It is evident that in our current political and corporate climate, GHG reporting and environmental laws have increased at an exponential rate. There are now over 1,200 climate change or climate change-relevant laws worldwide, a twenty-fold increase over 23 years. One of the most prominent trends to develop within the last two decades has been GHG reporting, with at least 40 countries—both developed and developing—currently using mandatory emissions reporting programs. With this increased importance placed on climate transparency and disclosures, carbon benchmarking will be of utmost importance in understanding a company’s Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

A carbon benchmark is a standard of performance, representing the impact a unit of a particular activity has on carbon emissions. These activities can be characterized as outputs such as products/services or inputs such as fuel consumed.

It is clear that as GHG reporting programs become more widely utilized, corporate entities will begin to institute carbon benchmarking in their practices. However, one of the largest hurdles for companies making this benchmarking transition is the lack of a universal carbon benchmarking standard. Without a universal standard, companies comparing themselves across industries, sectors, and geographic regions will be comparing “apples to oranges” instead of “apples to apples.” Until a universal tool is implemented, it will be necessary in this transition for companies to find workaround solutions to this problem. Yet, no current carbon emissions assessment methodology has developed such an initiative.