Selecting business activities for accurate carbon accounting in Cozero

Accurate business activity selection is one of the most important steps in ensuring high-quality carbon accounting. Each business activity in Cozero’s database represents a specific process or input that is linked to an emission factor curated by our team of climate experts. These business activities help you connect your data to emission factors curated by our team of climate experts with ease.

The activities cover all aspects of corporate carbon accounting, including, for instance, the type of consumed fuel, the material types procured for production, or the type of material and waste treatment used to dispose of generated waste. Some emission factors are more specific than others, and therefore, the selection of the activity determines how well your input data and the emission factor match. Selecting the correct activity ensures that your organization’s reported emissions accurately reflect your real-world operations.

This guide explains how to choose the most appropriate activity, how to handle uncertainty in cases where it’s unclear which activity to select, and how to align selection practices across teams. Use the table of contents below to navigate to the section most relevant to you.

Aim for the most specific business activity
Internal sources to support business activity selection
Importance of internal alignment for accounting practices
Handling uncertainty: select a cautious approach
Using Cozero’s standardized and proxy activities

-> Purchased goods and materials
-> Waste
-> District heating
-> Fuels

1. Aim for the most specific business activity

The goal of carbon data collection is to map your data—such as fuel consumption, purchased materials, transport activities, or waste volumes—to the most specific activity available. This ensures that your input data and the used emission factor are the best match available.

Examples:

Select fuel data as specifically as possible. If your fuel purchase record specifies Diesel B7, select “Diesel blend - B7” instead of a generic “Diesel - Average biofuel blend.”
Select material consumption activities as close to the procured material as possible. For example, select a more specific type of plastic, such as “Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)” over “Average plastic.”

The more specific the match, the more accurate the resulting emission calculation.

If an exact match is not available, a well-chosen proxy can still provide meaningful results. For example, if you know your organization uses diesel but not which one, selecting “Diesel - 100% mineral blend” is more accurate than “Liquid fossil fuel.”

2. Internal sources to support business activity selection

When mapping your data to activities, aim to collect data specific to your business activities from verifiable records. Often, this requires collaboration with internal teams across the company. However, aiming for high visibility of business activities pays off in reliable emissions calculations. The best way to obtain this information is to look to the source of the activities:

Fuel purchase records for specific types of fuels procured
Transport supplier logs to identify vehicle types used in logistics of purchased goods
Product bills of materials (BoMs) to identify exact materials used in production
Waste management invoices or contracts to determine actual treatment methods

3. Importance of internal alignment for accounting practices

Consistency across teams is essential. If a decentralized approach to data input is used, individuals from different teams and departments might have different levels of understanding of business activities. It’s important to align internally to ensure a similar logic is followed when inputting data and to ensure accurate and auditable processes:

Agree on common activity selection rules
Define standard proxies for uncertain cases
Document how uncertain activities are handled, for example, by defaulting to a cautious scenario

This alignment ensures your company’s carbon data remains transparent and auditable across reporting periods.

4. Handling uncertainty: select a cautious approach

When information is incomplete or unclear, it is best to choose an option that avoids underestimating emissions. This can be done by selecting the most emissions-intensive activities and avoiding the selection of more sustainable alternatives without accurate knowledge. It is also important to stay consistent with the logic used to avoid “cherry-picking” the most beneficial scenarios.

Examples of recommended cautious approaches:

Fuels:
If you are unsure whether a fuel contains bio-components, select a fossil fuel option rather than a renewable or blended type.
Materials:
If it is unknown whether materials contain recycled content, select primary (virgin) material production over materials from recycled origins.
Waste:
If the treatment method is unclear, select landfilling as a conservative default.
Electricity and heat:
Avoid selecting renewable options without contractual proof from your suppliers or environmental attribute certificates that prove renewable purchases. Instead, default to the business activities:
- “Country residual or grid mix” for electricity, and
- “District heating - CHP” for heating.
These activities apply location-based averages for available countries and create representative scenarios for local grids.

5. Using Cozero’s standardized and proxy activities

Cozero provides higher-level options without further specification. These are designed for situations where detailed information is not available. These activities are a good way to standardize selections in unclear situations. They typically reflect the most cautious approach, such as selecting landfilling as the waste treatment method, or the most likely scenario, such as using natural gas as a proxy for gaseous fossil fuel. You can always review the applied emission factors in the Log entry overview for a detailed explanation of the used emission factor.

These options ensure your carbon data remains realistic and aligned with the most likely or conservative scenarios, even when details are missing. Below are examples of this approach in practice.

Purchased goods and materials

For procured materials, whether as production goods and materials or as office goods, Cozero provides a wide selection of materials. If a material has multiple emission factors available for different material source methods, an unspecified material is also provided.

In the case of “Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)”, the available activities include:

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) - Primary materials production
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) - Open-loop source
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) - Closed-loop source

The activity “Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)” functions as an unspecified activity for uncertain scenarios and can be selected when no information about the actual material pathway is available. This activity uses the same emission factors as “Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) - Primary materials production” as the most conservative proxy. Having both activities ensures that you can report accurately regardless of data availability—using the specific activity when known, or the more generic activity when details are uncertain. As data collection practices improve, you can then replace the proxy and average activities with more specific ones.

For most recycled materials, we recommend choosing the “Closed-loop” options. These factors best represent purchased goods and materials, while the “Open-loop” options could be used by companies producing sorted waste materials for re-use rather than finished products.

Waste

If a material has multiple emission factors available for different waste treatment methods, an unspecified waste treatment method is also provided.

