Many people believe that climate change is one of the most important issues facing humankind today. Can we quantify how much damage an organization is doing to the environment?

A carbon footprint is the measure of the amount of greenhouse gasses produced by human activities. We measure this is units of carbon dioxide typically given in tons of CO₂-eq per year. According to Bernard Marr in his book Key Performance Indicators The 75 measures every manager needs to know on page 312, the average North American generates about 20 tons of CO2 per year.

An organization’s (and individual’s) carbon footprint can be broken down into primary and secondary footprints. The primary footprint is the total direct emissions of greenhouse gasses by the burning of fossil fuels for energy consumption and transportation. The secondary footprint is the sum of the indirect emissions of greenhouse gasses during the lifecycle of products used. Consider drinking water from a small water bottle. The total greenhouse gasses emitted include those gases emitted during the production of the bottle, filling the bottle and transporting the bottle.

Corporations might do annual carbon footprint assessments using various sources of data. This can take a long time and be expensive. Consultants may be required. After acquiring your data you can compare it to the available benchmarks.

For more information you can look at the International Organization for Standardization’s 14000 (ISO) standardization, under the environmental management family 14064.

Carbon Dioxide

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is being released into the atmosphere at an enormous rate. The industrial revolution was based on fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas). Almost every part of modern life depends on energy generated by burning fossil fuels, thereby releasing more CO2 into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide acts like a blanket. This raises the temperature. It de-stabilized the weather. This affects animals that rely on predicable patterns of weather. We have more hurricanes, fires, floods and droughts. The best thing we can do is plant and protect more trees. Another critical piece is phytoplankton, which provide us with oxygen.

For more information, The Main KPI Types has a list of some KPIs and their types.