Purchasing a service may seem not to have a carbon impact. However, this isn't the case.
Indeed, providing a service is made possible by other tangible activities resulting in GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions. For example:
Offices: electricity consumption, heating, air conditioning.
Employees: meals, commuting and travels, waste generation.
Product purchases: IT equipment, office supplies, etc.
💡 Computing emission factors for a service
Carbon intensity of the service provider. When the service provider report and disclose its GHG emissions publicly or shares data directly with Greenly (via Greenly Corporate Impact or Supplier Engagement), total emissions are divided by the company's turnover and a monetary ratio is computed.
Carbon intensity of a business sector. For companies that do not publish a GHG assessment, the carbon intensity of the business sector is used instead. This method is widely used for MSMEs, who do not often share information on its environmental impact. The data used comes from studies carried out by Greenly or from public databases. The accuracy can then be improved by engaging service providers in the process or by using other metrics (e.g. number of FTE).