Annex 1 - Key accounting principles of the Bilan Carbone®
What are the fundamental principles to be respected by Bilan Carbone® accounting?
The Bilan Carbone® method is based on accounting principles. The appendix presents these generic rules and principles for each of the 10 items of the Bilan Carbone®.
The Bilan Carbone® Organisation is generalist. It applies to any organisation, regardless of its size, sector of activity or profile.
The Bilan Carbone® method does not aim to spell out particular cases or conventions specific to different sectors or organisation profiles.
🔎 Several complementary resources serve as practical guides for the application of the principles formulated here by the Bilan Carbone® method (General Carbon Plan, ADEME Sectoral Guides). These resources notably provide usual emission factors, practical advice or assumptions in the absence of certain data, average lifetimes, etc.
The definitions of the items, the emission sources they include, and the main associated accounting principles are detailed below:
Energy
This item covers:
The Energy item therefore groups energy consumptions from so-called “fixed” sources: premises, machines, etc. The emissions associated with these energy consumptions of goods or premises used by the organisation, must be taken into account, whether it is owner or tenant.
The energy consumption of vehicles or other “mobile” sources (fossil fuels, organic fuels, electricity) are normally not to be included in the Energy item, but in the Freight and Transportation.
Hydrocarbons are only taken into account insofar as they are burned. If they are used as raw materials (for example petroleum products in petrochemicals), they should not be included here but in the Inputs.
For energy consumption from a distribution network (electricity and gas), there are two different ways in the literature to evaluate GHG emissions:
The location-based approach which conforms to the physical reality of the distribution network, a unique network shared by all in which it is not possible to distinguish between an electron from renewable energy and an electron from a thermal or nuclear power plant, or between a molecule of methane from natural gas (i.e. fossil) or from methanisation (biogas). It is therefore necessary in all cases to use the network emission factor (for gas this is the “natural gas” EF of the Base Empreinte® which actually contains a very small proportion of biogas) GC: Parenthesis to delete or keep?
The market-based approach which conforms to contract offers (green electricity contracts, biogas contracts, ...) and therefore allows applying the provider-specific emission factor, which is generally different from that of the network.
Only the location-based approach is compliant with the Bilan Carbone® method. However, Bilan Carbone® tools may offer both approaches in order to be able to export results in GHG Protocol or CSRD format, for which it is required to report both location-based and market-based emissions. Green electricity or biogas contracts can also be highlighted by accounting separately for avoided emissions (subscription to this type of contract sometimes allowing, under certain conditions, the decarbonisation of networks). The organisation must not subtract these avoided emissions from total emissions, but may account for them and, if applicable, report them separately.
⏳[WIP] ABC and its community will position themselves in more detail on the notion of avoided emissions during 2025.
In the case where the organisation produces energy, three cases should be differentiated:
Energy is generated from a fuel produced within the organisation (plastic waste, wood, ...). In this case, the organisation must avoid any double counting within the inventory. For fossil or organic fuels, the organisation should only report emissions related to the combustion of these fuels in the appropriate sub-items, the upstream emissions already being taken into account elsewhere in the inventory.
Energy is generated from a fuel not produced by the organisation. In this case, the risk of double counting does not exist. For fossil or organic fuels, the organisation should report the emissions related to theupstream and to the combustion of these fuels in the appropriate sub-items.
Energy is generated from a renewable or nuclear source installed on the organisation's site. In this case, no emissions related to the combustion are generated. However, theupstream of this energy production, namely the installation of the source and the manufacture of the equipment, must be taken into account. This consideration can be made either in the Energy item, or in the Fixed assets (depending on the organisation's logic), which avoids double counting.
If part of the electricity produced by the organisation is intended to be directly self-consumed (individual self-consumption or collective self-consumption), without using the national grid, it can be accounted for in the Bilan Carbone® on the basis of the LCA content of the different production means mobilised.
If part of the electricity produced by the organisation is intended to be sold, it remains mandatory to take into account all of the emissions mentioned above, because the Bilan Carbone® aims to account for all emissions generated by the organisation. However, the organisation may valorise this sold energy production by accounting separately for avoided emissions. The organisation must not subtract these avoided emissions from total emissions, but may account for them and, if applicable, report them separately.
