Glossary
What are the acronyms and terms used by the method?
A
Process improvement action
Actions allowing to step back from the Bilan Carbone® carried out. This may concern the assessment of compliance with the principles of the Bilan Carbone®, the improvement of data collection to gain precision and reduce uncertainties, the increase in maturity level, and taking into account feedback regarding the stakeholder engagement conducted by the organisation.
Adaptation actions
Actions in the short and medium term allowing adaptation to the consequences of climate change to ensure the organisation's resilience and survival. They respond to the issues raised by theidentification of risks and opportunities. These actions primarily concern the Intermediate and Advanced levels.
Stakeholder engagement action
Association of a Stakeholder engagement (awareness-raising, empowerment, coconstruction, or reporting back), during a step, with one or more targets, with a more or less specific adaptation of messages according to the organisation profile.
Immediate actions
Actions in the short term, which allow launching the action plan and motivating teams. These actions can be implemented without major difficulties and within a short timeframe
Priority actions
Actions in the short/medium term which allow a strong reduction of its emissions, since they directly concern significant emission categories.
Strategic actions
Actions in the medium and long term concerning the organisation's overall strategy and business model and which therefore make it possible to strongly reduce the organisation's carbon and economic vulnerability.
ADEME, French Public Agency for Ecological Transition
ADEME, French Public Agency for Ecological Transition (formerly the French Agency for the Environment and Energy Management), is a public institution participating in the implementation of public policies in the fields of environment, energy and sustainable development.
🔗For more information on ADEME, here is its site.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
Method for assessing the environmental footprint, multi-criteria and multi-stage across the whole life cycle.
Base year
Year, established during the first assessment, to which each new assessment is compared. It is the same from one accounting period to another, unless necessary (Example: activity changes drastically).
Reporting year
Year to which the activity data collected to establish the GHG emissions assessment relate.
It therefore concerns 12 consecutive months, on a calendar or fiscal year according to the organisation's practices.
Association
Agreement by which two or more persons pool, on a permanent basis, their knowledge or activity for a purpose other than sharing profits. (Source Legifrance)
An association is therefore an organisation, within the meaning of the Bilan Carbone® and its organisational boundary.
Association of Professionals in Climate, Energy and Environment Consulting (APCC)
The Association of Professionals in Climate, Energy and Environment Consulting brings together actors who carry out consulting missions and accompany private and public organisations on a daily basis across all topics related to climate issues, the transition of structures towards a mode low-carbon, as well as on topics related to sustainable mobility.
The APCC aims to contribute to the transition towards an economy with low climate impact, more frugal in its energy consumption and more respectful of the environment.
It focuses on the role of organisations (companies, local authorities, public establishments) in this transition. Indeed, organisations have a major role to play in the face of climate, energy and environmental challenges.
On a daily basis, the objective is carried by 3 main missions, which guide all actions:
Represent the companies that support and advise companies, local authorities and public establishments on issues related to climate change, to carry their voice to institutions and stakeholders such as the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, ADEME, ABC …
Embed our members in a process of exchange and continuous improvement, to enable them to be ever more relevant in their professions.
Inform, explain, provide keys and disseminate good practices to organisations on topics related to climate change and sustainable mobility, to push them to act and enable them to act concretely.
🔗 For more information on the Association of Professionals in Climate, Energy and Environment Consulting, here is its site.
Self assessment
Monitoring of the process ofevaluation of a Bilan Carbone® internally and autonomously, based on the freely accessible evaluation guide. The self assessment therefore does not call on the evaluation process by an authorised evaluator (trained and certified).
A self assessment allows internal use: to target whether certain maturity level criteria have been met, to progress in continuous improvement, to verify the relevance of initiating an external evaluation, to confirm internally its maturity and therefore the interest of following up with complementary low-carbon transition approaches.
A self assessment does not allow declaring its Bilan Carbone® approach as evaluated, nor to communicate the obtained result externally.
Analytical dimensions
The analytical dimension, in accounting, designates the variables used to measure the different production costs. It functions like a marker used to filter similar entries and retrieve groups for analysis purposes. Analytical dimensions are inherent to managerial accounting. They support strategic decisions by providing a level of detail to accounting data.
Analytical dimensions can be of different natures. At the scale of a company or group, an analytical dimension allows for example to categorise:
The company's activities,
Physical sites,
The legal organisation (subsidiaries, franchisees)
The human organisation (teams, employees),
Projects,
Products or services,
Suppliers,
Clients.
For each of these axes, analytical codes define the possible values.
Analytical dimensions can be used in the Bilan Carbone® for carbon managerial accounting, to build a reading or a nomenclature used for the operational boundary, to allocate emissions of the GHG profile, etc. They correspond to the division of emissions by responsible parties, in order to build a transition plan at multiple levels of responsibility within the organisation.
