EN1
Reduction in GHG
Environment
Reduction in GHG
The UK government has committed to reducing carbon emissions to net zero by enacting legislation. The Government is contributing to this commitment by working to reduce carbon emissions in its own supply chain and in policy-making decisions.
Key Value
A value of £252 per tCO2e or 25.2p per kgCO2e
Different activities produce different levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The UK government’s Greenhouse gas conversions have attempted to quantify emissions for certain activities relevant to businesses and other organisations.
UK government Greenhouse Gas Conversion Factors
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-conversion-factors-for-company-reporting
Organisations should express the potential impact of GHG emissions in common units, by identifying the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of each GHG, allowing it to be expressed in terms of equivalent tonnes of carbon dioxide (tCO2e). Carbon dioxide (CO2) is used as a common unit because it is by far the most abundant GHG.
Greenhouse gas emissions values (“carbon values”) are used across UK government for valuing impacts on GHG emissions resulting from policy interventions. They represent a monetary value that society places on one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (£/tCO2e).
The monetary value of carbon comes from “BEIS updated short-term traded sector carbon values for policy appraisal, £/tCO2e” (updated in 2018).
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/carbon-valuation–2
The value of greenhouse gas emissions is the volume multiplied by the unit cost per tCO2e, which in 2023 is £252, based on a 2018 evaluation.
How to measure Green House Gas Emissions
If you’re starting out, start with Bronze first. The result of a Bronze measurement is just an estimate but requires the least effort, whereas Silver and Gold give more accurate results but require more effort.
Each level has an effort-to-accuracy indicator; choose the one that’s right for you.
Bronze
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
£252 per tonne of CO2e emissions, or 25.2p per kgCO2e
Measure any greenhouse gas emissions – or reduction in greenhouse gas emissions – using proxy values, depending on the activity involved.
For example:
- Travel by car: approximate mileage, average car size, using petrol
- Travel by air: approximate mileage, average plane travel
If converting to a monetary value, multiply the above by the UK Government’s carbon value converter for the current year.
Here’s an example
In 2023, this value is £252 per tonne of CO2e emissions, or 25.2p per kgCO2e.
20 miles travelled in an average-sized petrol car generates
20 * 0.27436 = 5.4872 kgCO2e
Avoiding that journey would be worth 5.4872 * £0.252 = £1.38
Where does this value come from?
The value of greenhouse gas emissions is the volume multiplied by the unit cost per tCO2e, which in 2023 is £252, based on a 2018 evaluation.
Greenhouse gas emissions values (“carbon values”) are used across UK government for valuing impacts on GHG emissions resulting from policy interventions. They represent a monetary value that society places on one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (£/tCO2e).
The monetary value of carbon comes from “BEIS updated short-term traded sector carbon values for policy appraisal, £/tCO2e” (updated in 2018).
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/carbon-valuation–2
Carbon values in £2020 prices per tonne of CO2: central series for 2023 is 252£. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/valuing-greenhouse-gas-emissions-in-policy-appraisal/valuation-of-greenhouse-gas-emissions-for-policy-appraisal-and-evaluation
Different activities produce different levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The UK government’s Greenhouse gas conversions have attempted to quantify emissions for certain activities relevant to businesses and other organisations.
UK government Greenhouse Gas Conversion Factors
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-conversion-factors-for-company-reporting
Organisations should express the potential impact of GHG emissions in common units, by identifying the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of each GHG, allowing it to be expressed in terms of equivalent tonnes of carbon dioxide (tCO2e). Carbon dioxide (CO2) is used as a common unit because it is by far the most abundant GHG.