⏳[WIP] ABC and its community will position themselves in more detail on the notion of avoided emissions during 2025.
Other direct emissions
This item covers so-called “non-energy” direct emissions, that is all direct GHG emissions that are not related to the use ofenergy :
Across these sub-items, all GHGs must be taken into account, including those that are not included under the Kyoto Protocol. These emissions are frequent within the Industrial Processes, Refrigeration Production and Other Direct GHG Emissions sub-items. The organisation must therefore be particularly careful to include these GHGs within its Bilan Carbone®. Several examples (not exhaustive) of the GHGs concerned depending on the processes:
For the sub-item “Direct GHG emissions related to agriculture”, the fermentation of agricultural waste is not to be taken into account: it is indeed a simple return to the atmosphere of CO₂ that was recently taken up during plant photosynthesis.
For the sub-item “Direct GHG emissions related to refrigeration production”, only refrigerant fluid leaks that occur during the organisation's use are to be taken into account. Leaks that occur at equipment end-of-life are to be accounted for in the Direct waste. In the case where the organisation manufactures equipment for which these leaks occur, they should be accounted for in the Use and End of life. The energy consumption necessary for refrigeration production is by definition in the Energy.
For the sub-item “Direct GHG emissions related to land use change”:
For a land use change leading to an instantaneous release of GHGs, the organisation must take into account the entire associated release, without amortisation, in the year of the inventory. For changes whose kinetics are slower (forest to cropland for example), the time to return to equilibrium depends on pedological and climatic conditions. This duration is a local, regional or national value if possible. Otherwise, the stock variation is by convention considered to occur over 20 years (default value defined by the UNFCCC). The entirety of this impact must be taken into account in the inventory year during which this change occurs. In reality, GHGs will be released over 20 years until a new equilibrium is reached. Care must be taken not to double count this land use change in the case of theFixed asset of a construction.
Land use changes leading to GHG storage must in no case be taken into account within the Bilan Carbone®. However, they can be estimated by separately accounting for sequestered emissions. The organisation must not subtract these sequestered emissions from total emissions, but may account for them and, if applicable, report them separately.
⏳[WIP] ABC and its community will position themselves in more detail on the notion of sequestered emissions during 2025.
Inputs: goods and materials
This item covers:
This item covers all flows of goods and materials that enter the organisation, whether to be consumed on site (and potentially found in its Waste), or to be incorporated into the organisation's production. The only goods not to be included in this item are those that will fall under the Fixed assets.
This item does not only include raw materials, but also semi-finished products or manufactured products “incorporated” into the organisation's activities. In particular, it covers materials used by the activity to be incorporated into its own production, for example:
Base materials (metals, plastics, glass, etc.) for a manufacturer of manufactured objects
Agricultural products in the case of agri-food companies, or for a restaurant (including company catering)
Raw materials and reagents in the case of chemical companies
Materials needed to package incoming materials.
In the case of a commercial activity, upstream emissions, namely the manufacturing of sold products, are therefore to be taken into account in this "Inputs: goods and materials" item. However, the emissions associated with theUse and to the End of life use
of these sold products (or services) are so-called “downstream” items.
An organisation that acquires goods or materials from recycling takes into account the impact of the recycling process (and therefore the material regeneration) within this item.
The consumption of meals by the organisation's employees during the activity period is to be taken into account within this item, even if the employees consume these meals outside the organisation. Fixed assets Goods and materials must be accounted for whether they are purchased, rented or donated. In the particular case where inputs would be recovered by the organisation while they were not intended for any use (expired foodstuffs, clothing, etc.), and provided that it can justify this, the organisation will not take into account the GHG emissions associated with the production of these inputs. However, the GHG emissions associated with the rest of the supply chain (notably distribution) must still be taken into account. Note, for the reuse of fixed assets, refer to the "
" (digital, buildings, vehicles, machines, furniture, …).Regarding the sub-item “Goods and materials in a spend-based approach”, in the case where the organisation would use spend-based ratios, it may adjust these spend-based ratios according to the inflation
that applies to its purchases or rentals of goods and services. End of life The sub-item “Material intended for packaging” of products sold or distributed makes it possible to visualise the overall contribution of the “waste by destination” that these packages represent, although they are not thrown away directly by the entity that puts them into circulation. The emissions taken into account in this sub-item are related to the production of the plastics, paper, metals, etc. necessary for the making of the packaging. The emissions related to the of these packages (which will occur almost immediately after their release into circulation) are considered in the relevant item. These individualised sub-items can be.