Analytical dimensions are not always present in an organisation's accounting (they sometimes do not have an analytical plan). However, even without a formalised analytical plan, the organisation sometimes has a view of its costs and budgets by axes (supplier, client, project, site, team, etc.). These axes will be used by carbon managerial accounting because they are those that allow steering the organisation.
B
Low carbon
Qualifies the ambition to contribute to the mitigation of climate change at a level consistent with the objectives of the 2015 Paris Agreement, or with future global political agreements likely to replace the Paris Agreement in the years to come. A decarbonisation strategy, for example, is low carbon (or "aligned with a low-carbon pathway") if the strategy's objectives, which include carbon performance targets, are commensurate with this level of ambition.
(Source: ACT Step by Step)
Emission factor database
Documentation of emission factors that may be used in Bilan Carbone® calculations. There are several databases detailed in the appendix. The Base Empreinte® of ADEME remains the preferred option, except in exceptional cases (Example: calculation of specific EFs for the case study of an organisation's assessment).
Carbon budget
It is the maximum quantity of greenhouse gas emissions that an organisation can emit over a given period while remaining aligned with a climate objective (for example the Paris Agreement).
An organisation's carbon budget should serve as its emissions ceiling, broken down over time, to steer emission reductions and guide strategic decisions (investments, activities, decarbonisation pathway).
The pathways of reference often aim to collectively respect a carbon budget. If actual emissions do not follow the chosen pathway, the initially allocated carbon budget will be exceeded. It will then be necessary to recalculate the pathway to follow in order to reduce even more and offset that exceedance (overshoot).
C
Characterisation
Characterisation does not directly concern the Bilan Carbone® since it does not influence the calculation results. It only modifies the way emissions will be aggregated in the different exports (BEGES-R, ISO 14064, GHG-P), to allocate the different emission sources considered within the Bilan Carbone® to the correct categories and subcategories of other carbon accounting methods.
The organisation will generally have to characterise these emission sources. This characterisation depends on the control approach (operational, financial, ...) chosen by the organisation.
In operational control, for example, an emission source can generally be characterised as "Operated" or "Non-Operated", or "Supported or Not Supported". For more detail, the organisation should refer to the different methods concerned.
Emission category
Set of GHG emission categories. Two types of emissions are distinguished: direct emissions and indirect emissions.
The semantics of emission categories is mainly used for standards other than the Bilan Carbone® (such as ISO 14064-1 or BEGES-R). correspondence links are possible.
Evaluation lead
Person trained (according to the training offered by ABC and its partners) and certified in theevaluation of a Bilan Carbone®, who leads the evaluation of a given assessment, ensures its proper conduct and prepares the final evaluation report. They may be accompanied by various experts according to the complementary skills necessary for the proper conduct of the evaluation process.
CO2 equivalent (CO2eq)
Unit allowing the comparison of the radiative forcing of a GHG to that of carbon dioxide, calculated using the mass of a given GHG multiplied by its Global Warming Potential (GWP), provided by the IPCC (adapted from the standard NF- ISO 14064-1:2018).
Coconstruction
This is a phase of Stakeholder engagement in the sense of the Bilan Carbone®:
The main issue of coconstruction is to value initiatives, sharing and consultation. Coconstruction is central, and is therefore closely linked to other types of stakeholder engagement: the consulted stakeholders must have a sufficient level of information about the approach, which requires upstream awareness-raising and effective outreach, as well as transparent reporting and communication. Coconstruction gives voice, fosters participation, which helps to empower. It identifies carbon reduction axes that the organisation and its stakeholders can consider, drawing on their knowledge (of the process, the product, the organisation).
Objective : Confront the choice of actions with real possibilities and potential alternatives, to arrive at a transition plan perceived as a common project by the organisation and its stakeholders.
Indicator : Level of participation in the coconstruction of the transition plan.
Compatibility
Here the capacity of the Bilan Carbone® to be used to meetother frameworks. The notion of "compatibility with" does not guarantee reciprocity.
Carbon offsetting
Mechanism to fully or partially offset an organisation's GHG emissions, which can be triggered directly by a process located outside the organisation's operational boundary, or indirectly by the purchase of GHG reductions in the form of carbon credits, made by a third party (adapted from the standard NF-ISO 14069:2013).
Assessment review
Carry out an inspection of the state of an assessment with regard to the requirements of a standard.
Control (Approach)
The standard ISO 14064-1 or the BEGES-R describe two approaches to determining the organisational boundary:
The "equity share" approach: installations and equipment are included in the organisational boundary in proportion to the organisation's equity share in them.
The "control" approach: International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) define "control" as "the power to direct the financial and operating policies of an entity so as to obtain benefits from its activities".
