The effectiveness of any organization's climate change policy depends on their ability to: (1) accurately measure their emissions from direct and indirect sources, (2) analyze their emissions inventory to identify opportunities for reduction, and then (3) mobilize employees and suppliers to meet reduction targets.

These abilities can be illustrated as a continuous carbon management cycle with distinct phases for assessment, analysis, and action. These phases contain best practices, which collectively form a framework for measuring a company's ability to manage their carbon footprint.

Each phase of the carbon management cycle contains a series of best practices, to which we can assign a numeric score depending on the relative value that the practice brings in the form of increased footprint accuracy, process efficiency, cost savings, or similar benefit.

For example, in the assessment phase, the most basic capability of quantifying one's emissions using high-level estimates at the corporate level may earn a single point. Being able to include an assessment of one's carbon footprint across the supply chain using web-based survey tools could be worth 10 points.

We can then quantitatively measure a company's capability in each phase of the Carbon Management Cycle by adding the scores corresponding to the best practices that the company is following. An average score across the three phases can be calculated to determine a company's overall ability, or Carbon Management Index (CMI) score.

Clear Standards is developing a free web-based tool for organizations to measure their Carbon Management Index. CMI scores can be combined with carbon footprint data on a Carbon Competitiveness Quadrant graph, to measure a business's environmental competitiveness or potential risk relative to that of their industry peers.

Request a copy of our extended whitepaper on the Carbon Management Index.