aggregated It is rare that this "Inputs: goods and materials" item does not require some investigation outside the organisation to obtain some specific emission factors. This may require asking certain suppliers to do their own GHG reporting and to transmit it to the organisation. In the absence of real, physical or customised information, a sub-item is nevertheless dedicated to materials for which emission factors in spend-based ratios are used. All limits mentioned in the Bilan Carbone® method
apply to this sub-item.
This item covers:
Emissions related to the various services received by the organisation accounted for via emission factors in spend-based ratios
Tertiary services (excluding transport) consumed by the organisation can for example include:
IT services
Telecommunication services
Maintenance, servicing, cleaning
Banking services
Training
Advertising
Fees of all kinds (lawyers, accountants, etc.) Regarding digital, this item covers the organisation's “digital uses” that involve an indirect impact (external servers, data processing and storage, data transport over networks, etc.). The other digital impacts are the subject of.
different sub-itemsRegarding the sub-item “Goods and materials in a spend-based approach”, in the case where the organisation would use spend-based ratios, it may adjust these spend-based ratios according to the inflation
In the case where the organisation would use spend-based ratios, it may adjust these spend-based ratios according to theIt is rare that this "Inputs: services" item does not require some investigation outside the organisation to obtain some specific emission factors. This may require asking certain suppliers to do their own GHG reporting and to transmit it to the organisation. The use of the supplier's Bilan Carbone® Organisation is allocated pro rata to the organisation's expenses and the supplier's turnover (turnover is representative if the supplier's activity is homogeneous). It thus makes it possible to build a so-called".
specific It is rare that this "Inputs: goods and materials" item does not require some investigation outside the organisation to obtain some specific emission factors. This may require asking certain suppliers to do their own GHG reporting and to transmit it to the organisation. In the absence of real, physical or customised information, a sub-item is nevertheless dedicated to materials for which emission factors in spend-based ratios are used. All limits mentioned in the Bilan Carbone® method
Freight
This item covers:
Emissions related to outbound freight from the organisation
This item covers all freight transports carried out on behalf of the organisation, without ownership of the transport means being taken into account, the distinction being made by the nature of the trip. It includes:
The transport of products that come from outside and are delivered within the organisational boundary (transport of purchases from suppliers to the organisation, for example). organisational boundary
So-called internal transports, where the departure and arrival points are part of the
The transport of products that leave the organisation and are shipped “elsewhere” (to customers, users, or to suppliers in some very particular cases) regulatory GHG Assessment“Inbound freight” and “outbound freight” must not be confused with the denominations “upstream freight” and “downstream freight” from the . These notions are distinct: Within the Bilan Carbone®, types of freight are distinguished according to the organisational boundary, whereas in the regulatory GHG Assessment, upstream freight corresponds to freight whose costs are borne by the organisation, and downstream freight corresponds to freight whose costs are not borne by the organisation. Links of correspondence
are possible between these two nomenclatures.
The item takes into account road, air, maritime, inland waterway and rail transports. It takes into account all criteria that have a strong influence on emissions, including: distance, trip duration, vehicle load factor, etc. The organisation must take into account the outbound trip, and the empty return rate on the return trip. In the case of air transport, by default the organisation must take into account the formation ofcontrails
. If not taken into account, the organisation must justify it, for example by proving that contrails do not form on the route in question (their formation depending on altitude and various meteorological factors).FreightIn the case where transport is carried out via vehicles owned by the organisation, it may choose to account for the emissions associated with the manufacture of the vehicle in the "Fixed assets" or "
Transportation
This item covers:
Emissions related to visitors' travel (customers, users, beneficiaries, tourists, ...)
The item takes into account road, air, maritime, inland waterway and rail transports.
The sub-item Home‐work travel covers all trips to come to work. It therefore broadly includes trips made from the current place of residence to the place of taking up duties and the associated return, not forgetting any trips related to the lunch break.
