The journal
Plain-language guides to the GHG Protocol and the disclosure regimes, written while we build carbon accounting software for them.
01
6 Sep 2026
9 min read
Microsoft Sustainability Manager is the default for a Dynamics 365 shop and usually the right one. Two published facts decide whether it stays the default: invoice data capture was deprecated from January 5, 2026, and Scope 3 categories 10, 11, 14 and 15 need Premium.
02
5 Sep 2026
8 min read
CARB published its first-cycle guidance, a voluntary intake platform and an optional template on September 1, 2026. The guidance is the predictable part; the platform asks for entity identification drawn from tax filings that most sustainability teams do not hold.
03
3 Sep 2026
9 min read
Version 2.0 replaces the single 67% Scope 3 coverage test with a category-by-category screen at 5%, which moves the burden from target modeling to inventory accuracy. Version 1 stays open until the end of 2027, so most US companies still have a choice about which framework to submit under.
04
2 Sep 2026
9 min read
Spend-based calculation is the only method that produces all fifteen Scope 3 categories in a first year, because purchase records exist and supplier data does not. What separates the tools is what happens to an accounts payable export after you upload it.
05
1 Sep 2026
9 min read
Target modeling happens in the SBTi's own tools and validation costs a published fee. What software decides is whether you reach the starting line: an inventory that excludes under 5% of Scope 3 and screens all fifteen categories well enough to prove 67% coverage.
06
31 Aug 2026
8 min read
Two supplier requests, one year, one two-person team. Neither program is answered by software, but both test the same thing underneath: whether your emissions data covers the whole business and traces back to a source record. What to buy for, and in which order to do them.
07
30 Aug 2026
8 min read
Two US emissions deadlines land nine days apart this fall, and they are not the same obligation. One is a facility filing with prescribed methods. The other is a corporate inventory with a boundary you choose. Buying one tool for both is where budgets go wrong.
08
26 Aug 2026
8 min read
A supplier is not shopping because a regulator arrived. A customer sent a questionnaire with a date on it, and a renewal sits behind that date. What matters when you buy under those constraints, an honest comparison of the platform types, and the questions that separate them.
09
26 Aug 2026
8 min read
CDP does not score the size of your footprint, it scores whether you can account for it, and in 2026 more of those points sit in Scope 3 than ever. What the scoring demands of a tool, where the verification wall is, and which situation you are actually buying for.
10
23 Aug 2026
8 min read
Most buyers shopping for the November 10 deadline are being shown decarbonization suites when the statute asks for an inventory with receipts. What the rules actually demand of a tool, where each platform fits, and why you should buy for 2027 rather than 2026.
11
21 Aug 2026
8 min read
No consultancy publishes a rate card, so US finance teams budget SB 253 with no anchor. CARB had to price its own rule before it could pass it. Here are those figures, the separate flat program fee, whose written determination CARB moved to December 10, 2026, and which cost lines you can actually move.
12
21 Aug 2026
8 min read
One is advisory support on a response that already exists. The other produces the emissions figures the response is made of. What CDP publishes about each, what neither of them does, and the sequencing mistake that costs first-time disclosers a cycle.
13
19 Aug 2026
8 min read
The statutory ceiling is $500,000 a year, but the sentence that should shape your strategy is the one making good faith a mitigating factor. Plus the Scope 3 safe harbor that limits penalties to nonfiling through 2030.
14
16 Aug 2026
9 min read
Verification decides more CDP scores than any other criterion, and it is the one you cannot fix in the weeks before the deadline. The accepted standards, the coverage percentages, what a verifier samples, and what changed in 2026.
15
14 Aug 2026
8 min read
CDP asks you to account for all fifteen Scope 3 categories, not calculate all fifteen. In 2026 the reason you give for marking a category not relevant became a scored drop-down instead of free text, which changes how the screening has to be done.
16
13 Aug 2026
9 min read
Category 1 absorbs almost everything a business buys, which makes it the largest line in most footprints and the messiest. Here are the four calculation methods, the EPA factor detail that decides whether your number is right, and a worked example.
17
11 Aug 2026
9 min read
Most inventories fail their first audit on evidence, not arithmetic. The tonnes are defensible and the trail from the total back to the underlying bill is not. Here is what an auditor samples and how to build for it.
18
10 Aug 2026
8 min read
You submitted in September and now nothing happens for eleven weeks. Here is exactly when CDP scores land in 2026, who sees yours, what the release actually contains, and the two things worth doing while you wait.
19
5 Aug 2026
10 min read
Around 45,000 suppliers get a CDP request each year, and most of them treat it as a favor to a customer. It is not. Here is what the supply chain questionnaire adds, why your customer is pushing, and what happens if you ignore it.
