Verification services for voluntary greenhouse gas assertions
With the UK government committed to reducing the UK's total greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050 in a bid to tackle global warming, measuring and reporting an organization's carbon footprint is becoming a big issue in the board room. Already forward thinking organisations have begun voluntarily declaring their GHG emissions for reasons such as risk management, cost reduction, brand protection and attracting socially responsible investment. And in the process, these organisations have prepared themselves for GHG legislation of tomorrow.
Measuring your organizations carbon footprint will provide information to both your own management and your stakeholders on which carbon reduction initiatives and investment decisions will be based. In a climate where the integrity and robustness of this data is being questioned, organisations now have the ability to have their carbon footprint statement independently verified by third party such as BSI.
Carbon Footprint Verification (CFV) is fundamental to provide credibility. It reassures regulators, customers, employees, shareholders, potential investors, environmental groups, the media and even your competitors, of the integrity, completeness and transparency of the carbon footprint calculations. Any organization that is actively measuring, or is establishing the procedures to arrive at its carbon footprint, irrespective of size, industry or location, could benefit from the additional rigour and expertise the CFV process brings.
To find out more about how to calculate and report your carbon footprint, see our Training information.
To find out more about verification, please feel free to view our Introductory webinar or download the white paper which gives an overview of verification and its benefits.
Who is it relevant to?
Carbon Footprint Verification is relevant to all types of organizations.
- Those already reporting GHG emissions for mandatory schemes that want to widen the scope to cover the whole organization
- Those in industries which are shortly going to be drawn into a mandatory GHG emissions scheme
- Those that are reporting voluntarily to initiatives such as the Carbon Disclosure Project
- Those smaller organizations looking for a manageable first step in promoting their contribution to the environment
Why choose us?
BSI is participating in many emerging climate change initiatives and contributes to the standards against which carbon footprints can be verified. We are also involved with the UK government in standardizing the methodology for carbon footprints of products and services.
Next steps
To obtain a quotation for Verification, please complete & return the free CFV pre-verification questionnaire.
Benefits of managing your carbon footprint
Calculating and managing your carbon footprint will help you:
- Prepare for impending legislation
Implement systems ahead of emerging regulations such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) programme and future requirements when your organization's emissions may be given monetary value
- Manage risks
Understand the level of carbon risk exposure and in which parts of your organization it can be reduced most efficiently
- Reduce costs
Identify opportunities for process improvement and drive savings with carbon reduction initiatives in operations and secondary activities such as energy consumption for heat and lighting, transport and travel
- Mitigate climate change
Reduce your organization’s greenhouse gas emissions and help mitigate global warming
- Improve staff motivation and retention
Involve your staff in devising and implementing carbon reduction plans, giving them the ability to “make a difference” as well as benefiting from their business insight
Adding value through third-party verification
Third-party verification of your organization's carbon footprint provides significant added value for participating organizations. Undertaking the process towards verification will provide:
- Credibility
Third-party verification provides a degree of credibility when it comes to reporting and publishing environmental information. This has implications for interested parties such as employees, customers, brokers, shareholders and insurance companies.
- Integrity
Independent verification provides assurance to your stakeholders that the verified data is faithfully represented, contains no material misstatements, is consistent and has been collected and analysed in a transparent and reliable manner.
- Transparency
Reporting externally verified GHG emissions data demonstrates your commitment to environmental transparency and accountability. A GHG emission report may form part of a public or corporate environmental or sustainability report and be a step towards 'Green Governance'.
- Consistency
Third-party emissions verification will ensure that your data is consistent according to set protocols. Using a unique process developed by our experienced GHG verification team, we will ensure that your data is accurate for the purpose for which it is designated.
- Reliability
We have ensured that third-party verification will produce reliable and faithful representation emissions data. Through accreditation under the UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) scheme EN 45011, we have achieved an important independent professional endorsement of our verification process.
This will assist you in:
- Managing reputational risk
You can be assured and assure others that your organization has considered the full scope of processes and emissions, and that the information is robust enough to withstand media scrutiny
- Attracting Investment
Providing credible information to financial markets and insurance companies can enhance your organization's reputation, leading to improved access to capital through ratings on the growing number of market indices such as the FTSE4Good and DJSI
- Differentiating you from the competition
By proving that your organization takes its environmental impact seriously
- Carbon neutrality
Having your carbon footprint independently verified will underpin your claim of carbon neutrality with a proven best practice calculation, ensuring that you are focussing on the most efficient abatement programmes and not purchasing more offset credits than necessary to achieve carbon neutrality.
We are experts in training and assessment and have a network of public and in house courses dedicated to teaching you in the skills you need to calculate and report your carbon footprint.
Next steps
For further information about specific training on this subject, please call us on
(+44) (0)845 086 9000 or enter your details in our enquiry form.
Carbon Footprint Verification (CFV) is fundamental to provide credibility. It reassures regulators, customers, employees, shareholders, potential investors, environmental groups, the media and even your competitors, of the integrity, completeness and transparency of the carbon footprint calculations. Any organization that is actively measuring, or is establishing the procedures to arrive at its carbon footprint, irrespective of size, industry or location, could benefit from the additional rigour and expertise the CFV process brings.
BSI can verify your carbon footprint in accordance with management systems standard ISO 14065 and can be performed against the requirements of ISO 14064-1 and the WBCSD/WRI GHG protocol.
We will review the scope and methodology applied to your current carbon footprint calculations, taking into account the full range of your organization's emissions. Throughout the verification process we will work with you to identify opportunities to improve your management of GHG data.
Our process for third party CFV embraces the highest standards of quality assurance and quality control procedures in the industry. So you can be sure that the information we provide is a complete and totally reliable basis for improving your performance in monitoring and reporting emissions.
Next steps
For further information or a "quick quote" please call us on (+44) (0)845 080 9000. Alternatively enter your details into our enquiry form and one of our advisors will contact you.
