Why should you draw up a CO2 footprint?

An important part of sustainable business is CO2 reduction and the use of sustainable energy. This reduces your costs and reduces CO2 emissions. To gain insight into the CO2 emissions of your own organization, a service or a product, the CO2 footprint is essential. That in itself is a reason to draw up a footprint, but what are the different motivations for drawing up the CO2 footprint?

Motivations for drawing up a CO2 footprint

An important reason is probably your intrinsic motivation to become more sustainable. A CO2 footprint gives you insight into energy consumption and possible CO2 reduction opportunities.

But there are certainly other motivations for drawing up a footprint. Not only to gain insight into your own organization, but this is often requested by stakeholders such as employees, customers, the government, industry associations, suppliers and shareholders. Internal and external stakeholders are increasingly entering into a dialogue about sustainability (in the chain). Sometimes the stakeholders draw up a footprint themselves and ask or demand this from other companies and organizations in the chain.

Another important motivation is legislation and regulations. The image shows the objectives formulated by the EU and below how the Netherlands has translated these into its own objectives.

What does this mean for your organization?

But what do these objectives mean for your organization? Many organizations have already had to deal with all kinds of new regulations and guidelines that oblige organizations to actively report on sustainability. Others not yet, but a number of measures are planned.

Consider, for example, the regulation that obliges employers to report kilometers of employees from 2025. Or the CSRD sustainability reporting that becomes mandatory from 2023. The CO2 footprint will most likely become part of this.

Good preparation

In short, it is smart to prepare your organization now for the growing information obligation regarding sustainability. Then you will be better prepared when you have to provide insight into your sustainability policy. Drawing up a CO2 footprint is a good start.

Knowing more?

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