What is a carbon footprint

Definition

A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities of a person, organization, product or event, expressed in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e). It covers not only CO2 but also methane, nitrous oxide and other gases listed under the Kyoto Protocol, each converted to CO2e using its global warming potential (GWP). The metric serves as the baseline for any climate strategy: without a reliable footprint, reduction targets, offset purchases and progress reports have no anchor.

How it works in practice

The most widely adopted framework for calculating a corporate carbon footprint is the GHG Protocol, which divides emissions into three scopes.

• Scope 1 covers direct emissions from sources the organization owns or controls, such as fuel burned in company vehicles or furnaces.
• Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from purchased electricity, steam, heating or cooling.
• Scope 3 covers all other indirect emissions across the value chain, including purchased goods, business travel, employee commuting, downstream use of sold products and end of life treatment.

For a product level footprint, the reference standard is ISO 14067, which builds on the life cycle assessment methodology of ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. The calculation traces every stage from raw material extraction through manufacturing, distribution, use and disposal.

Concrete example

Consider a mid sized food manufacturer that operates two factories, runs a fleet of refrigerated trucks and sources agricultural ingredients from dozens of suppliers. Its Scope 1 would include the natural gas burned in factory boilers and the diesel consumed by the truck fleet. Scope 2 would include the electricity drawn from the grid to power production lines and cold storage. Scope 3 (often the largest share for food companies) would include fertilizer use on supplier farms, packaging produced by third parties, refrigeration at retail stores and consumer disposal of packaging. When the company adds all three scopes, it arrives at a single number in tCO2e per year. That number becomes the reference point for setting a reduction target, choosing which interventions (energy efficiency, fleet electrification, supplier engagement) deliver the largest impact, and reporting progress to investors or regulators.

How it applies in Brazil

Brazil has its own institutional infrastructure for greenhouse gas accounting. The GHG Protocol Brazil Programme, coordinated by FGVces (the Center for Sustainability Studies at Fundação Getulio Vargas) in partnership with the World Resources Institute, adapts the global GHG Protocol to the Brazilian context. Companies that join the programme calculate and publicly report their emissions through the Public Emissions Registry, which has been operating since 2008. The registry publishes emission factors specific to the Brazilian energy grid, which is relevant because Brazil’s electricity mix has a high share of hydropower, making its grid emission factor significantly lower than that of many other countries. Using a generic global emission factor instead of the Brazilian one can distort Scope 2 results.

On the regulatory side, Brazil’s National Policy on Climate Change (Law 12,187/2009) established the legal basis for emissions reporting and reduction targets. The country also maintains the SIRENE platform (Sistema de Registro Nacional de Emissões), managed by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), which consolidates national emissions data. International professionals operating in Brazil should be aware that the Brazilian programme follows the same three scope structure as the global GHG Protocol, but local emission factors, grid data and land use change accounting rules may differ from what they use in other jurisdictions.

Land use change and deforestation are a particularly significant component of Brazil’s national footprint. For companies with agricultural supply chains in Brazil, Scope 3 calculations often need to account for emissions from land use change associated with commodity production, a factor that may not appear in footprint calculations for operations in other regions.

The most common mistake

The single most frequent error is treating the carbon footprint as if it only includes Scope 1 and Scope 2. Many organizations report their “carbon footprint” based solely on their direct operations and purchased energy, omitting Scope 3 entirely. For most sectors, Scope 3 represents the majority of total emissions. In industries such as financial services, retail, food and technology, Scope 3 can account for more than 80% of the total footprint. A company that reports only Scope 1 and 2 may appear to have a small footprint when in fact its full value chain impact is many times larger.

A related confusion is between a carbon footprint and a carbon handprint. The footprint measures the negative impact (emissions caused), while the handprint concept (less standardized, but increasingly used) attempts to measure the positive impact, for example the emissions that a product helps its users avoid. Mixing the two in the same disclosure, or subtracting handprint from footprint, can mislead stakeholders.

Another common error involves offsets. Purchasing carbon credits does not reduce the footprint itself. It compensates for it. Reporting a “net” footprint that subtracts offsets without disclosing the gross figure obscures the actual emissions profile and is increasingly flagged by regulators and standard setters as a transparency concern.

Key references

• GHG Protocol Corporate Standard (World Resources Institute and WBCSD)
• ISO 14064 (organizational level quantification and reporting of GHG emissions)
• ISO 14067 (carbon footprint of products)
• GHG Protocol Brazil Programme and Public Emissions Registry (FGVces)
• Brazil National Policy on Climate Change (Law 12,187/2009)

Primary sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, revised edition (WRI/WBCSD, 2004); ISO 14067:2018, carbon footprint of products (ISO, 2018); Brazilian GHG Protocol Programme (FGVces, 2008); SIRENE national emissions registry system (Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, 2026); Law 12,187/2009, National Policy on Climate Change (Planalto, 2009).