To calculate your Purchased Goods and Services emissions, you will need to see what data your organisation has available and choose a calculation method accordingly.
Usually, you can collect spend data from your Finance or Procurement teams. They will likely be able to provide you with an export of expenses from their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. Procurement teams may also be able to provide you with emissions data from those providers who may offer this (see 'Bring Your Own Emissions' Explained).
If you are using the BYOEF method, emission factors can be sourced from databases, consultants, and suppliers. Please ensure these emission factors are reputable and align with your reporting needs.
For the Fashion: Average data method you will need data on the fashion product's weight, quantity purchased, the proportion of materials used, and location of manufacturing. Typically your Purchasing department will have this information.
For the Packaging method you will need data on your packagings weight and materials used. Typically your Purchasing department will be able to provide this.
If you can't access data in the required formats, please take a look at our advice here.
Spend FAQ
Spend FAQ
Should I include negative figures in my spend data?
In your spend data, there may be some negative figures, reflecting refunds. These should still be included in your data upload so that previously reported emissions relating to refunded goods can be deducted from your carbon balance accordingly. Negative spend data will be reflected as negative emissions values in the month the refund was given.
How should I date my transactions?
We recommend that you fill the Purchase Goods and Services "start date" and "end date" columns according to your bookkeeping format. This should also ease the process of entering a large number of rows of transactions. Keeping the same date format between the Plan A template and your bookkeeping will also make you able to come back to cross-reference both sources and keep consistency.
When using entering data into the Plan A templates:
If you wish to account for a spend over a period, then enter this period accordingly in "start_date" and "end_date".
Alternatively, individual transactions can be accounted for by entering the same date in "start_date" and "end_date".
Can I amortise the cost of high-value purchased goods?
Unlike financial accounting, the amount spent on high-value goods should not be amortised over the good's lifetime. The value of the good and its associated emissions are to be reported in the year of purchase.
The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, the emissions associated with the production of goods, naturally, are released at the time of production. Amortising the emissions over the lifetime would, therefore, distort the reflection of emissions released at a given time. Secondly, because emission factors are updated regularly to reflect, for example, improvements in technology and efficiency, the amortised spend amounts would likely equate to fewer emissions being reported year-on-year as updated emissions factors would be used in calculations. This would lead to a considerable underestimation of the true emissions impact of the good.