The sub-item Visitor travel covers at minimum the following cases and any other similar case:
Customers' trips to a shop or company
Visits for professional reasons (suppliers, certifiers, auditors, etc.) or similar (job candidates)
Trips of the organisation's users
Trips of the public, tourists and visitors welcomed in the organisation
Visits as part of the organisation's public relations policy
The item takes into account road, air, maritime, inland waterway and rail transports. It takes into account all criteria that have a strong influence on emissions, including: distance, trip duration, vehicle load factor, etc. The organisation must take into account the outbound trip, and the empty return rate on the return trip. In the case of air transport, by default the organisation must take into account the formation ofcontrails
If the organisation can prove that some visitor trips are not made exclusively for an activity falling within its operational scope, or are made for a completely different reason, participation in the said activity being then a windfall effect, it may use allocation rules that it will define in order to take into account only a share of these trips. Transportation or Fixed assetsIn the case where transport is carried out via vehicles owned by the organisation, it may choose to account for the emissions associated with the manufacture of the vehicle in the
Direct waste
, taking care not to double count.
Emissions related to wastewater (including treatment impact)
This item includes waste in all its forms (solid, liquid or gaseous). The origin of waste is variable (consumables after use, manufacturing waste and residues, purchase packaging, staff restaurant, etc.). The sub-items break down waste by waste category which implies an internal monitoring policy.
Waste treatments can classically lead to GHG emissions:
Either through the fermentation of organic waste put in landfill or in biological treatment centres (methanisation plant or composting centre)
Or through the combustion of plastics (plastic often comes from fossil fuels, such as oil or processed gas).Or through material regeneration processes in the case of recycling ()
see below
In all cases, these emissions are added to the emissions related to the operation of the waste management process (waste collection, storage buildings, etc.).
For this item, it will most often be necessary to question the waste managers who handle these processes.
For information, hazardous waste (for example Special Industrial Waste - SIW - or Healthcare Activity Waste - HAW) do not generate emissions because of their toxicity, but because of the amount of fossil energy used for their transport, confinement, storage or treatment. Freight Most emission factors used for waste include the collection of this waste. If this collection has already been accounted for in the
by the organisation, double counting should not be done here.
Focus on waste recycling
From a greenhouse gas emissions point of view, recycling on the one hand generates emissions related to its new transformation into a usable material (for example metal melting), and on the other hand makes it possible to avoid emissions for the manufacture of the same new or lowly recycled material.
In the case of waste treatment by recycling, the waste emitter includes the impacts of collection & operation of the sorting centre. The waste emitter does not include the impact of the material regeneration (recycling) process. With this method, waste routed to the recycling stream are not accounted for as waste, but as a secondary supply flow of raw material.
It is the organisation that organises this recycling, as well as the organisations that consume recycled material (in their Inputs - goods and materials), that must include the material regeneration phase. If the organisation's waste that is recycled is subsequently used as an input by that same organisation, then there is no double counting of the recycling process.
Care must be taken regarding the quantity of waste actually recycled, based on declarations from the organisation recycling the waste, or failing that on national or local statistics. The 🔎 Bilan Carbone® and the GHG Protocol are aligned on this methodological allocation of recycling.Conversely, the ISO 14064-1 standard and the regulatory GHG Assessment attribute the impact of this recycling to the waste emitter, in the same way as other treatment methods. These two types of exports
are provided and are pedagogically explained. WasteIt is essential to accompany the analysis of the results with an educational explanation, presenting not only the impacts of the
, but also quantifying their repercussions on the organisation's entire value chain.
Impact of recycling: Sending waste to recycling does not mean that it no longer emits greenhouse gases. Their quantification makes it possible to estimate the impacts related to material regeneration. This perspective reminder emphasises that the best strategy remains reducing waste (and material losses) at source.
Emissions avoided by the use of recycled material: residual and recycled waste allow other actors to use recycled material instead of virgin material, thus avoiding some emissions associated with the extraction and processing of primary resources. avoided emissions ⏳[WIP] ABC and its community will deepen the methodology related to
Fixed assets
in 2025. At this stage, these emissions must not be deducted from the organisation's total emissions, but they can be accounted for separately and reported if necessary.
The Fixed Assets category concerns thepurchase or lease long-term of these assets.
