Why Data Quality Matters
Your carbon inventory is only as good as the data behind it, which is why we focus on improving data quality across emission categories.
Spend vs Activity Data:
CarbonTrail calculates your carbon footprint using two approaches: activity-based and spend-based emissions calculations.
Activity-based calculations that use direct measurements of your specific activities - like electricity usage, fuel consumption, flight distances or direct resource use. These are the most precise measurements, tracking exactly what your business consumes.
Spend-based estimates fill in the gaps where precise data is missing. By applying an emissions factor to each dollar spent in a category, we provide a comprehensive view of your carbon impact. While less accurate than activity-based measurements, these estimates ensure no emissions go uncounted.
Data Quality Ratings Explained
No Data:
All categories start here by default until data is added
Poor Quality
Data type: Manual Spend-based
Example: Manually entering that you roughly spent $10,000 on electricity
Fair Quality
Data type: Spend & Activity based
Example: Importing your actual electricity spend through accounting software, with some expenses having kWh data added.
Good Quality
Data type: Activity
Examples:
Fuel and Gas: Activity data for all fuel spend, industrial gas use, and medical gas use - the liters and kilograms of gas that you used.
Energy: Activity data for electricity usage - kilowatt hours.
Business Travel: Activity data for all air travel and mileage - kilometers of travel
Freight: Activity data for all upstream freight transactions - tonne-kilometers of travel
Employee Commute: Employee commute data entered, for example based on survey results.
Excellent Quality
Data type: Activity
Example: Verified fuel consumption data certified by external auditors
How to Improve your Data Quality Rating:
Connect your accounting software to automatically import spend data or Upload organised expense data from spreadsheets
Add activity-based measurements like kWh, litres, or kilometres whenever possible