Financial control: 100% of the equipment and installations over which it exercises financial control are included in the organisational boundary. An entity has financial control over an operation if it is able to conduct financial and operational policies on the operation, with the aim of deriving economic benefits from its activities (source: NF - ISO 14064-1:2018).
Operational control : 100% of the equipment and installations over which it exercises operational control, i.e. that it operates, are included in the organisational boundary. An entity has operational control over an operation if that entity, or one of its subsidiaries, has full authority to initiate and implement operating policies at the operational level (source: NF - ISO 14064-1:2018).
The Bilan Carbone® adopts the "operational control" approach for the definition of the organisational boundary.
Coordinator
The Bilan Carbone® coordinator leads the approach. They can be an internal or external to the organisation.
D
Monitoring system
A monitoring system, such as a dashboard, allows tracking the actions of the transition plan and the indicators. It is periodically filled in internally by the Bilan Carbone® lead. A tool is offered by ABC with the tools of version 9 of the Bilan Carbone® method, but alternatives are accepted.
The use of this system does not dictate imposed modalities of discussion around monitoring; these are at the organisation's discretion.
This tool also allows the recalculation of significant emissions, which serve as performance indicators of the transition plan.
Documentation
Process similar to reporting intended for internal use only. It aims at the continuous improvement of carbon accounting within the organisation. Documentation is useful for future handovers and renewals.
Activity data
Quantitative measure of a given activity causing GHG emissions or removals (adapted from the standard NF ISO 14064-1:2018).
Activity data can be actual (physical or accounting), extrapolated, statistical or estimated.
E
Standard deviation and geometric standard deviation
The standard deviation and the geometric standard deviation are two statistical measures used to assess the dispersion or variability of data.
The standard deviation is a measure of dispersion for additive or normalised data (for a Normal distribution), while the geometric standard deviation is suited to multiplicative data or for a Log-normal distribution.
Carbon accounting scale
In the context of carbon accounting, four main scales are generally distinguished: Territory, Individual, Product, Organisation. More details in introduction.
Direct GHG emissions
GHG emissions from sources owned by or controlled by the legal entity / organisation (adapted from the standard NF-ISO 14064-1/2018).
To be distinguished from indirect emissions.
Indirect GHG emissions
GHG emissions that result from the operations and activities of the legal entity / organisation but originate from GHG sources not owned by it or not under its control (adapted from the standard NF-ISO 14064-1:2018).
To be distinguished from direct emissions.
Induced emissions
Direct and indirect GHG emissions in the organisation's value chain.
The Bilan Carbone® quantifies and acts on induced emissions.
See definition of Pillar A.
To be distinguished from avoided and sequestered emissions.
Avoided emissions
Reductions of emissions by other stakeholders, due to an organisation's activities, products and/or services. These reductions therefore occur outside its operational boundary. They are assessed relative to a baseline scenario.
Within the Bilan Carbone®: an organisation can determine the GHG emissions avoided by an activity. The organisation shall not deduct these avoided emissions from total emissions, but may account for them and, if applicable, report them separately.
See definition of Pillar B.
To be distinguished from induced and sequestered emissions.
Significant emissions
Within the operational boundary of an organisation, it is accepted that certain indirect GHG emission sources do not contribute significantly to the total indirect emissions and can, in some cases, be excluded from the assessment. Significant emissions are then the GHG emissions quantified and reported by an organisation, in accordance with the materiality criteria defined by the organisation ( notion coming fromand from theISO 14064-1 Sequestered emissions or negative emissions BEGES-R).
Absorption of GHGs present in the atmosphere, directly (carbon sinks owned by the organisation) or indirectly (through financing of GHG sequestration projects).
Within the Bilan Carbone®: an organisation can determine GHG sinks and reservoirs that capture and concentrate GHGs to prevent their release into the atmosphere (forest growth, soil preservation, etc.). The organisation shall not deduct these sequestered or negative emissions from total emissions, but may account for them and, if applicable, report them separately.
Pillar C
See definition of To be distinguished from induced and avoided emissions.
Operated emissions and non-operated emissions
Accounted emissions can be
characterised as: The so-called "operated" emissions are those directly generated by activities under an organisation's direct control. This includes emissions from the organisation's installations, its vehicle fleet, leased and used assets, etc. These emissions are considered as "
direct emissions" in the classification of emissions according to the ISO 14064 standard.Non-operated emissions are those that arise from activities that are not directly under the organisation's control but are associated with its activities indirectly. This may include emissions generated by suppliers, upstream and downstream transport activities, etc. These emissions are generally classified as "
indirect emissions" in the emissions classification.These categories do not depend on the notion of ownership or lease by the organisation of the emission sources, but on operation and use.