In the case of infrastructures, this generally concerns any construction other than a building (roads, parking lots, etc.).
In the case of vehicles, if the accounting recorded within the Transportation include a component dedicated to the manufacture of the vehicle, the organization must ensure not to double count these emissions, which can be recorded either under “Fixed Assets” or “Travel”.
When the organization is a large entity that manages an annual flow of renewal or increase of its fixed assets, it is recommended to treat this category as an annual flow rather than as depreciation of the existing fleet. This choice will then be the most relevant for defining emission reduction actions, based on recurring annual purchases. This is particularly relevant for real estate development or construction organizations, for car dealerships, etc.
Finally, intangible emissions (brands, concessions, licenses, etc.) should not be depreciated.
Depreciation period:
By convention in the method, the manufacturing emissions of these assets are spread over a certain period, which must be the theoretical lifespan of the asset within the organization. Either this duration is estimated at purchase or at the start of the asset's use (by the manufacturer, via an LCA, ...), or it is a default value that differs according to the type of asset. The theoretical lifespan within the organization (planned usage duration) may differ from the physical lifespan. For example, an organization that renews its vehicle fleet every 3 years.
This duration is called the depreciation period and must be indicated within the Bilan Carbone®. It is said that the emissions are subject to depreciation, or that the asset is capitalized. These emissions must be taken into account every year (when the organization produces an inventory), until the end of the asset's depreciation period, after which the asset is considered physically “depreciated” and no further emissions should be accounted for. This allocation is made to make emission profiles, produced at successive intervals, comparable to each other.
Period and duration of consideration in the inventory:
If the organization no longer uses the depreciated asset and that asset is transferred to another user (premises, vehicles, furniture still in good condition, ...), the organization must no longer account for the associated emissions. If the asset is not reused, the organization must continue to account for these emissions.
If the organization acquires an asset already partially depreciated (moving into constructed premises, acquisition of refurbished digital equipment, reuse, ...), it must account for the depreciated emissions only over the remaining depreciation period of the asset. In cases where the organization does not know the previous usage duration, the Bilan Carbone® method recommends using conservative estimates (i.e., relatively short previous usage durations). If the asset is considered fully depreciated, the manufacturing-related emissions are no longer to be capitalized (this does not exclude any emissions related to procurement, renovation, repair, etc.).
End of life
This category covers all emissions related to the future end-of-life of products that have been sold or distributed within the temporal boundary:
It will be necessary to calculate the amount of GHG that all products/services supplied or distributed during the inventory year (or failing that during the temporal boundary of the inventory) will emit at their end of life. For example, if you produce refrigerators at a rate of 5,000 units per year, each unit emitting 500 grams of gas at end of life, the emissions attributable to the end of life of your annual production amount to: 5,000 x 0.5 = 2,500 kilos, i.e., 2.5 tonnes of gas per year.
At its “end of life”, a product or service can generate emissions: fermentation for carrot peels sent to landfill, CO2 emissions from a plastic toy sent to incineration, etc. The organization may not know with certainty the end of life of the products (goods or services) distributed in the inventory year (or failing that during the temporal boundary of the inventory). It will then be necessary to define end-of-life scenarios: either by estimating the energy required for end-of-life treatment (sub-category “Energy consumption at end of life”), or by considering the treatment streams for the materials used in the distributed products and their mixes in the distribution territories (sub-categories “Waste treatment at end of life” and “Packaging treatment at end of life”).
The End of Life category does not concern products or services whose very use implies destruction: a candle, a liter of fuel, a firework rocket, ... In these cases, the emissions fall under the Use.
The sub-category “Packaging treatment at end of life” for sold or distributed products allows visualizing the overall contribution of “waste by destination” that these future packages, although they are not thrown away directly by the entity that places them on the market. The emissions accounted for in this sub-category are related to the end of life of these packages (which will occur almost immediately after their placement on the market). Emissions related to the production of plastics, paper, metals, etc. necessary to make the packaging are considered in the sub-category Material intended for packaging. These individualized sub-categories can be of these packages (which will occur almost immediately after their release into circulation) are considered in the relevant item. These individualised sub-items can be.
Use & Dependence
This item covers:
Once a product (good or service) is in the hands of the customer or user, its use can generate GHG emissions.