EN1
Reduction in GHG
Environment
Silver
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
£252 per tonne of CO2e emissions, or 25.2p per kgCO2e
Measure approximate values using a proxy. At the Silver level, you should consider measuring the greenhouse gas emissions produced as a result of travel:
- Travel associated with the delivery, distribution or other logistics;
- Other business-related travel
You should measure:
- Approximate mileage, car size (small, medium, large, sports) by fuel type (petrol, diesel, hybrid, electric)
- Approximate mileage, plane travel by type
At this level, you should including information regarding greenhouse gas emissions produced as a result of your own business activity, e.g. in the production or manufacturing process:
- Burning gas, liquid or solid fuels
- Using refrigerants
Heating and lighting costs can be more accurately estimated:
- Electricity usage, as per electricity bills for the period
- Gas usage, as per gas bills for the period
When considering remote or home working as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from travel, consider deducting the emissions generated from equipment usage and heating the home during working hours from any emissions saved. The UK government provides a proxy value in the Homeworking tab of its Greenhouse Gas Conversion Factors for emission multipliers.
Refer to the latest UK government Greenhouse Gas Conversion Factors for emission multipliers:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-conversion-factors-for-company-reporting
Gold
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Include emissions in your supply chain – both suppliers and customers
At the Gold level, you would be expected to measure more accurately using more specific data, for example:
- Actual road mileage travelled (e.g. from telemetry data from devices installed in vehicles etc.)
- Actual car size (small, medium, large, sports) and fuel type (petrol, diesel, hybrid, electric)
- Actual air mileage, by plane travel class (Business, Economy etc.)
Include emissions in your supply chain – both suppliers and customers – where possible:
- Use bills to calculate greenhouse gas emissions from electricity and gas usage.
- For freight, measure using litres of fuel and kW/h electricity as a more accurate measurement than miles/km travelled.
- If considering homeworking, you should consider collecting actual electricity used by homeworkers using data from their fuel bills.
Gold+
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
At the Gold+ level, you are building on your Gold value calculation by assessing the value against the counterfactual, or ‘what would have happened anyway’.
To do this you should identify a control group suitable to assess in line with your intervention, in order to more accurately attribute any changes to your intervention.
You could also consider any other discount or causality elements linked to your job creation activity.
Support in developing your Gold+ counterfactual, causality and discount approach is available through the Measure Up partners, so please do reach out to Impact, State of Life or PRD.
| Value Type: | Outcome |
What's this?
This is the type of value. Some values are outcomes, which means many different interventions might lead to them, others are specific interventions that have a set value. |
|---|---|---|
| UN SDG Categories: |
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What's this?
The UN Sustainable Development Goals are global goals adopted in 2015 for all signed up nations to achieve for us to have a sustainable global future by 2030. There are 17 Goals that address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The Goals are all interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we achieve them all by 2030. |
| PN06/20 Categories: |
|
What's this?
PPN 06/20 Taking account of social value in the award of central government contracts introduced the Central Government Social Value Model in 2020 which all Central Government contracting authorities must use in their in scope procurements. It consists of 5 themes, 8 policy outcomes, and 24 Model Award Criteria which outline key priority areas to achieve more social value. |
Evidence
Measure Up focuses on empowering you to numerically measure the impact you’re having. We recommend that numeric reports are backed up with stories and other types of evidence to help illustrate, in human terms, the impact that’s being made on individuals.
We recommend seeing consent from one or more participants in your intervention to collect and tell their story. This should include a little background on the participant, a summing up of life before the intervention, the human impact of the intervention, and the longer term (if known) impact on the person’s life outside of, and after, the intervention.
Providing photographs, audio recordings, video interviews or even artefacts from the intervention (for example, writing, paintings, music, etc from creative interventions) can add more colour, and convey the emotional impact of interventions more directly.
In some cases it’s appropriate to anonymise or abbreviate the personal information of case study participants. No story should be published or shared without the recorded consent of the individual(s) it concerns. Individuals continue to own the rights to their stories and if they request you stop sharing the story or making it available online you should do so promptly and without need for justification.
Feedback
Measure Up is an open, collaborative and transparent. If you have any suggestions or feedback on our pragmatic, recommended approach to measuring and valuing social value, including wellbeing, economic, and fiscal impact, and effects on our environment, please get in touch so we can share and discuss this at our next Advisory Group meeting.
More help
We want to empower anyone to perform and improve their impact measurement – without needing a degree in economics.
If you need any more help, or just someone to do the legwork for you we can help signpost you to software, training and consultancy to help you get to grips with the impact you’re having.
