Carbon calculator: monitoring your organisation’s electricity and gas use

To make sense of the progress being made to reduce carbon emissions, union reps need to be able to measure the carbon footprint of their organisation. A basic carbon footprint includes the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions that the organisation directly controls, such as gas for heating and hot water and electricity usage.

You need to discuss with your organisation’s building services managers where the meters are and how much energy is used. The TUC suggests using these equations to calculate the amount of CO2 generated by energy use:

Kilowatt hours (Kwh) of electricity x 0.53 = kilogrammes of CO2.

Kilowatt hours (Kwh) of gas x 0.19 = kilogrammes of CO2.

For more information go to the TUC’s Go Green at Work handbook (2008) which contains information on carbon calculation: www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/extras/gogreenatwork.pdf.

The Carbon Trust publishes a leaflet on Conversion factors for energy use, transport, and so on: www.carbontrust.com.