Carbon assets in CSR are resources that reduce a carbon footprint. For example, retired carbon off-sets.

They are displayed in the Emissions Statement on the Location Overview page.

Carbon assets are created as an inventory item within CSR so they can be assigned at any level within your organisation.

An emission factor must be applied to an asset to calculate emissions avoided. For example, a retired carbon off-set would need an emission factor of 1 tCO2e per unit of measure. So, 100 carbon off-sets would equal 100 tCO2e avoided.

If measuring electricity sold back to the grid the unit of measure would likely be kWh, MWh, GWh or GJ, with a corresponding emission factor unit of measure.

Carbon off-set stock vs. carbon off-sets retired

If required, CSR can be used to track the type and quantity of carbon off-sets purchased (or generated) and retired. Inventory items are ideal for tracking this information.

However, because off-sets only reduce a carbon footprint when retired, CSR will need to have:

  • a "carbon asset" type inventory item specifically for tracking retired off-sets, and
  • a "metric" type inventory item for tracking purchased off-sets

Creating a carbon asset

Firstly, create a list of carbon asset types in settings:

  1. Select Manage > Settings > Categories & defaults tab. Carbon asset types setting.
  2. Click on the pencil icon next to Carbon asset types to edit the settings.
  3. Enter a pipe character ('|') separated list of carbon assets relevant to your organisation.
    Start the list with a pipe to get a blank option to begin with. E.g., |Voluntary carbon off-sets retired|Electricity sold back to the grid.
  4. Click the tick icon to save changes.

To create a carbon asset inventory item:

  1. Create a new inventory item. 
    From the menu select, + (quick add) and choose Inventory.


  2. Add an inventory Name, e.g., Electricity sold back.
  3. Click on the Inventory Type drop-down and choose This is a Carbon asset.
  4. Click on the Emission Factor drop-down and select the appropriate factor.  If an appropriate factor is not available, one will need to be created.  For help refer to the related article Emission Factor Management.
  5. Complete any other fields as required and click Save.