User Guide
Can I do carbon accounting without an ESG background?
Written by Firdaus Adib (AI Product Manager) Reviewed by Dr. Ivan Ling, PhD (Chief Scientific Officer & Co-Founder)
Published Updated
On This Page (6 sections)
Yes. Carbon accounting is mostly careful record keeping: you collect activity data, multiply it by emission factors, and report the results with clear notes. If you can work with invoices and spreadsheets, you can learn it.
You need to understand a few ideas first, and you may need expert help for some decisions.
What you need to learn
- The 3 scopes. Scope 1 is your own fuel and refrigerants. Scope 2 is the energy that you buy. Scope 3 is everything else in your value chain.
- Activity data and emission factors. Emissions are activity data, such as kWh or litres, multiplied by an emission factor.
- Your boundary. Which companies and sites you include, and which Scope 3 categories.
- The reporting rules that apply to you. For listed companies in Malaysia, these are Bursa Malaysia's rules and the NSRF.
What is carbon accounting? explains these in plain English. The Glossary defines the terms.
Skills that help
People from finance, operations and facilities often do well, because the work needs:
- Comfort with numbers, units and spreadsheets
- Knowledge of where records are kept in the business
- Attention to detail and good documentation
- The ability to ask colleagues and suppliers for data
Where to start
- Read the Basics pages.
- Follow the 7 steps in Build your GHG inventory, starting with Scope 1 and Scope 2.
- Write down each decision and why you made it.
- Ask someone else to review your first results.
When to ask an expert
Get help if you face:
- First-time IFRS S2 reporting, especially climate scenario analysis
- Complex group structures or many joint ventures
- Process emissions, for example in cement or chemicals
- Financed emissions for a bank, insurer or asset manager
- Target setting or preparing for assurance
In Carbon GPT
The app guides you through facilities, measures, requests and reports, and calculates emissions from the emission factor of each predefined measure. The Carbon GPT Platform guides explain each screen step by step.
