Carbon+Alt+Delete's methodology for Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR)

1. Emission factors

Carbon+Alt+Delete provides UK Government (GOV.UK) GHG conversion factors, for SECR emissions reporting amongst other sources. SECR does not legally mandate these factors, but the Environmental Reporting Guidelines (Chapter 2, section 7) direct organisations to use the Government conversion factors for company reporting. For more information, see the UKGOV support page (link).

Which factors are used. For each entry, Carbon+Alt+Delete takes the median date (the middle date) between the entry’s start and end dates, and uses the GOV.UK factors for that year. All emission factors run January to December. For example, an entry covering August 2021 to July 2022 has a median date of 29/01/2022, so it uses the 2022 factors.

This means entries in the same report can use different factor years. In a report covering April 2024 to March 2025, a November 2024 gas bill (median date mid-November 2024) uses the 2024 factors, while a February 2025 gas bill (median date mid-February 2025) uses the 2025 factors.

To see which calorific value is applied see our help page here: Heating value of fuel emission factors.

To see how we apply new factor sets or updates to factor sets: Emission factor datasets and updates.

To see how we apply new factor sets or updates to factor sets: Emission factor datasets and updates.

2. Energy reporting

In order to perform the energy reporting in the SECR report, Carbon+Alt+Delete uses the available information in the emission factors used. For every fuel combustion and electricity based activity, the platform keeps track of the total energy consumption in kWh.

The SECR energy total covers scope 1 combustion, scope 2 purchased electricity, heat, steam and cooling, and employee-owned vehicles used for business travel. Process and fugitive emissions have no energy value. Scope 3 ‘fuel- and energy-related activities’ (well-to-tank emissions and transmission and distribution losses) add emissions but no kWh.

The source of this kWh data is derived in two ways:

  1. Published energy value. The dataset gives an energy figure directly, such as kWh per km in the GOV.UK “SECR kWh pass & delivery vehs” tab.

    Where a dataset gives energy in another unit, such as GJ, Carbon+Alt+Delete converts it to kWh using standard unit conversions (for example, 1 GJ = 277.78 kWh). See Emission to energy conversion.

  2. Derived from factors. Where the dataset gives a factor per physical unit (e.g. per litre) and a factor per kWh for the same fuel, Carbon+Alt+Delete divides one by the other to get the energy density. See here for a worked example.

3. Energy consumption disaggregation

Energy consumption is disaggregated by fuel type, so the SECR report presents energy totals separately for each fuel rather than as a single combined figure. This lets readers see how much of the reported consumption comes from each source, and it keeps the totals traceable back to the underlying activity data and emission factors.

The source categories (stationary combustion, mobile combustion, process and fugitive emissions) follow the Environmental Reporting Guidelines (Chapter 2, section 6). The fuel list is set by Carbon+Alt+Delete’s SECR report template. Fuels outside this list appear under “Other”. A breakdown by fuel is optional under the guidelines (Annex H).

The fuels are grouped into the following categories:

Stationary combustion

  • Natural gas
  • Propane
  • Fuel oil
  • Diesel
  • Petrol
  • LPG
  • CNG
  • Other

Mobile combustion

  • Diesel
  • Petrol
  • Other

4. SECR report sections

SECR report contains the following sections

Report section Content
Organisational boundaries Consolidation approach and entity table
Operational boundaries Each emission source, whether SECR makes it mandatory or optional, and whether it is included
Energy consumption kWh for scope 1, scope 2 and employee-owned vehicles used for business travel, high-level and by fuel
Carbon emissions tCO2e by scope, source and fuel; scope 2 both location-based and market-based; gross biogenic emissions shown separately
Intensity ratio Emissions per business metric chosen by the user, using mandatory sources and location-based scope 2
Energy efficiency actions Section for the organisation’s narrative, required by SECR even where no actions were taken
Emission factors Summary of Emission factor publications and versions used
Baseline year Baseline, comparison and reporting year emissions by gas and scope. The organisation’s base year recalculation policy is entered in the Reports section, Disclosure tab (‘Approach to base year reporting’ and ‘Revision and Auditing Context’), and published in the GHG Protocol report. Recalculation for emission factor updates is covered in Section 1.

5. Methodological choices

The SECR report shows scope 2 electricity, heat and steam on both a location-based and a market-based basis. The intensity ratio uses location-based values.

Carbon+Alt+Delete does not apply a UK residual mix automatically. A residual mix or supplier-specific factor is used only when the consultant enters it as a custom emission factor, in the ‘Shared’ or ‘Private Custom’ database. Lines with no market-based factor use the country average mix in the market-based total.

6. Definitions Used

Baseline Year Period chosen as the base year in the Report section of the app.
Reporting Year Period selected to be reported on in the Report section of the app.
Comparison Year Reporting period minus one i.e. previous reporting period. To compare reporting period performance against a comparatively recent period.

Sources

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