Skip to main content
What you will do: write a two-sentence boundary statement and save it where your future self can find it. This is the step people skip because it feels like admin rather than measurement. It is the one that causes the most rework. If you collect data for four weeks and then discover the joint venture should have been excluded, you do not adjust a number, you re-check everything.

​
The question you are answering

Which entities, sites, and operations count as your business for this footprint? For a single company operating from premises it controls, the answer is obvious and you can write it in a minute. It gets harder with subsidiaries, joint ventures, franchises, or sites you share with another tenant.

​
Pick an approach and say which one

The GHG Protocol gives three ways to draw the line, and a compliant footprint has to state which you used.
  • Operational control. Everything you have authority to set operating policy for. The usual default and almost certainly your answer.
  • Financial control. Everything you direct the finances of. Often mirrors your accounts.
  • Equity share. Your ownership percentage of each operation.
They give genuinely different numbers. A 40% joint venture you run is fully in under operational control, out under financial control, and 40% in under equity share. Full detail in organisational boundaries.
If you have no subsidiaries or joint ventures, choose operational control, write it down, and move on. This decision only gets difficult when your corporate structure is difficult.

​
Also decide your period

Usually your financial year. Write the exact dates, not the year label. “2025” is ambiguous and “1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025” is not, and you will thank yourself in lesson 5 when a bill straddles the boundary.

​
Write the statement

Two sentences is enough:
This footprint covers Example Pty Ltd and all operations under its control in Australia, for 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025. It uses the operational control approach and includes all owned and leased offices, warehouses, and company vehicles.
Save it in your assessment notes. Everything you report later will be read against this statement, and a number without it cannot be interpreted by anyone.

​
What to do about the awkward cases

You will have one or two things that do not fit cleanly. A site you moved out of halfway through the year. A subsidiary acquired in March. A warehouse you share. Do not let these stall you. Make a decision, write down what you decided and why, and carry on. A documented judgement call is defensible. An undocumented one is the thing that unravels under questioning.

​
You are done when

  • You have written a boundary statement naming your entities, your approach, and your exact period dates
  • It is saved somewhere permanent, not in your head or a chat message
  • Any awkward inclusions or exclusions have a one-line reason next to them

​
Next

Lesson 3: Get a rough number fast