These elements do not directly concern the Bilan Carbone® since they do not influence calculation results. This
characterisation only modifies the way emissions will be aggregated in the (BEGES-R, ISO 14064, GHG-P). different exports Supported emissions and non-supported emissions
The "owned" emissions refer to direct emissions of categories for which the organisation owns the assets or equipment. These emissions are considered as "
characterised as: The so-called "operated" emissions are those directly generated by activities under an organisation's direct control. This includes emissions from the organisation's installations, its vehicle fleet, leased and used assets, etc. These emissions are considered as "
Owned emissions" in the classification of emissions according to the ISO 14064 standard.Non-operated emissions are those that arise from activities that are not directly under the organisation's control but are associated with its activities indirectly. This may include emissions generated by suppliers, upstream and downstream transport activities, etc. These emissions are generally classified as "
The "non-owned supported" emissions are categories for which the organisation does not own the assets or equipment but bears the costs. Supported emissions come from activities financed by the organisation. They therefore appear in accounting exports. These emissions are generally classified as "" in the emissions classification.These categories do not depend on the notion of ownership or lease by the organisation of the emission sources, but on operation and use.
The "non-owned not supported" emissions are categories for which the organisation neither owns the assets or equipment nor bears the costs. These emissions are generally classified as "" in the emissions classification.These categories do not depend on the notion of ownership or lease by the organisation of the emission sources, but on operation and use.
These elements do not directly concern the Bilan Carbone® since they do not influence calculation results. These two characterisations (BEGES-R, ISO 14064, GHG-P). different exports Supported emissions and non-supported emissions
Equipment
Vehicle, tool, implement or machine, fixed or mobile, which can be defined within a geographic boundary or an organisational entity.
Within a Bilan Carbone® and regardless of the targeted maturity level, 100% of the equipment and installations over which the organisation exercises operational control, i.e. that it operates and uses, must be included in the organisational boundary. Any other choice must be justified.
Evaluation team
Person(s) responsible for verification and validation of the assessment. The entire evaluation team is trained in the Bilan Carbone® method. The evaluation team is led by an evaluation lead. They are trained and certified in the evaluation of assessments.
The entire team meets the following competencies and principles:
Evaluation expertise (training and certification)
Sectoral Bilan Carbone® expertise
Optional - Ability to provide limited assurance (participation in the process of a chartered accountant or statutory auditor. This is not mandatory but provides another level of evaluation assurance)
Integrity
Impartiality
Professional conscience
Professional judgment
Establishment
An organisation's establishment is generally identified by its SIRET (unique 14-digit identification code of an establishment of an organisation with a SIREN number). The first 9 digits of the SIRET number are the SIREN number of the organisation to which the establishment belongs.
Evaluation of an assessment
Process ensuring the reliability and transparency of assessments and their results. It also makes it possible to identify blocking points and areas for improvement between two assessments of an organisation. The evaluation includes the verification and validation of assessments.
The Bilan Carbone® evaluation follows the guidelines described in the Guide for the evaluation of a Bilan Carbone®. It is an optional procedure within the Bilan Carbone® approach.
Accounting exports
Accounting and analytical plans are stable over time for a given organisation without major structural change.
At each accounting period, the organisation records all the revenues and costs of its activity in accounting entries (posting to debit or credit). This accounting is done in accounting journals (e.g.: purchases journal, sales journal, bank journal…).
Different formats exist to export this accounting in its entirety:
The FEC (Accounting Entries File): standardised accounting file, notably used by the French administration to carry out tax controls on companies. It transcribes all accounting entries but does not include analytical entries.
The general ledger: a standardised accounting file; its structure is however configurable to some extent to allow the organisation to adapt its accounting to its needs. However, it does not enable analyses of the organisation's activity because it follows general accounting, its final objective being the preparation of annual accounts (balance sheet, income statement and notes).
The analytical general ledger: a non-standardised accounting file, which nevertheless includes mandatory fields. It includes all analytical allocations and allows analytical analysis of accounting.
This definition refers to the guide on carbon managerial accounting.
F
GHG emission factor or removal factor (EF)
Coefficient relating activity data to GHG emissions or removals (standard NF-ISO 14064-1:2018).
An emission factor (EF) can come from databases, be developed by the organisation, or be a so-called "spend-based" coefficient (specific or non-specific).
Radiative forcing
It is the difference between the solar energy received by the Earth and the energy radiated back to space, caused by a change in factors influencing the climate. This measure is expressed in watts per square metre (W/m²). This measure is currently positive, the incoming energy being greater than the outgoing energy: this is referred to as global warming.
G
Greenhouse gases (GHGs)
Gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, natural or anthropogenic, that absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths in the infrared spectrum emitted by the Earth's surface, the atmosphere and clouds. This property causes the greenhouse effect.
Water vapour (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4) and ozone (O3) are the natural greenhouse gases of the Earth's atmosphere.
There are a large number of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, such as halocarbons and other substances containing chlorine or bromine, grouped under the Montreal Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol includes CO2, N2O, CH4, SF6, NF3, HFCs and PFCs (adapted from the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report – CLIMATE CHANGE 2013 The Physical Science Basis, p1455).
