Most business activities and operations produce some carbon emissions.  Business can track monthly energy bills in a workbook, monitor their usage, cost and carbon footprint on a monthly or quarterly basis.

Why
Measuring and monitoring carbon emissions is a critical first step in the carbon management process.  Gather your own consumption information from your meters to monitor consumption. Knowing and understanding consumption enables you to predict and account for their expenditure more accurately.
At the very least, monitoring will provide the information needed to check the accuracy of invoices to ensure you are not overcharged.
Recording and analysing the data will have the added advantages of allowing you to monitor energy use patterns, discern how the site should be operating, identify anomalies and highlight areas that can be improved. You will also be able to more easily quantify the savings achieved by your energy projects and campaigns, provide feedback for staff awareness, and improve budget setting.

How
To measure and monitor your carbon emissions first you need to collect data about your energy use. Working out your emissions is as simple as multiplying your energy use by whats know as an 'Emissions Factor'.

There are different Emmissions Factors for electricity and gas and these vary from state to state. The emissions factor for electricity in Victoria is currently 1.23 (kgCO2-e/kWh) and for gas it is 342 (kgCO2-e/GJ). Here is an example of how you might work out your emissions for electricity.

150kWh X 1.23 = 184.5kgCO2-e.

Your gas usage might be presented in MJ (megajoules) on your bill rather than GJ (gigajoules) so when calculating your emissions from your gas usage, divide the total by 1000. here is an example

150MJ X 342 /1000 = 51.3kgCO2-e.

Each time you recieve a new bill, you can record your emissions in a spreadsheet so you can compare your emissions across time.

If you begin implementing energy saving actions in your business you should notice a reduction in your carbon emissions.

For information about Emissions Factors go to http://www.climatechange.gov.au/publications/greenhouse-acctg/national-greenhouse-factors.aspx.  

Meter readings is another way to monitor emission, and should be read in-house at appropriate intervals (such as once a week).
- If you have a half-hourly meter, ask your supplier for a regular copy of the data. This fine-grained data can be used both to visualise demand patterns.

How did we calculate this?
A 5% energy saving may be possible through identifying invoicing errors and identifying areas for reduced energy use. The average Victorian SME emits 107.3 tCO2e per year due to energy (Carbon Down, 2011). A 5% saving equates to 0.05 x 107.3 x 1000 = 5,365 kgCO2e per year.

Cost to implement
For simple monitoring, the only cost is staff time. You may decide that sub-metering is needed for finer detail, which will cost around $3000 for a basic meter system installation. This is only recommended for larger energy consuming businesses.

 For more information, visit Victoria Resource Smart
www.resourcesmart.vic.gov.au/for_government/data_and_reporting_3733.html