The emissions from all that was sold or distributed by the organization in the inventory year (or failing that during the temporal boundary of the inventory) are accounted for over their estimated operational lifetime. Average values of energy consumption and leaks related to the use of the products (goods and services) are required, as well as their average lifespan.
These emissions can easily become predominant compared to those of other categories in the Bilan Carbone®.
Many cases are concerned, such as for example:
The sale of cars implies accounting for gasoline, possibly refrigerant leaks for air conditioning, and emissions associated with maintenance services (manufacture and transport of spare parts, heating of premises used for this function, etc.), over the average mileage of the vehicle model;
Electricity production for household appliances (obviously very variable depending on the country of use);
Gas combustion for a housing unit as a whole (for a housing developer), or for a stove (gas consumed over the average lifespan of a stove);
Emissions from trips if the organization finances exchange scholarships between countries (which often amounts to financing travel, notably air travel).
Future refrigerant leaks if the organization sells air conditioning systems;
N₂O emissions if the organization produces nitrogen fertilizers;
Acetylene combustion if the organization sells blowtorches;
Maintenance of the cold chain if the organization sells frozen products;
Car travel if the organization sells products in a hypermarket.
Other examples are provided below.
For the use of tangible goods sold or distributed, it is therefore a matter of accounting for the production of energy and material consumed.
For the use of services sold or distributed, an approach based on the impact at the final customer can be adopted by using the carbon intensity of the final product.
Accounting for the Use category does not require allocation rules: however, such allocations (fuel use by vehicles equipped with headlights, pro rata to the weight of the headlight) may be operationally relevant to provide indicators, steer the transition plan, etc.
Focus on the sub-categories In-responsibility Use and In-dependence Use:
These emissions are classified in the sub-categories “In-responsibility Use” and “In-dependence Use”, respectively according to the degree of responsibility or dependence.
It is recommended to present the emission profile final with and without the sub-category “In-dependence Use”. The two results are complementary and the Bilan Carbone® must be able to provide indicators adapted to each lever of action.
An organization is never completely responsible for a downstream emission, nor completely dependent. This separation is therefore at the organization's discretion, according to what will be most useful to steer its actions.
In-responsibility use: covers emissions necessary for the direct use of these products, that is the emissions generated at the time of their use over their entire lifetime.
In the case of goods, these emissions are generally due to energy or consumable consumption (fuel for vehicles, ink cartridges for printers, electricity for electronic devices, etc.).
In the case of services, they are due to the direct application of the service in question. Thus, if it is a key service for the creation of a good, the material consumption necessary for the creation of the good is to be taken into account. For example, an architectural firm working on plans for a building should include the material consumption associated with the construction. An organization providing online training should include the energy used by users to operate their electronic devices during the training.
In-dependence use: when the use of products sold or distributed by the organization is conditioned by the use ofother products, this sub-category covers the additional emissions related to the manufacture or use of these other goods and services (excluding infrastructures or other collective goods and services) over their entire lifetime.
The question of in-dependence use often arises when the product (good or service) is not a final product but an intermediate product. Its use is then conditioned on the use of another product. This dependence is a vulnerability of the organization that it must quantify.
Several intermediate products may be necessary before the final product. It is recommended to focus on the most significant product(s) in view of the Use category: if the organization sells steel to manufacture a car body, which is then sold to a car manufacturer: it indeed considers the fuel use of the car.
Conversely, “at the end of the chain”, it is not required to include public infrastructures and other collective goods or services (ports, roads, public services, etc.) even if the organization is obviously dependent on them. This dependence may appear in theanalysis of risks and opportunities.
Examples and comparisons on in-responsibility and in-dependence use:
Some non-exhaustive examples are provided here to help organizations appropriate these concepts. As a reminder, and in summary:
-> in responsibility : it is the product (good or service) itself that consumes or emits during its use phase.
-> in dependence : the use of the product (good or service) is conditioned to a consumption or emission.
A company supplies airline meal trays to airlines
Use (consumption) of energy for the cold chain and then cooking.