In the case of “Plastic waste”, the available activities include:

Plastic waste - Open-loop recycling
Plastic waste - Closed-loop recycling
Plastic waste - Landfill
Plastic waste - Combustion
Plastic waste

The activity “Plastic waste” functions as an unspecified activity for uncertain scenarios and can be selected when no information about the actual treatment method is available. However, in this case, the activity uses the same emission factors as “Plastic waste - Landfill.”

District heating

Data availability for district heating is often limited, as its use is not widespread in many countries. This is why supplier-specific data is always the most accurate way to represent purchased heating.

However, Cozero provides several options that reflect different situations based on the method of energy generation, such as:

“District heating - CHP”
“District heating - Natural gas-fired CHP”
“District heating - Mix with renewables and waste heat”

Of these options, the recommended default selection is the least specific “District heat – CHP,” which includes the average location-based generation factors that represent the most common regional energy mixes for available countries.

On the other hand, options such as “District heating - Mix with renewables and waste heat” contain proxy data from countries with high concentrations of renewables, such as Sweden. This should only be applied when it can be proven that the local mix contains high concentrations of renewables.

Fuels

For fuels, the context of fuel use, engine technology, and location is an important factor when selecting the correct activity.

For example, in the European Union and the UK, renewable energy legislation requires a certain amount of biofuels to be blended with fossil fuels in sold road fuels. Because of this, when a specific road fuel type is unknown, rather than selecting the “worst-case scenario,” it’s sometimes beneficial to select the most appropriate scenario to represent the existing technology and legal frameworks.

In Cozero, the business activities “Diesel - Average biofuel blend” and “Petrol - Average biofuel blend” represent road fuels with an expected average biofuel blend, typically ranging from 5% to 10%, depending on the selected fuel and applicable territory. These are recommended to be used when biofuel blending is known to occur but the exact type of fuel is unclear. In most cases, diesel is recommended as the more emissions-intensive option per litre of fuel consumed if the general fuel type is also unclear.

With generators and combustion engines, the selection of the appropriate fuel can be less straightforward, as different engine types utilize varying fuel types. It is important to collaborate with your facility teams to gain a thorough understanding of fuels applied. However, in unclear situations, we recommend selecting 100% mineral fuels unless there is a good basis for expecting biofuels to be blended in the fuel.

Below is a summary of recommended business activities for different territories. Please note these are based on the most common situations backed by existing legislation or conservative guidelines to avoid underestimation. Always aim to collect data specific to your organization as the starting point.

Recommended business activities by territory
Territory	Road fuels: Recommended business activities	Facility fuels: Recommended business activities	Recommendation explanation
EU, the UK, Norway	Diesel - Average biofuel blend Petrol - Average biofuel blend	Heating: Natural gas - Average biogas blend General facility use: Diesel - Average biofuel blend; Petrol - Average biofuel blend	Biofuel blending for sold road fuels is mandated by legislation. Biofuel blending in facility fuels is common and applicable to many modern equipment types.
Other non-EU Europe	Diesel - 100% mineral blend Petrol - 100% mineral blend	Heating: Natural gas - 100% mineral blend General facility use: Diesel - 100% mineral blend; Petrol - 100% mineral blend	No shared legislation to confirm general practices; high regional variance. To avoid underestimation, avoid assumptions for biofuel use.
The United States	Diesel - 100% mineral blend Petrol - 100% mineral blend	Heating: Natural gas - 100% mineral blend General facility use: Diesel - 100% mineral blend; Petrol - 100% mineral blend	Biofuel blending is required for fuel producers, but fixed legislation for fuel end-use quantities does not exist. Because of this, individual practices and state-level variance can cause lower biofuel levels for purchased fuels. Avoid overestimation of biofuels in consumed fuels.
Canada	Diesel - Average biofuel blend Petrol - Average biofuel blend	Heating: Natural gas - 100% mineral blend General facility use: Diesel - 100% mineral blend; Petrol - 100% mineral blend	Biofuel blending is governed by the Clean Fuels Regulation, and multiple provinces have established their own stricter biofuel regulations mandating biofuel blending for diesel and gasoline. However, older engine types in facilities can still utilize purely fossil fuels.
Australia	Diesel - 100% mineral blend Petrol - 100% mineral blend	Heating: Natural gas - 100% mineral blend General facility use: Diesel - 100% mineral blend; Petrol - 100% mineral blend	No federal-level biofuel mandates. Certain states have stricter legislation, but the impact on final fuel use is uncertain.
Asia	Diesel - 100% mineral blend Petrol - 100% mineral blend	Heating: Natural gas - 100% mineral blend General facility use: Diesel - 100% mineral blend; Petrol - 100% mineral blend	Most countries lack confirmed biofuel standards, or fuel blending percentages are low. To ensure accurate representation, refer to the legislation in the specific country or assume no biofuel usage.

We always recommend using the most exact type of fuel available to represent the combusted compound as accurately as possible. Improving data collection measures is an important part of carbon accounting processes. Gaining insight into the types of fuel used helps improve data accuracy and representativeness and provides more detailed insights for decarbonization planning.

However, in some cases, data is not available, or only a high-level screening of emissions is desired. In these cases, Cozero also provides high-level activities to represent fossil fuels, such as solid, liquid, or gaseous fossil fuels. These represent the most common fossil fuels—coal, petrol, and natural gas, respectively. These activities should be avoided whenever possible, and a more specific activity should be chosen for best auditability and data accuracy. However, in cases where data is not available to make a specific selection, they can be used as proxy data.

Further support

Selecting the best business activities can be hard, especially the first time. However, our team of Customer Success Managers and Climate Experts is here to help you. If you need support in selecting the best business activities, or need new business activities not currently available in Cozero, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager, or contact us through the green chat bubble in Cozero.