Carbon Footprint Verification

Carbon Footprint Verification

TÜV SÜD’s carbon footprint verification offers you and your stakeholders transparency regarding your greenhouse gas emissions

TÜV SÜD’s carbon footprint verification offers you and your stakeholders transparency regarding your greenhouse gas emissions

Why a carbon footprint should be verified

Companies are increasingly being judged based on their sustainable actions by business partners, investors, analysts, the media, and consumers. Based on the overall expectation, a sense of responsibility and dedication to climate protection has led to increased industrial carbon footprint management.

Carbon footprint verification helps quantify the greenhouse gas emissions that result from a company’s operations and thereby enables the company to demonstrate its commitment to mitigating the effects of climate change. Companies can use a carbon footprint inventory to determine their climate-relevant emissions. It then serves as a decision-making basis for developing climate protection targets and charting a strategic route. Is that, however, sufficient? Only when a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) balance has been independently verified does it become genuinely reliable.

Why should you choose TÜV SÜD as a provider for your carbon footprint verification?

The Verification Body for Greenhouse Gases of TÜV SÜD has provided verification and validation services since the beginning of the European Union Emission Trading System in 2005. With a market share of over 15% of all verified stationary plants in almost every industry, TÜV SÜD is the largest verification body in Germany.

We are accredited according to ISO 14065 for the verification and validation of quantification, monitoring and reporting of Greenhouse Gases, which includes carbon auditing projects such as Corporate Carbon Footprints and Emission Reduction. The carbon footprint assessment and verification process follow the ISO 14064-3 and is subject to high requirements, which ensures a professional and reliable revision of your GHG reporting.

You benefit from the following advantages with TÜV SÜD:

  • Increased ecologic integrity of your Carbon Footprint by complying with recognized standards.
  • Improved credibility, consistency und transparency of the quantification, monitoring and reporting of your GHG.
  • Creating a reliable basis for developing and improving monitoring systems for tracking GHG-emissions.
  • Enabling the development and implementation of emission reduction and decarbonization strategies.

What carbon footprint verification services does TÜV SÜD offer?

TÜV SÜD offers carbon footprint verification services for the following GHG-related reporting:

  • Company Level Reporting: Corporate Carbon Footprints according to ISO 14064-1, if required, in combination with GHG Protocol.
  • Product Level Reporting: Product Carbon Footprints according to ISO 14067, if required, in combination with ISO 14040/44 and GHG Protocol.
  • Emissions Reduction Projects according to ISO 14064-2, if required, in combination with specific GHG program requirements such as EU Innovation Fund or Upstream Emission Reduction regulation.
  • Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism: preliminary verifications as preparation for the upcoming legislation.

The goal of carbon footprint assessment and verification is to create reliability and transparency, identify emission drivers and push innovation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption and raw material expenditures. Carbon management certification lets companies simultaneously cut costs and improve their environmental reputation.

Corporate Carbon Footprint Verification (CCF)

For the consistent preparation of a CCF, the use of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG) and the ISO 14064-1 have been established. The TÜV SÜD experts check the corporate carbon footprint of a company regarding the compliance with those standards. In terms of content, ISO 14064-1 is strongly based on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol), which was published in 1998 by the WSBCSD and the WRI to standardise so-called carbon accounting and now describes a variety of calculation approaches for determining emissions.

Example of the verification statement for CCF 

Product Carbon Footprint Verification (PCF)

Product Carbon Footprint

In a PCF, the main greenhouse gas emissions along the entire product life cycle are assessed and quantified, starting with resource extraction and raw material procurement, through the phases of production and use, to the end-of-life of the product. The calculation is verified based on the ISO 14067.

ISO 14067 defines requirements and guidelines for quantifying the carbon footprint of products and builds on the ISO 14040/44 for Life Cycle Assessment. 

Example of the verification statement for PCF

How does the carbon footprint verification service by TÜV SÜD work?

The carbon footprint verification process at TÜV SÜD follows 5 clearly defined steps:

  1. Kick-off meeting to determine assessment, timeframe and first estimations of greenhouse gas emissions
  2. Audit planning with strategic risk analysis, creation of audit plan and possible interim review
  3. Carbon audit with the assessment of actual greenhouse gas emissions
  4. Post-processing to adapt corrections and creation of preliminary audit report
  5. Verification certificate issuance

Carbon Footprint Verification Process

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

 

  • What is Carbon Footprint Verification?

    Carbon footprint verification is checking a company's carbon dioxide release into the atmosphere, enabling them to quantify the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from its operations. Businesses can demonstrate their commitment to minimising the effects of climate change by measuring the amount of greenhouse gases they emit while carrying out their activities through carbon footprint verification. Each project's verification procedures are different, but they all generally involve ongoing monitoring and reporting to ensure the projects perform as expected.

  • What is a Carbon Footprint audit?

    There is increasing pressure on companies and organisations worldwide to go greener and reduce their carbon footprint. A carbon audit or carbon footprint audit helps identify all factors contributing to CO2 emissions and calculate total CO2 production. It enables businesses to see exactly where to take measures to reduce their carbon footprint.

  • What is Carbon Footprint management?

    Carbon footprint management is a process that mitigates carbon emissions thereby leading to reduction in human impact on environmental climate change.

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