3. Carbon Footprinting in Supply Chains: Measurement, Reporting, and Disclosure

This chapter discusses several important aspects related to supply chain carbon footprinting. It presents the main motivations for carbon footprinting and describes how carbon footprints can be measured. It introduces different carbon accounting methods, ranging from direct measurement-based to extrapolation-based ones. It also provides an example of a supply chain carbon footprinting from the telecommunications industry. In this chapter, we show that defining the right scope is crucial, not only because it has strong implications for the type of measurement methods that can be implemented, but also because indirect scope 3 emissions, can represent a large share of an organization’s carbon emissions. While the lack of reliable and high-quality data can be an obstacle to correctly measure Scope 3 emissions, ignoring them can lead to a serious lack of information required to make appropriate decisions for reducing the supply chain’s carbon emissions. Finally, we discuss other additional challenges related to carbon footprinting and highlight the importance of extending the horizon of sustainable supply chains beyond carbon emissions.