Use (consumption) of fuel for the entire airplane
A company performs chemical surface treatments on certain parts of a car engine
/
Use (consumption) of fuel by vehicles equipped with these parts
A company that manufactures cars
Use (consumption) of fuel by the vehicles
/
A company performs foundation sizing studies (for ski-lift pylons)
Use (consumption) of material to manufacture the foundation
Use (consumption) of energy to operate the lift
A company that manufactures container ships
Use (consumption) of fuel by the container ship
/
A container ship company (that transports containers)
/
Carbon intensity of the transported products
A company that manufactures car headlights
Use (consumption) of energy by the headlights to illuminate
Use (consumption) of fuel by vehicles equipped with these headlights
A company that markets advertising panels
Use (consumption) of energy by the panels (backlit for example)
Carbon intensity of the products that the advertising promotes
A company that installs electric vehicle charging stations
Use (consumption) of energy for charging
/
This table does not serve as a general rule, and logical reasoning must be carried out case by case, following the recommendations of practical guides.
Focus on the use of financial investments made
This sub-category covers financial investments and shareholdings. It does not refer to the organization's purchases (goods or services). The organization accounts for this sub-category based on the Bilan Carbone® of the supported organizations or projects, or by choosing the economic sectors exploiting the assets.
⏳[WIP] The ABC and its community will position themselves in more detail on emissions related to financial investments made during 2025.
Other accounting principles concerning several categories
Owner or tenant
In a Bilan Carbone®, emissions must be taken into account even if the organization is only a tenant of the premises or vehicles. In accordance with operational control, the notion of operation and use is to be retained.
In tools, it may be relevant to differentiate these two uses: either to better steer actions (the actions to be undertaken may differ depending on rental or ownership status), or because this leads to differences in exports (BEGES-R).
Inflation
If the organization uses spend-based ratios, it may adjust these ratios according to the inflation that applies to its purchases or leasing of goods and services.
If the organization is able to calculate the specific inflation rate experienced by the product or service concerned between the date of creation of the EF and the date of the inventory, it must use this calculated inflation rate. For example, an organization that uses the same provider for its advertising campaigns every year, and that observes a 10% inflation in that provider’s rates (for equal service) between the year the EF was created and the current year should correct the EF by that 10% inflation.
If the organization is not able to calculate this specific inflation rate, it may rely on inflation measures of the different countries concerned, preferably by sector.
Digital
The digital carbon impact within the Bilan Carbone® requires the aggregation of several sub-categories if it is to be treated as a single item by the organization:
The “ digital equipment ” owned or leased are tangible goods, so they are accounted either in Input goods and materials if they are consumables (peripherals, etc.), or in Fixed assets if they are capitalized assets (computers, printers, etc.)
The “ digital usages ” of the organization:
If they involve an indirect impact (external servers, data processing and storage, data transport over networks, etc.), they are accounted for in the Input services under the sub-category Digital usages.
Conversely, if they involve direct energy consumption by the organization (for example the electrical consumption of a computer), they are a priori already accounted for in the Energycategory, and must not be double counted.
External “digital usages” induced by the organization's activities (for example consultation on end-user terminals by external users, beneficiaries or clients) are accounted for in the Usecategory, like other products and services provided by the organization.
Future packaging
Aggregating the two sub-categories makes it possible to treat in a single approach the manufacturing and end-of-life emissions of packaging:
Material intended for packaging, included in the category Input goods and materials
Packaging treatment at end of life, included in the category End of life
Among the reasons why specific information on packaging is necessary, by individualizing them within the set of incoming materials:
A packaging does not follow the same specifications as the product, and for the same product, the packaging can strongly depend on the transport modalities to follow
The client (or beneficiary) of the product or service generally does not demand the same of the packaging as of the product
Packaging is an operational responsibility distinct from that of the product, which generates specific information
Marketing and commercial constraints for packaging and product are not identical
The fate of discarded packaging can be apprehended statistically (as they will be discarded everywhere), so it is possible to assign average emission factors for their end of life
Avoided and sequestered emissions
⏳[WIP] The Bilan Carbone® methodology does not address avoided emissions or sequestered emissions. It is recommended to rely on the guide to calculating avoided emissions (pillar B) and on the guide to building a carbon sequestration strategy (pillar C). A forthcoming update of the Bilan Carbone® method is planned for summer 2025 to provide guidelines on the quantification of avoided emissions.
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