Measuring carbon footprints with better questions

Research question

Which activities account for most emissions in a small organization, and what minimum information is needed to make useful decisions?

Preliminary design

The proposal starts with an operational inventory: electricity, mobility, purchases, and waste. For each source, the analysis would document the unit, observation period, emission factor, and level of uncertainty.

The work would combine a consumption table with simple intensity indicators. The goal would not be to produce a falsely precise number, but to identify the components that explain most of the result and where better measurement would be worth the effort.

Methodological care

Measurement is not just a spreadsheet exercise. Decisions about boundaries, units, and comparisons also shape the story an organization uses to act. Any result should therefore include its assumptions, sources, and comparison limits.