What is a carbon footprint?

A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an organisation, event, product, or person over a defined period or life cycle. We usually express it in:

• tCO₂e – tonnes of CO₂-equivalent
• kg CO₂e – kilograms of CO₂-equivalent

CO₂e means we convert different greenhouse gases (like methane and nitrous oxide) into the equivalent impact of carbon dioxide, using standard global warming potentials (GWPs). That way, we can talk about one number instead of a different unit for each gas.

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The simple version

A carbon footprint is just:

All relevant activities
➜ converted into CO₂e
➜ within a defined boundary

The three key questions are:

1. What are we measuring? (organisation, event, product…)
2. Over what scope / period? (which emissions, which dates, which stages?)
3. How do we convert activity into CO₂e? (activity data + emission factors)

Salvidia helps by giving you structure for all three.

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Carbon footprint vs “emissions”

People often use these terms interchangeably, but there’s a subtle distinction:

• Emissions – the actual release of greenhouse gases (e.g. fuel burned, electricity used, waste decomposing).
• Carbon footprint – the total quantified impact of those emissions for a defined subject and boundary.

You can think of the carbon footprint as the measured, documented result of all relevant emissions.

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What goes into a carbon footprint?

Most footprints include some combination of:

• Energy use
  • Electricity, gas, fuels, onsite generation
• Travel and transport
  • Flights, vehicles, commuting, freight and logistics
• Purchases and services
  • Goods, services, materials used to run the business or deliver an event/product
• Waste and materials
  • Waste disposal, recycling, construction/demolition, packaging
• Other sources
  • Refrigerants, process emissions, land use change, etc.

The exact mix depends on what you’re measuring and how wide you draw the boundary.

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Three common types of carbon footprints

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CO₂e and global warming potentials (GWPs)

Not all greenhouse gases are equal. Some trap more heat than CO₂. To compare them, we use global warming potentials (GWPs):

• CO₂ has a GWP of 1 (baseline)
• Methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), and others have higher GWPs
• We multiply each gas by its GWP to get CO₂e

Example:

• 1 tonne of methane with GWP of 28
  ➜ 1 × 28 = 28 tCO₂e

You rarely need to calculate this yourself. Salvidia and standard emission factors handle GWPs under the hood — but it’s useful to know why we use CO₂e.

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Boundaries: what is (and isn’t) included

A key part of any carbon footprint is the boundary:

• Organisational boundary
  • Which entities, sites, or operations are included?
• Operational boundary
  • Which scopes, activities, and emissions are included?

For example, an organisation might decide to:

• Include: all owned/controlled sites in Australia, Scope 1 and 2, plus key Scope 3 categories
• Exclude (for now): minor overseas subsidiaries or very small emission sources

The goal is to:

• Be transparent
• Include all material sources
• Be consistent year-on-year

For more detail, see Organisational boundaries.

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How a carbon footprint is calculated

In practice, a carbon footprint is built from lots of individual lines like this:

• 10,000 kWh of electricity × factor → emissions
• 25,000 km of car travel × factor → emissions
• 5,000 AUD of marketing spend × factor → emissions
• 3 tonnes of landfill waste × factor → emissions

Then:

1. Each line item gets its own CO₂e value
2. Items are grouped into categories and scopes
3. Everything rolls up into totals and breakdowns

Salvidia automates the factor selection and calculations so you can focus on getting good data in and using the results.

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What a carbon footprint is not

To avoid confusion:

• It is not just your electricity use
• It is not just your Scope 1 and 2 emissions
• It is not only about purchasing offsets

A solid carbon footprint is:

• Broader than just energy
• Grounded in a clear methodology
• The basis for reduction and strategy, not just compensation

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How your carbon footprint is used

Once you have a footprint, you can:

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How this connects to Salvidia

When you create an assessment in Salvidia, you’re essentially setting up the framework for a carbon footprint:

• Choosing what you are measuring (organisation, event, product)
• Defining a period or scope
• Entering activity data into structured tables
• Letting the platform handle factors and calculations

The outputs — dashboards, breakdowns, and exports — are your carbon footprint for that assessment.

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Where to go next

• Get a quick refresher in Carbon accounting in 10 minutes
• Learn about Scopes 1, 2, and 3
• Or see Activity-based vs spend-based data to understand different ways to measure your footprint.