Governance
Framework aiming to define how to control the different stages of the approach optimally.
Within the Bilan Carbone®, the organisation shall put in place leadership and internal governance enabling the completion of the approach and the achievement of the associated criteria. The organisation shall ensure that stakeholders have the necessary methodological skills and are trained in the use of the tools employed, as well as in the design and implementation of transition plans.
H
Time horizon
Deadlines of a transition objective : generally short, medium or long term.
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
Hydrofluorocarbons are a family of gases composed only of hydrogen, carbon and fluorine atoms. They are GHGs included in the Kyoto Protocol.
I
Uncertainty
Parameter associated with the result of a quantification that characterises the dispersion of values that can reasonably be attributed to the measured quantity (standard NF-ISO 14064-1:2018).
Estimates and measurements inherently involve a margin of error; the vast majority of scientific methods tend to associate values called uncertainties with measurement or estimate results. These uncertainties make it possible to arrive at a 95% confidence interval, i.e. an interval [Value 1; Value 2] within which the true value of what is measured or estimated has a 95% chance of lying.
The Bilan Carbone method allows determining uncertainties qualitatively and quantitatively.
Inflation
Inflation corresponds to a general increase in the prices of goods and services in an economy.
Facility
Physical element (building, roadway or other type of infrastructure) or production process that can be defined within a geographic boundary or an organisational unit.
Within a Bilan Carbone® and regardless of the targeted maturity level, 100% of the equipment and installations over which the organisation exercises operational control, i.e. that it operates and uses, must be included in the organisational boundary. Any other choice must be justified.
Confidence interval
A confidence interval is an interval supposed to contain an unknown parameter that one seeks to estimate. A confidence interval is constructed by a method from data. The constructed interval may or may not contain the value of the unknown parameter. One assigns it a confidence level often expressed as a percentage: the most common is the 95% level. This means that the method has a 95% chance of producing an interval containing the true value of the unknown parameter.
L
Deliverables
Set of pieces, documents and information obtained at each stage of the approach, compiled for the Reporting.
Log-normal distribution
A random variable X is said to follow a log-normal distribution with parameters and
if the variable
follows a normal distribution with mean
and variance
.
Normal distribution
A normal distribution is an absolutely continuous probability distribution that depends on two parameters: its mean, a real number denoted μ, and its standard deviation, a positive real number denoted σ. The probability density of the normal distribution with mean μ and standard deviation σ is given by:
.
The curve of this density is called the Gaussian curve or bell curve, among others. It is the most well-known representation of these distributions.
M
Data collection matrix
Summary of all activity data and emission factors used during the accounting process, serving to document the organisation (sources, assumptions, uncertainties, value and unit).
Stakeholder engagement
Here stakeholder engagement refers to all processes that will lead the organisation to convey the right messages to the right targets. It continues continuously throughout the Bilan Carbone® approach.
To achieve stakeholder engagement, the Bilan Carbone® approach involves outreach the issues to raise awareness, empower the stakeholders, consult, then report back and communicate the results.
N
Carbon neutrality
The Paris Agreements aim to achieve carbon neutrality at theplanetary scale by 2050. Concretely, this means that human emissions are offset by equivalent removals, so that the net impact on the climate is zero.
🔎 The Bilan Carbone® method is aligned with ADEME'sopinion on carbon neutrality, which invites not to target an arithmetic carbon neutrality at the scale of an organisation, but to prioritise decarbonisation levers within the organisation's boundary (induced emissions).
O
Objectives of the approach
The Bilan Carbone® approach has three main objectives:
Mobilise the organisation's internal and external stakeholders in a transition process, through awareness-raising, empowerment, coconstruction and reporting back on the transformations enabled by the transition plan.
Account for as rigorously and exhaustively as possible the organisation's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, whether direct or indirect, covering the organisation's scopes of responsibility and dependence.
To develop a transition and emission reduction plan for GHGs and the organisation's vulnerabilities that is ambitious, steerable, operational and coherent with the emissions accounting.
Objectives of the transition plan
Results that the organisation intends to achieve over a given period, thanks to its transition plan.
Within the Bilan Carbone® approach, they aim to reduce GHG emissions and enable the organisation to become more resilient. They are set at several time horizons : short, medium or long term. They are consistent with the organisation's overall objectives and integrated into its overall strategy.
OCCF
Observatory of Carbon Accounting in France.
🔗 More information in the bibliography.
Climate shadow
See Bibliography.
Organisation
Person or group of persons having a role with responsibilities, authority and relationships enabling them to achieve their objectives (source ISO 14064-1).
Entity incorporated as a capital company or having another status, private or public law, which has its own administrative and functional structure. (Example: company, association, local authority, public establishment, company, firm, authority, institution, or a part or combination of the previous entities).
