Best Practices in Carbon Footprint Modeling: Going Beyond Inventories and Calculations

Overview

Off late highly competitive economy presents many obstacles to profitable growth and customer retention. In a 2008 McKinsey Quarterly article, "Business Strategies for Climate Change," the authors explain: "... the winners will be companies that reposition themselves to seize the opportunities of a low-carbon future." This statement has been echoed by analysts, academics and CEOs alike. This paper explains the differences between calculating and modeling emissions, the critical parallels between cost and Greenhouse Gas (GhG) accounting, collecting and managing data, and using activity-based modeling practices to gain invaluable insight from such efforts.