> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.salvidia.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Your first footprint

> A six-lesson course for someone handed carbon measurement as an extra duty. By the end you will have a complete, defensible footprint and know what to say about it.

Somebody has asked you for your company's carbon footprint. You do not have a background in this, it was not in your job description, and the deadline is real.

This course gets you to a finished number. Not a perfect one, because nobody's first footprint is perfect and no standard expects it to be. A defensible one, which is a different and achievable thing.

## What this assumes about you

You work in finance, operations, or you are the person who ended up owning sustainability. You can get hold of company records and you can ask colleagues for things. You do not know what Scope 3 means and you should not have to before you start.

## What you will have at the end

A complete organisation footprint with a stated boundary, real data in the categories that matter, documented estimates everywhere else, and a sentence you can say out loud to a client or a board without hedging.

## The six lessons

<Columns>
  <Column>
    <Card title="1. What you are being asked for" icon="circle-question-mark" href="/learn/lesson-1-what-you-are-asked-for">
      Client request, tender question, or reporting obligation. They need different answers.
    </Card>
  </Column>

  <Column>
    <Card title="2. Draw the line" icon="scan" href="/learn/lesson-2-draw-the-line">
      Decide what counts as your business. This decision drives everything after it.
    </Card>
  </Column>
</Columns>

<Columns>
  <Column>
    <Card title="3. Get a rough number fast" icon="zap" href="/learn/lesson-3-rough-number-fast">
      A complete but approximate footprint in an afternoon, so you know where to aim.
    </Card>
  </Column>

  <Column>
    <Card title="4. Upgrade what matters" icon="trending-up" href="/learn/lesson-4-upgrade-what-matters">
      Find your top three categories and get real data for those, and only those.
    </Card>
  </Column>
</Columns>

<Columns>
  <Column>
    <Card title="5. Check it before you trust it" icon="search-check" href="/learn/lesson-5-check-before-you-trust">
      Five checks that catch the errors which survive a casual read.
    </Card>
  </Column>

  <Column>
    <Card title="6. Share a number that holds up" icon="send" href="/learn/lesson-6-share-a-number">
      State it with its boundary and method, so the first hard question does not undo it.
    </Card>
  </Column>
</Columns>

## How long it takes

Reading the six lessons takes under an hour. Doing the work takes a few weeks, most of which is waiting for other people to send you things. Lesson 1 tells you which requests to send on day one so the waiting happens in parallel with everything else.

<Note>
  Each lesson ends with a completion check. If you cannot tick it, do not move on. The lessons build, and a boundary you never wrote down will cause problems in lesson 5 that look like data problems.
</Note>

## Start

[Lesson 1: What you are being asked for](/learn/lesson-1-what-you-are-asked-for)