How Companies Actually Measure Their Carbon Emissions

A company's sustainability report might claim 50,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent — but that number could be off by a factor of three depending on how they calculated it. Under the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the SEC's climate disclosure rule, that gap is now legally consequential. This episode unpacks how organizations actually measure Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, from direct monitoring sensors to spreadsheets full of PDF invoices. We explore carbon intensity versus absolute emissions, the RECs loophole that lets two identical buildings report emissions differing by tenfold, and what happens when 82% of suppliers don't provide their own emissions data. The mechanics are boring and difficult — exactly why most coverage skips them.