// Carbon & Climate

Carbon Accounting

Produce an emissions figure your auditors, customers and lenders will accept.

A defensible greenhouse gas number, built on a documented boundary, traceable data and a methodology that stays consistent between reporting years.

Discuss your requirements Speak with an expert

// Context

Why this matters

Emissions data has moved from a voluntary disclosure to a business input. Listed companies in Singapore report Scope 1 and 2 emissions under SGX rules, customers pass supplier emissions requests down their supply chains, and lenders increasingly ask borrowers for the same figures they need for their own financed emissions reporting.

The difficulty is rarely the arithmetic. It is that the underlying data was never collected for this purpose. Fuel is recorded in accounts payable, electricity in facilities, refrigerants in a maintenance log, and business travel in an expense system, each with different coverage and different periods.

Where that is not resolved, the organisation ends up with a number it cannot explain, cannot reproduce next year, and cannot defend when someone asks how it was derived.

// The engagement

How CER helps

Organisational boundary definition, using the control or equity share approach
Operational boundary and emissions source mapping across the business
Scope 1 direct emissions -- combustion, process, fugitive and mobile sources
Scope 2 purchased energy, on both location-based and market-based methods
Scope 3 screening and prioritisation of relevant categories
Data collection framework, with owners and source systems named for each input
Emission factor selection and documentation of sources
Emissions calculation and internal quality checks
Base year setting and a recalculation policy for structural change
Methodology documentation written for external review

// Deliverables

What you receive

Greenhouse gas inventory covering the agreed reporting boundary
Emissions calculation workbook with traceable inputs and factors
Methodology and boundary documentation
Data collection framework with named owners and source systems
Data gap register with the treatment applied to each gap
Management report explaining the results and their drivers
Improvement roadmap for the next reporting cycle

Frameworks and standards

GHG Protocol Corporate Standard
ISO 14064-1

// Fit

Who this is for

Listed companies reporting under SGX requirements
Large non-listed companies preparing for future reporting obligations
Manufacturers responding to customer and supply-chain requests
Banks and financial institutions building financed emissions data
SMEs asked for emissions data by a customer or lender

// Why CER

Practitioners, not report writers

CER works from Singapore with organisations across Asia, which matters for this service because requirements arriving from European regulators, regional supervisors and local listing rules do not align neatly.

Engagements run through to implementation: the data collection process, the documentation, the controls and the internal handover, so that the second cycle is cheaper than the first and can be run without us.

Where an organisation would be better served by building the capability internally, CER Academy delivers the same technical material as training.

Meet the people behind the work

// Our people

Expertise on this service

Raymond Cheung

Advisor & Lead Trainer

Over twenty years in actuarial science and risk management, working across ESG, sustainability and ESG investment.

Actuarial science · Risk management · ESG and sustainability

View Raymond Cheung’s profile

// Questions

Frequently asked

What is the difference between carbon accounting and a GHG inventory?

They describe the same work from different angles. Carbon accounting is the discipline -- boundaries, methodology, emission factors and controls. The greenhouse gas inventory is the output: the quantified set of emissions for a defined organisation and reporting period.

How long does a first carbon accounting exercise take?

It depends on the number of sites, the number of source systems involved, and how much of the underlying data already exists. The largest variable is data availability, not calculation. We scope this before quoting so the timeline reflects your actual data position.

Do we need to measure Scope 3 straight away?

Not necessarily. Under the current SGX phasing, mandatory Scope 3 reporting applies first to STI constituents. Most organisations begin with a Scope 3 screening to identify which categories are material, then build measurement for those categories rather than attempting all fifteen at once.

Which emission factors do you use?

Factor selection depends on the country of operation, the activity and the data available. We document the source and version of every factor used so the inventory can be reproduced and updated consistently.

Will the inventory be ready for external assurance?

That is how we build it. Documentation, traceability and the data gap register are the elements an assurance provider examines first. Whether you then engage an assurance provider is a separate decision.

What if our data has gaps?

Gaps are normal in a first inventory. They are handled with a documented estimation approach, recorded in the gap register, and targeted for improvement in the following cycle. What matters is that the treatment is disclosed rather than hidden.

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