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Carbon Reporting and Certification

By Ben Fisher

• 4 articles

What’s the difference between using Cogo's Carbon Manager and getting certified?

Both options are available to SMEs who are on their climate journey, and which one is best for you will depend on where you are on that journey. In Cogo’s view, Carbon Manager is suitable for most SMEs - those who want to get started on their climate journey, and those that are already on it and want to continue to learn and improve. Carbon Manager enables any SME to get started on measuring their footprint, and to easily and quickly achieve a full footprint estimate through direct integration with accounting data. This encourages SMEs to keep measuring their footprint, and most importantly frees up time and energy so they can start taking action to reduce. Carbon Manager’s approach is aligned with the international standard for footprinting: the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, so you can be confident that the reported footprint is credible. The report function enables SMEs to easily share their footprint with corporate clients as needed, or for inclusion in tenders. The report essentially contains a ‘self-reported’ business footprint. Certification essentially requires a higher-detail carbon footprint that has been independently audited and verified as accurate and complete, against a recognised standard e.g. ISO14064. Certification may also require additional information on the business’ carbon reduction targets and reduction plans. Certification is primarily targeted at larger businesses who either need it to win business and/or want to position strongly on sustainability. The higher level of auditing and the brand value of the certification logo mean that certification has a higher cost to achieve, as well as ongoing recertification costs. Historically, only a small percentage of businesses have voluntarily achieved carbon certification due to the time and money required to complete the audit. There are numerous carbon certifications available, but some of the most credible are Toitū (NZ), Climate Active (Australia), and Carbon Trust (UK).

Last updated on Dec 19, 2025

Will using Carbon Manager help me to get carbon-certified?

Carbon Manager focuses on helping businesses to measure their footprint quickly and efficiently, and help them to prioritise action on carbon reduction. We believe that our product meets the needs of most small businesses out there. Reporting using Carbon Manager does not meet all of the requirements for formal 3rd-party carbon certification, but the footprint that you calculate can be used as a basis for getting certified later on. What is carbon footprint certification? Carbon footprint certification is the independent verification of the completeness and accuracy of a business’ carbon footprint. Certification is based on the business’ approach to meeting the minimum requirements of a recognised standard e.g. ISO 14064. Historically, only a small percentage of businesses have voluntarily achieved carbon certification due to the time and money required to complete the audit. There are numerous carbon certifications available, but some of the most credible are Toitū (NZ), Climate Active (Australia), and Carbon Trust (UK). How will Carbon Manager help? The data reported via Carbon Manager fulfils some of the requirements for carbon footprint certification, particularly if you have entered all of the available ‘activity data’ types such as electricity, gas, and fuel use. Certifications will always involve an audit of your carbon accounts, and a product like Carbon Manager helps you to get used to managing your data. What more would I need to do? There are some areas of business activity where a certifier will require you to provide data that is not currently included, or at greater levels of detail than what is required by Carbon Manager. In all cases you will also need to provide an audit trail back to the source invoices and records. Fugitive emissions and employee commuting are two areas not currently covered by Cogo’s product, and business travel and freight usage (supply chain, and customer-side) are two examples where more detail will need to be provided. If you are considering carbon footprint certification, we recommend that you first review the certifiers requirements so you are clear on what data and information will be needed. Should I get certified? That is ultimately up to you! Certification can be useful for marketing and reputational purposes, but it does require significant work, on an annual basis and at a cost. The pros and cons will differ per business, and should be weighed up carefully. If you would like to know more, we suggest that you get in touch with a certifier directly.

Last updated on Dec 19, 2025

Can I use my Carbon Report to meet corporate customer requests?

Yes, in most cases your Carbon Report will meet corporate customer needs. The methodology that underpins Carbon Manager is aligned with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol - the global standard for companies and organisations when measuring carbon emissions. The data in the Carbon Report of most relevance for a customer is the ‘carbon intensity’ of your business. Most corporate customers will multiply this intensity by the amount they spend on products and services supplied by your business, to give an estimated carbon footprint. Will spend-based reporting be enough? In terms of the ‘scope’ of carbon footprint, Carbon Manager enables measurement of Scope 1 & 2 and Scope 3 Category 1 emissions. If you have calculated your footprint using only the mapping of spend data it should meet the requirements for many customers, however activity-based data (which Carbon Manager also enables) is the norm for Scope 1 & 2 footprinting for corporate reporting, and many corporates will expect this. Carbon Manager has activity-based functionality to enable businesses to input their actual electricity, gas and fuel usage which provides a more accurate footprint. What if my customer wants to review my footprint in more detail? The SME footprint generated in Carbon Manager is capable of being audited - data is traceable back to spend data in the system. The activity-based footprint components will need to be traceable back to invoices. If a customer asks to check the data behind your Carbon Report i.e. to audit this, it is possible for access to be enabled (by you) for an auditor to review your data within the product. This is at your discretion.

Last updated on Dec 05, 2025

Is my Carbon Report ‘audit-ready’?

Yes. Your Carbon Report outlines the critical data, footprint completeness, and key methodological assumptions necessary to enable the result to be audited by a third-party. Cogo also has a Methodology document available upon request, which explains the footprinting and reporting approach in much more detail. In terms of auditability, the spend-based footprint components are easily traced back to spend data in the Carbon Manager, but the activity-based footprint components will need to be traced back by an auditor to the invoices. Most auditing of small business carbon footprints currently occurs as part of a formal certification process that the business chooses to enter into. It is possible that in future, corporate customers may ask to audit your carbon accounting, however this would only be done to the extent needed for the corporate’s own carbon assurance process i.e. it is unlikely that you would be subjected to a full carbon audit. Cogo welcomes any efforts to introduce ‘small-business-appropriate’ third-party reviews of carbon footprints, which are less onerous than the existing formal certifications and assurance processes. This could involve footprint tool providers like Cogo enabling small businesses to have their data checked by a third party via the platform without significant effort or expense.

Last updated on Dec 19, 2025