What is the carbon footprint and how is it calculated?

What is the carbon footprint?

The carbon footprint can be defined as the trail of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) that is generated by human activity.

An environmental indicator that measures both direct and indirect emissions of compounds such as methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆) and carbon dioxide (CO₂).

How the carbon footprint is calculated

There are different ways to calculate the carbon footprint generated by each person, one of them being the online calculator of the United Nations Carbon Offset Platform.

This tool calculates the carbon footprint based on different data linked to the household, transportation and lifestyle:

• Household. This section collects information on both the household strictly (number of people living in it, country of residence, surface area and type of property) and energy consumption (KWh per month, percentage of clean energy sources and the energy source from which the heating comes).
• Transportation. In addition to knowing whether a private vehicle is available (and the type of fuel, annual mileage and average consumption), the use of different means of locomotion (such as trains, buses, subways, streetcars, bicycles or walking) is also calculated by hours each week. The number of airplane trips and the length of these trips are also computed.
• Lifestyle. In this third and last section, variables related to food (such as the frequency of meat intake, the purchase of local products or from environmentally responsible companies or how much is eaten away from home) and whether waste is recycled are incorporated into the calculation.

Types of carbon footprint

Depending on the activities we focus on, we can find the following typology of carbon footprints:

• Personal carbon footprint. Based on daily habits and activities (transportation, home energy consumption, food, etc.) the personal carbon footprint is calculated.
• Product carbon footprint. Greenhouse gas emissions in the life cycle of a product, with the following phases: extraction of raw materials, manufacture, transport, use and hypothetical recycling.
• Corporate carbon footprint. Measures the GHG emissions produced by the activities of an organization or company in a specific period of time, including direct emissions, indirect emissions due to energy consumption and other indirect emissions linked to the value chain.
• Carbon footprint by sector or industry. As its name suggests, it refers to the emissions of specific sectors (commerce, construction, hotels, hotels, livestock, agriculture, etc.) and, once identified, can seek ways to reduce each of the sectors.
• Carbon footprint of events. Music festivals or concerts, competitions or sporting events or congresses are some of the types of mass events that are likely to have high emissions and that can lead to the design of future strategies to minimize this carbon footprint.

Telefónica and its carbon footprint

As explained in Telefónica’s website, the company calculates the annual carbon footprint generated by its operations (scopes 1 and 2) and its value chain (scope 3) by preparing an emissions inventory according to the principles of relevance, completeness, consistency, transparency and accuracy.

The operator’s climate targets include reducing its global operating emissions by 90% by 2030 to reach net zero emissions a decade later, i.e. by 2040.

Carbon price

The operator’s Climate Action Plan also explains that establishing an internal carbon price is an effective way for companies to manage the risks and opportunities associated with their carbon footprint.

This internal carbon pricing involves internalizing the cost of GHG emissions, assigning a monetary value to each tonne emitted and thus being able to know how much emissions cost.

An internal price on carbon that helps the company make better investment and equipment purchasing decisions and achieve its emissions reduction targets.

Emissions avoided

According to data from the ‘Connected Life 2023 Report’, Telefónica contributed to the non-emission of 69.2 million tons of CO₂that year thanks to the digital habits acquired by its residential customers in Spain, Germany and Brazil through the connectivity offered by the company.