned after each section. 

After taking it, you should have a clear view on how to conduct a CO2 inventory for your organization. The next step will be to dive in depth in a GHG accounting framework (GHG protocol, ISO 14064, etc) and take a training to know how to conduct an GHG inventory following that framework.

It covers the following topics :

1. Introduction : global warming and the international framework on climate change

Understand the enhanced greenhouse effet, its impact on global warming and the international framework on action against climate change

2. CO2 inventory : What is it? Why doing one? How to do it?

Definition of the CO2 footprint / CO2 inventory of a company, overview of the ISO 14064-1 and GHGP frameworks and the different options for a company to realize its CO2 inventory

3. Set organizational and inventory boundaries

Before starting to list sources, collect data and calculate emissions, it is necessary to take a moment to set the organizational and inventory boundaries, in a complete, transparent and coherent way.

4. Identify emission sources and collect data

Get to know the method for listing emission sources and starting to collect data before calculating the emissions for each source.

5. Calculate emissions

Know how to calculate the CO2 emissions for a given source, using the appropriate activity data and emission factor

6. Analyze results, set reduction targets and build an action plan

Analyze the inventory's results, set science-based reduction targets and build an action plan to reach them

7. Manage emissions : monitoring and continuous improvement

Set up a CO2 management and inventory continuous improvement system in your organization

8. Reporting and external communication

Communicate in a proper way on your organization's CO2 emissions, reduction targets and action plan, avoiding greenwashing

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