How does the Al Dahra Carbon Calculator work?
Watch our video for an overview about how the carbon calculator tool works and how it can help your business.
FAQs
- How long will it take to fill in?
This depends on how complex your business is and how organised your records are! The longest part is collating your data in the first place, which could take anything from two or three hours to a whole day. However, once you know where to get the data needed, subsequent times are much quicker.
Filling in data to the Calculator itself is straight forward once you have the necessary data, between around 30 mins and 2 hours.
- What will my report show?
It will show you the total carbon emissions and carbon offsets, expressed as tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), percentage of total emissions/sequestration, and the carbon balance of your business.
The results also show full detail of the emissions/offsets for every item you enter in the Calculator. Live results also appear as you enter in data, enabling you to compare the results of different items.
Results are shown in varying levels of detail, highlight emissions hotspots, show Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, emissions of CO2e, nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4).
- What Methodology is Used?
Behind the Calculator lies a robust and detailed structure to calculate the carbon emissions and sequestration factors that ultimately give you a Carbon Report.
We have outlined what methodology we follow and how Standards structure our work in the following documents:
An overview of how the calculations behind the Calculator are made and references upon which they are based:
Download Calculator Methodology v.3.2 (PDF, 3.06MB)
- How do I do product footprinting?
You can use the Calculator to calculate either whole farm or product footprints. To do a product footprint (e.g. wheat), you need to spearate the processes used to produce the various food products from your farm.
This is an advanced process - read our guide (pdf) to help you through.
For instance, you might have dairy cows, an arable operation, plus beef. First of all, work out what processes and inputs are used specifically for each of the three enterprises. Then work out what is common to all enterprises - e.g. buildings, machinery, office, woodland, hedges, etc. For these common elements, put everything in an Overheads report. Watch video on Overheads reports.
Then create a product report (e.g. 'Wheat 2022') - add in the Overheads report, then all the inputs used for the wheat - e.g. diesel, electricity, fertiliser, distribution, etc. This will give you an accurate footprint for the wheat out of your farm.
Repeat the process for the dairy and beef enterprises.