Overshoot
Overshoot is the exceedance of the carbon budget.
It can be calculated at the level of an organisation, for example if actual emissions do not follow the initially chosen pathway, the allocated carbon budget is exceeded.
P
Stakeholders
Stakeholders around the organisation can be distributed as follows. They will be solicited in distinct phases of stakeholder engagement.
Project team, internal leads
Management
Other internal collaborators (employees, staff, volunteers)
Upstream external stakeholders (suppliers)
Downstream external stakeholders (clients)
Other external stakeholders (financial and technical partners, local actors, professional federations, or other partners on topics strategic for the organisation such as education, innovation, development).
Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)
Perfluorocarbons are a family of gases composed only of carbon and fluorine atoms. They are GHGs included in the Kyoto Protocol.
Reporting boundary
Notion specific to a regulatory exercise of carbon accounting of an organisation. It concerns the emissions contained in the operational boundary that will actually be accounted for in the assessment exercise. It may therefore be part of the operational boundary.
Operational boundary
All emission sources taken into account during an organisation's carbon accounting exercise and their breakdown by emission category.
Organisational boundary
All sites, installations and equipment taken into account during the organisation's carbon accounting exercise.
Legal entity
Organisation endowed with legal personality, identified by a SIREN number. Notion specific to a regulatory carbon accounting exercise of an organisation.
When the Bilan Carbone® is used for regulatory reporting, its organisational boundary shall be that of a Legal entity subject to the applicable regulation.
Pillar A
See definition of induced emissions.
To contribute to the overall reduction of emissions, an organisation shall reduce its own direct and indirect emissions (Pillar A) to the levels required by decarbonisation scenarios compatible with the Paris Agreement.
Except in exceptional cases, Pillar A “reduction of the organisation's emissions” is prioritised over the other two pillars B and C, due to its role in the organisation's dependence on a fossil-fuel-based system, and its influence on the risks and opportunities that the organisation will have to integrate into its strategy.
The Bilan Carbone® quantifies and acts on Pillar A.
Pillar B
See definition of avoided emissions.
To contribute to the overall reduction of emissions, an organisation shall reduce the emissions of others (Pillar B). It then assesses and increases its contributions to the decarbonisation of third parties:
Either through its distributed or sold products and services that replace a higher-carbon solution at end customers
Or through financing of emission reduction projects outside its value chain (purchases of certified emission reductions, direct equity stakes in low-carbon projects, low-carbon energy contracts under certain conditions, etc.)
The Bilan Carbone® methodology does not address avoided emissions.
To be distinguished from induced and avoided emissions
See definition of sequestered or negative emissions.
To contribute to the overall increase in carbon sequestration, the organisation shall preserve and increase carbon sinks inside or outside its value chain (Pillar C). It assesses its contributions to the preservation and increase of global natural and technological carbon sinks:
Either within its value chain, by developing its own carbon sinks (direct removals) or those upstream (in its supply chain) and downstream (within customers or end users)
Or outside its value chain, thanks to its financing of sequestration projects (purchases of certified carbon sequestration, direct equity stakes in projects, etc.)
The Bilan Carbone® methodology does not address negative emissions.
General Carbon Plan (GCP)
General Carbon Plan
🔗 More information in the bibliography.
Action plan
A set of concrete actions envisaged to achieve the objectives of the transition plan. The action plan is established for the short term (until the assessment is renewed), even if some actions extend into the medium or long term. It is the operational translation of the transition plan and the organisation's low-carbon transition strategy.
Transition Plan
A transition plan defines all the actions and the means envisaged for reducing emissions related to an organisation's activities, and the evolution of those activities so as to make them compatible with a low-carbon world that respects the Paris Agreement. (source ADEME, French Public Agency for Ecological Transition).
Project lead
Driving person of the development of the approach. Concept assimilated in the Bilan Carbone® to the coordinator or project lead of the approach.
A lead for an action designates the driving person responsible for the implementation of that specific action.
Emission category
Grouping of GHG emissions coming from several homogeneous emission sources. The Bilan Carbone® nomenclature uses the semantics of emission categories. Other standards may use the semantics of scopes or emission categories. Some correspondence links are possible.
Global Warming Potential (GWP)
Index based on the radiative properties of GHGs, measuring the radiative forcing following a pulse emission of one unit mass of a given GHG in the current atmosphere integrated over a chosen period, relative to that of carbon dioxide (CO2) (source: NF- ISO 14064-1:2018).
GHG emissions profile
Aggregation of the quantified GHG emission results for all emission sources included within the organisation's boundaries.
The emissions profile also refers to the breakdown of quantified emissions according to a given nomenclature (for example according to the Bilan Carbone® emission categories).
