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, which are the most recommended for SECR emissions reporting. SECR does not legally mandate these factors, but the Environmental Reporting Guidelines recommend them for all UK activities. For more information, see the UKGOV support page (link).
Note that using factors from non-English databases may cause a fuel to be classified as “Other fuel” in Carbon+Alt+Delete.
2. Energy reporting
In order to perform the energy reporting in the SECR report, Carbon+Alt+Delete will use the available information in the emission factors used. For every fuel combustion- and electritcity-based activity, the platform will keep track of the total energy consumtpion in kWh.
The source of this kWh data is derived in two ways.
- 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 physical conversion ratios.
- Derived from factors. Where the dataset gives a factor per physical unit and a factor per kWh for the same fuel, Carbon+Alt+Delete divides one by the other to get the energy density.
\text{kWh per unit} = \frac{\text{kgCO}_2\text{e per unit}}{\text{kgCO}_2\text{e per kWh}}
See a worked out example here.
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 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, with the base year recalculation policy |
5. Methodological choices
For SECR report, all electricity and heat and steam is reported using location-based values. This follows the reporting requirement stated by SECR.
6. Definitions Used
Comparison Year = Reporting period minus one i.e. previous reporting period. To compare reporting period performance against a comparatively recent period.
Baseline = 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.