Impact Measurement
Naturally the key beginning point in reducing your impact is working out what it is.
You could do this yourself, working out the methodology from scratch, and the research involved would certainly help you learn about your impacts. It’s also not that hard to do, at least for your main emissions sources. The Carbon Trust, an international NGO originating the UK, has a handy guide which you can download from here.
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However, there are some handy tools you can use to help with this task – some are free, some you have to pay for. Below are a few examples but there are many more out there.
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Climate Clever, a free online platform run by an Australian social enterprise, provides an online tool for organisations to calculate their impact and plan for reductions.
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Climate Neutral describes itself as a ‘profit for purpose’ organisation assisting businesses to become carbon neutral. A large part of its business is in selling carbon offsets (discussed in the relevant section…) but it also provides some free tools for calculating your footprint which are comparatively easy to use.
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If you have more resources to put towards this, another option is to work towards Climate Active certification as a carbon neutral organisation. Climate Active is an Australian Government supported scheme which supports organisations to measure their emissions, develop strategies to achieve carbon neutrality, and independent certification of this status.