> ## 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.

# Assessment types

> Organisation, event, and product assessments — what each one measures and when to use it.

Salvidia supports three assessment types. They share the same engine and methodology, but each is shaped around a different question.

## Organisation assessments

**The question:** what is our company's footprint for this reporting period?

This is the standard corporate carbon footprint: all emissions attributable to an organisation over a defined period, usually a financial year, organised into Scope 1, 2, and 3 under the GHG Protocol.

Use it when you need a number for annual reporting, client and tender requirements, ASRS-aligned disclosure, or simply to establish a baseline before setting reduction targets.

**Typical shape of the data:** accounting ledger for spend coverage, plus activity data for electricity, fuel, and travel.

## Event assessments

**The question:** what was the footprint of this specific event?

Events have a distinctive emissions profile: the footprint is usually dominated by **attendee travel, catering, freight, and temporary infrastructure** — almost all of it Scope 3. An event assessment is bounded by the event itself rather than a financial year.

Use it for festivals, conferences, sporting events, exhibitions, and one-off productions — especially when sponsors, venues, or councils are asking for the number.

**Typical shape of the data:** attendee numbers and travel assumptions, supplier and contractor spend, energy used on site, waste collected. See [How to measure an event footprint](/guides/how-to-measure-an-event-footprint) for the full walkthrough.

## Product assessments

**The question:** what is the footprint of one unit of this product?

Product assessments follow a **life cycle** structure — materials, manufacturing, distribution, use, and end-of-life — rather than the scope structure. The result is a footprint per unit (per item, per kilogram, per serving) that can support product claims and customer requests.

Use it when customers ask for product-level carbon data, or when you want to compare design and sourcing choices.

**Typical shape of the data:** bill of materials, production energy, packaging, and freight distances. See [What is an LCA?](/guides/what-is-an-lca) for the concepts behind it.

***

## Which one should you start with?

For almost every company: **start with an organisation assessment.** It gives you the complete picture, identifies where your impact actually is, and creates the baseline every other decision hangs off. Event and product assessments make sense once there's a specific event or product that needs its own number.

<Note>
  Assessment types can coexist in one workspace. An events company might run an organisation assessment for its annual footprint and separate event assessments for each major production.
</Note>