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and which complements the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), whose participating countries have met once a year since 1995. It notably defines the different GHGs to be taken into account within the framework of these reductions:
Carbon dioxide, CO₂
Methane, CH₄
Nitrous oxide, N₂O
Sulphur hexafluoride, SF₆
The hydrofluorocarbons, HFCs
The perfluorocarbons, PFCs
R
RACI
RACI is the acronym for:
R: Doer (Responsible) – The person who performs the work to accomplish the task. These are the individuals who actually do the work or execute the task.
A: Approver (Accountable) – The person who is accountable for the task. This person must approve or validate the completed work and ensure that objectives are met.
C: Consulted (Consulted) – People who provide advice, feedback or information necessary to accomplish the task. They are often experts or key stakeholders.
I: Informed (Informed) – People who must be kept informed of the progress or results of the task. They do not have an active role in accomplishing the task, but need to know its status or outcomes.
Spend-based emission factors
An emission factor presented as values in kgCO₂e/k€ spent. These EFs are derived from averages over many products and are therefore associated with very high uncertainties.
Specific spend-based emission factors
Spend-based ratio created by the organisation, for example from the carbon accounting of its stakeholders (suppliers, ...).
Framework
Here denotes other carbon accounting methods, standards and regulations or low-carbon transition approaches.
French regulation on greenhouse gas emissions reporting (Regulatory GHG Assessment or BEGES-R)
Arrangement requiring organisations to carry out and regularly forget an assessment on a public platform.
🔗For more information on BEGES-R, refer to the Bibliography.
Empowerment
This is a phase of Stakeholder engagement in the sense of the Bilan Carbone®:
The main issue of empowerment is to give everyone a role in the approach. To make stakeholders aware that every degree matters, that every action counts and therefore that every employee matters in the implementation of these actions. For the organisation to realise that it is a question of sustainability. New responsibilities will emerge from the approach and will make it possible to enhance existing positions by taking into account an essential component related to the sustainability of the activity.
Objective : Involve and enable each stakeholder to get moving and take action.
Indicator : Level of participation in the approach and degree of taking action.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
The objective of CSR is to promote sustainable and ethical practices within all organisations, taking into account the economic, social and environmental impacts of their activities. CSR practices can include ethical governance, respect for human rights, transparency, environmental impact, fair labour practices, etc.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a broader concept that encompasses all types of organisations, not just Corporate Social Responsibility of Companies (CSR). This includes public administrations, NGOs, associations, and other types of organisations.
Results presentation and reporting
Three reporting documents are framed by the Bilan Carbone® approach.
Reporting and communication
This is a phase of Stakeholder engagement in the sense of the Bilan Carbone®:
The main purpose of reporting and communication is to enable the appropriation of results and actions by the different concerned stakeholders. To link global issues, local issues, the organisation's impacts, the role of stakeholders in these impacts, the actions that follow, and the role of stakeholders in the success of these actions.
Objective : Make this approach an initiative that goes beyond the project team to reach other concerned stakeholders (first and foremost internal employees) through the implementation of actions, with a logic of cross-functionality, togetherness, reputation and exemplarity.
Indicator : Level of knowledge and understanding of the results (impacts and actions)
Transition risks and opportunities
Transition risks, related to changes in our societies and economic models, are divided into several categories:
Regulatory risks
Image and reputation risks
Market and technology risks
The opportunities that secure the organisation a place in the low-carbon world of tomorrow are of several types:
Reduction in resource consumption
Reduction of GHG emissions
Development of new products and services and innovations
Regulatory/financial incentives
Communication and image
Adaptation actions
Physical risks
Physical risks, directly linked to climate change and its consequences, are divided into several categories:
Risks related to natural disasters and extreme climate events becoming increasingly frequent and/or intense
Risks related to gradual changes in the climate.
S
Awareness and popularisation
This is a phase of Stakeholder engagement in the sense of the Bilan Carbone®:
The main aim of awareness raising and popularisation of the issues is to understand in order to act : strengthen the understanding of essential information about energy and climate issues, and to rally people around the approach to ensure better integration of the transition plan.
Objective : Create the necessary groundwork for good understanding of the issues, acceptance of change and future actions to undertake, and enable the organisation to identify the risks and opportunities associated with the ecological transition.
Indicator : Level of knowledge and understanding of the issues.
Significance
🔎 The notion of significance derives from theISO 14064-1 and is taken up within the BEGES-R.
It is accepted that some sources of indirect GHG emissions within an operational boundary of an organisation do not contribute significantly to the total indirect emissions. The notion of significance can be useful for setting priorities during accounting, when choosing actions or when monitoring results. For an emission to be said significant emission, it must meet at least one of the significance criteria :
Magnitude criterion : Indirect emission categories assessed as substantial from a quantitative point of view are to be retained. A minimum magnitude threshold to be considered is expressed as a percentage. It establishes the minimum proportion of the operational boundary's indirect emissions to be included in the reporting boundary. The magnitude threshold must not be less than 80%. Note that ISO 14064-1 refers to the same notion as the materiality criterion .