20
5 Aug 2026
9 min read
IFRS S2 does not invent a new way to count carbon. It points at the GHG Protocol and then adds a handful of requirements of its own, some of which quietly contradict what CDP and California ask for. Here is what it actually requires.
21
31 Jul 2026
8 min read
A CDP score is not a grade for effort. It is a threshold system: four levels, a minimum percentage to climb each one, and essential criteria that cap you at the level below if you miss them. Here is how the arithmetic actually works.
22
28 Aug 2026
11 min read
Two CDP deadlines matter in 2026 and only one of them gets you a score. Here is what each date means, what a missed cutoff actually costs, and how to work backwards from September 16.
23
21 Jul 2026
10 min read
Every emissions number you have ever seen is in CO2e, a unit that hides a conversion factor most reporters never check. Here is what CO2e means, how GWP works, and which values to use this year.
24
21 Jul 2026
9 min read
The same tonne of carbon can legitimately appear in four companies' reports at once. That sounds like a flaw. It is deliberate, and understanding why it stops you from making an expensive mistake.
25
21 Jul 2026
10 min read
Sooner or later someone independent has to sign off on your emissions number. The gap between the two assurance levels is larger than the wording suggests, and it decides how you build your inventory now.
26
21 Jul 2026
11 min read
Almost every emissions number, and every disclosure law, traces back to one 2004 rulebook. Here is what the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard actually requires, in plain English, before you count a single tonne.
27
21 Jul 2026
10 min read
An emissions number is activity data times an emission factor. Pick the wrong factor library and the whole inventory is off. Here are the free EPA sources for each scope, and how to document which one you used.
28
21 Jul 2026
10 min read
You cannot measure all 15 Scope 3 categories with equal effort, and you are not meant to. A materiality assessment tells you which few categories carry the footprint, and documents why the rest can wait.
29
19 Jul 2026
10 min read
Before you count a single tonne, you pick a consolidation approach, and it decides which facilities, leases and joint ventures are even in your inventory. Here is how the three approaches differ and which one to use.
30
19 Jul 2026
10 min read
Every reduction target and trend line is measured against a baseline year. Pick it badly and you spend years explaining restatements. Here is how to choose one and the rules for when you must recalculate it.
31
19 Jul 2026
11 min read
A first greenhouse gas inventory is a data project, not a science project. Here are the ten steps, in order, that turn the records you already keep into a number an auditor will accept.
32
19 Jul 2026
10 min read
Every company reports two Scope 2 numbers, and the gap between them is where your clean-power contracts show up. Here is what each method measures, and which one a regulator actually wants.
33
17 Jul 2026
10 min read
The $1 billion line is real, but it is not the whole story. Here is exactly who SB 253 covers, how "doing business in California" is read, and why a smaller company can still be asked for the same number.
34
17 Jul 2026
10 min read
One method is fast and complete, the other is precise and expensive. The skill is not picking a side, it is knowing which lines deserve which method, and when to switch.
35
15 Jul 2026
9 min read
The SEC voted to propose rescinding its climate rule in May 2026, and it never took effect anyway. Here is what that changes, and why your emissions work is not going away.
36
15 Jul 2026
11 min read
The spend-based method turns the accounts payable data you already have into a first Scope 3 estimate. Here is the actual procedure, the factors, and where it stops being good enough.
37
17 Aug 2026
9 min read
The first SB 253 report needs no assurance. The 2027 one does, and it will test records you are creating right now. Plus the standard change on December 15, 2026 that is decided by when you sign.
38
14 Jul 2026
12 min read
CARB moved the first SB 253 report to November 10, 2026. If you are a $1B+ US company that has not started, here is what the next 90 days actually look like, week by week.
39
14 Jul 2026
9 min read
One is a measured emissions number, the other is a narrative risk report, and they have different revenue thresholds and very different enforcement status right now.
40
6 Jul 2026
11 min read
The boundary between what you burn and what you buy decides how your first inventory is collected, calculated and audited. A plain-language guide with worked examples.
41
29 Jun 2026
10 min read
The formal definition is one sentence; applying it to ten thousand invoice lines is the actual job. What is in, what is out, and the classification calls that go wrong most.
42
15 Jun 2026
9 min read
The consultant leaves and the spreadsheet stays. An honest look at what advisory engagements are for, where they break down, and the division of labor that works.
43
8 Jun 2026
8 min read
Platforms, consultancies and hybrids, mapped by who they are actually built for. No fabricated price columns; nobody in this market publishes one.
44
1 Jun 2026
9 min read
A net zero target is an accounting commitment: a baseline, a boundary, a reduction path and a defensible residual. What each piece means before the pledge goes public.
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