Changes in emissions may seem alarming at first but they often have a simple explanation. The two most common reasons for changes in your emissions are:
An error in your data/file.
A change in the underlying emission factors Plan A uses to calculate emissions.
To help you better understand why these changes might occur, we've created a guide that outlines how to accurately identify the cause of any variations in your emissions.
1. Check your activity log
Track your team's upload history to ensure all files are accounted for, and no duplicate uploads exist. Check if any teammates have modified files after your last upload.
2. Check for data gaps
Review the time range covered by your files to ensure no months are unaccounted for. You can easily review which months have data and which are missing in the Overview tab. This visualised dashboard helps you quickly identify gaps, whether data is absent, only available for some facilities, or is using National averages.
3. Check Organisational data coverage
Does your organisational data cover the entire period for which you have uploaded data in each category? Emissions will only be calculated in the time ranges shown in your Organisational Data.
4. Review your calculation methods
Check which calculation methods were used to calculate your emissions. Sometimes, customers choose different calculation methods from one year to another, each calculation method uses different formulas and, therefore, can lead to different emission results.
5. Review if 'National averages' were triggered
Across the years you can increase the accuracy of your emissions results by replacing national averages with business activity data. National averages can provide a useful starting point for estimating carbon emissions when business activity is not available. Using national averages vs business activity data leads to different calculation methods and formulas and, therefore, can lead to different emission results.
You can check which calculation method was used and if national averages were used directly in your exported report.
6. Check our Release Notes
At Plan A, our carbon accountants regularly review and refine our emission factors and conversion factors to ensure accuracy. As a result, updates to these factors may affect the emission values on your dashboards. You can learn more about carbon accounting changes here.
To ensure full transparency we document all changes in our Release Notes, detailing the adjusted calculation methods, locations, and timeframes. It is important to check these notes if you notice any changes in your emissions. You can also see the exact conversion factors used in your emission calculations in your Data export by clicking the 'Conversion factor' tab.
7. Review your emissions with our Support team
If your data does not appear as expected after reviewing it, you can file a 'question about your emissions' request with our support team via the in-app chat. They will be happy to help you understand your emissions.