Level of influence and levers for action : the extent to which the organisation can monitor and reduce emissions and removals (for example, energy efficiency, eco-design, customer engagement, terms of reference).
Strategic importance and vulnerability under a risk or opportunity approach: concerns indirect emissions or removals that contribute to the organisation's exposure to risks (for example, climate-related risks such as financial risks, regulatory risks, supply chain risks, product and customer risks, litigation risks, reputational damage risks) or to its commercial opportunities (new market or new business model, for example).
Sector-specific guidance : GHG emissions considered significant for the sector concerned, according to sector-specific guidance.
Outsourcing : indirect emissions and removals resulting from outsourced activities that are generally core activities.
Staff engagement : indirect emissions that are likely to motivate employees to reduce their emissions or that foster team spirit around climate change.
GHG source or emission source
Physical unit or process releasing a GHG into the atmosphere (standard NF-ISO 14064-1:2018).
Low-carbon strategy or transition strategy
The organisation's low-carbon transition strategy details the means envisaged to achieve the organisation's objectives, while preserving, and ideally improving, its sustainability. The strategy covers tangible investments, intangible investments (such as R&D or skills), management and policy towards all its stakeholders (employees, but also suppliers, customers). Within the framework of the Bilan Carbone®, the transition plan will lead the organisation to evolve its operating model. As it progresses along the maturity journey, the organisation will be led to reflect on the relevance of its activities, products and services in a low-carbon world.
GHG removals
Reduction or removal of GHGs from the atmosphere, being under the control of the organisation, by GHG sinks (adapted from the standard NF-ISO 14064-1:2018).
T
Contrails
At high altitude, the water vapour emitted by aircraft engines can condense into fine ice particles, forming what are called contrails or "vapour trails". These trails can impact the climate by altering the reflection of solar radiation (albedo) and by contributing to the formation of artificial clouds.
In addition to the CO2 emitted by fuel production and combustion, aircraft can affect the climate through other emissions and atmospheric processes, such as water vapour (H2O), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matter (sulphate and soot aerosols), or contrails. For the latter, although their contribution to the total climate impact of aviation at the global level (assessed on the basis of radiative forcing) is evaluated at a minimum of 50%, significant uncertainties remain about the conditions of their formation per flight (dependent on altitude and various meteorological factors).
(Source Base Empreinte®).
Transition pathway
Two types of pathway exist:
The top-down trajectory (descending approach) is a trajectory defined at a macroscopic level, setting medium- and long-term reduction objectives. They can, for example, be set by drawing inspiration from reference trajectories (which are also top-down) provided by the SNBC, SBTi, ACT, among others...
The bottom-up trajectory (ascending approach) is built from the GHG profile (the organisation's current situation) and the reduction potentials of actions, thus projecting an achievable pathway (trend and evolution of emissions) which justifies the credibility of the objectives.
Within the Bilan Carbone® framework, the top-down trajectory is used as a tool to help define the objectives. Subsequently, the transition pathway (bottom-up) is defined in order to validate the relevance of the actions and their reduction potentials.
Triple bottom line (TBL or 3BL)
Accounting method that takes into account three main dimensions: economic, environmental and social. It aims to assess and report an organisation's performance not only in financial terms but also in terms of environmental impact and social contributions. This holistic approach enables a better understanding of the overall effects of an organisation's activities on society and the planet.
Carbon accounting therefore provides indicators to be included in this triple bottom line accounting.
V
Validation
Assessment of effects that have not yet occurred, concerning the evaluated assessment. For example: validation of the transition plan. Included in theevaluation process.
Concept derived from theISO 17029 and ISO 14069.
Verification
Assessment of effects that have already occurred, within the scope of the evaluated assessment. For example: verification of the data used in the calculation of the GHG profile, verification of the results obtained, verification of uncertainties, among others. Included in theevaluation process.
Concept derived from theISO 17029 and ISO 14069.
Vision of transition
It represents how the organisation projects its place in a low-carbon world (in the long term, up to 2050). It does not require a detailed description within the Bilan Carbone® framework, but it allows projection of the organisation's future strategy with regard to climate.
Vulnerability or Climate Vulnerability
According to the IPCC report, climate risk is a combination of three factors: a “climate hazard” factor (the potential impact), an “exposure” factor (the probability of occurrence), and a “vulnerability” factor to that hazard (the severity).
Climate vulnerability is a key notion in risk assessment. It expresses the propensity of a study object to be impacted by a climate hazard. It is the most difficult variable to estimate because it is highly dependent on the company studied: its level of sensitivity to hazards and its capacity to adapt.
Last updated