our carbon footprint
I spend my working life helping organisations manage their environmental impacts --- so it's only fair that Pither Consulting measures and reports its own. From July 2026 I'm tracking the business's emissions month by month and publishing the results here as they come in. It keeps me honest, and it shows clients exactly what practical carbon reporting looks like for a small business.
August 2026
MONTH 2 OF FY2026–27 the monthly numbers
Last updated: 17 September 2026 · Year to date: 0.55 t CO₂-e vs 0.81 t for the same period of FY25–26.
a note on the method
This month I built the numbers from the accounts rather than from memory — working through the bank feed in Xero line by line, instead of relying on the receipts I happened to keep.
It made a difference.
Firstly, it made it easier - I didn't have to find any receipts but it did identify items that I didn't even think about. July had to be restated from 552 kg to 926 kg as a result.
That is the whole case for reconciling against the books: an estimate built from memory is almost always an underestimate.
The vehicle figure is measured, from litres of fuel.
Everything else is estimated from spend using a generic factor, which is a blunt instrument and most likely overstates the total. I publish it anyway, because a rough number you can improve on beats a comfortable blank space.
frequently asked questions
What are Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions?
Scope 1 is fuel you burn directly — vehicles, generators, gas. Scope 2 is the electricity you buy. Scope 3 is everything upstream and downstream — flights, accommodation, purchases, waste. For most small businesses the first measurement covers Scopes 1 and 2 plus the big, obvious Scope 3 items. I noticed though when I started looking at my purchasing that an unexpected source was IT subscrptions.
Is my business required to report its emissions?
Most small and medium businesses have no legal reporting obligation — Australia's mandatory climate disclosure rules apply to large entities. But those large entities must report their supply-chain emissions, which is why SMEs are increasingly asked for their number by customers and in tenders. Measuring now, on your terms, beats scrambling when your clients 'urgently' need your data.
What information do I need to measure my footprint?
Less than you'd expect: fuel receipts or logbook data, electricity bills, and records of flights, accommodation and major purchases for the year. If you can pull together a year of invoices, you can measure a footprint — most small businesses already have everything needed sitting in their accounting software.
How long does it take, and what does it cost?
For a typical small business, a first footprint is weeks, not months — mostly gathering the records. Cost scales with complexity: a sole trader or small office is a modest, fixed-price job. You'll have a quote before we start.
Do I need to buy offsets or claim carbon neutrality?
No — and I'd generally advise against rushing to. Measure first, reduce what you can, and only then consider offsets with credible, named projects. Neutrality claims are under real regulatory scrutiny in Australia; an honest, measured number with a reduction plan is worth more than a shaky "carbon neutral" badge.
How accurate does a small business footprint need to be?
Good-faith and consistent beats falsely precise. Mine follows the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard with published Australian emission factors, and I'm upfront that it's an estimate, not a formal NGER report. That's the right standard for SME reporting: rigorous method, honest boundaries. I'll use the same approach every year so that the trend is real.