Carbon Management Vs Carbon Accounting: Know The Difference

Carbon Management Vs Carbon Accounting: Know The Difference

Over the past few decades, our planet has suffered enormously due to carbon emissions. A lot of damage has already been caused and if current practices persist a lot more is predicted for the future as well.

However, thankfully as awareness of sustainability issues has started to grow, various sustainability initiatives have been taken to safeguard the wellbeing of our planet. Carbon Management Vs Carbon Accounting is such a notable concept that we will be covering in detail in this article, including topics such as central ideas of carbon management and accounting, differences between the two and other relevant information.

What is carbon management?

Carbon management involves a variety of different processes that allow for the smooth management of emissions. The main purpose behind it is to help organisations and businesses not only identify the level of carbon that is being emitted from their corporate activities but also guide them towards the different ways in which they can adopt a more efficient carbon utilisation.

Why is carbon management important?

Carbon management is a major sustainability practice and its importance stems from the fact that it is highly relevant to and supplies the needs of modern industrial societies today. Almost every industrial sector spread across the globe is involved in business practices that result in carbon emissions. Let it be the cotton textile industry or one that is involved in food production, every company is leaving behind a carbon footprint. Because this carbon footprint is resulting in climate issues, initiatives like carbon management have become a popular tool against the drive to mitigate this climate change.

Carbon management primarily focuses on assisting organisations to stay on track with regulatory requirements. As many companies have started to offer carbon management services, organisations have become able to manage their carbon emissions effectively which gives them financial advantages and other operational gains. Not only this it is helping them build a good rapport with sustainability-driven consumers and allows them to develop a much-appreciated green presence in the market.

As awareness of sustainability issues has started to find its way into the corporate sector, lowering greenhouse gas emissions is becoming a principal focus of many organisations and what makes carbon management so important is the fact that carbon is a major constituent of greenhouse gases. This is also a major reason why carbon footprinting is a major part of carbon management. Using the tool of carbon footprinting, organisations can conveniently monitor carbon emissions released by their business and get a baseline for their carbon emission reduction. This is because carbon footprinting is based on identifying sources of carbon emissions. Once this is done it is much easier to recognize which one of the sources can be easily cut down and which might take more effort. A major benefit this brings is an ease in decision making as the concerned authorities get all the relevant data needed to make an impactful decision.

How does the carbon management system work?

Carbon management services generally first collect monthly data of all the carbon-emitting sources. The data collected is used to create monthly reports that businesses and organisations can then use to reach conclusions and take final decisions.

Let’s now proceed to carbon accounting.

What is Carbon accounting?

Carbon accounting which is also commonly known as greenhouse gas accounting can be described simply as a technique employed to estimate the amount of carbon dioxide equivalent an organization or business emits. Generally, it is used to produce carbon credit commodities that can be traded at carbon markets by businesses, states, and even individuals.

Today you will be able to conveniently find many examples of products that are based on the principles of carbon accounting. Notable examples include national inventories, carbon footprint calculators, environmental reports produced by businesses, and a lot more. National inventories and carbon footprint calculators are prime examples of products that are based on carbon accounting.

Why is carbon accounting important?

Corporate awareness of sustainability issues has increased the importance of carbon accounting. Many businesses have even made GHG reporting in directors’ reports mandatory as it is now demanded by shareholders and used as a tool to develop stakeholder engagement, employee participation, etc. In fact, today we even have Enterprise Carbon Accounting (ECA) also referred to as Corporate Carbon Footprint which has become an essential component of enterprise sustainability and acts as a cost and time-effective way for organization to collect, synthesise and then disclose organisation and supply chain greenhouse gas emissions.

How does the carbon accounting system work?

The way carbon accounting or Greenhouse gas accounting works is that first the process of  auditing greenhouse gas emissions and inventorying is carried out. This is then followed by an organisational assessment which evaluates carbon footprint. This data offers the basis through which the impact of climate change is understood and effects are controlled.

Carbon management VS Carbon accounting

The first thing that we need to realize when understanding the difference of Carbon Management Vs Carbon Accounting is that carbon management is about understanding how and where organizations are generating greenhouse gases and that carbon management itself includes carbon accounting.

Carbon management is generally more about understanding the flow of greenhouse gas emissions, tracing it from the beginning to the end of its life cycle whereas carbon accounting emphasises standardising Greenhouse gas emissions into common metrics.

Likewise, carbon management also involves business processes, workflow, carbon mitigation and benchmarking, and a continuous measure of carbon footprint.

We hope that this article has proven to be a resourceful guide, helping you understand the key differences between carbon management and carbon accounting.

Learned something new here? We will be glad to know what you found most intriguing about this article.