What are carbon factors and how will the update affect your data?
What are carbon factors?
There are several greenhouse gases (GHGs) that have a warming effect on the planet when emitted, with carbon being the most widely recognised. These are expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (CO2e).
Some things to know about CO2e:
- It’s usually measured in tonnes (tCO2e) but in some instances, kilograms are used (kgCO2e).
- To calculate the carbon footprint of a particular activity we multiply ‘activity data’ by an emissions factor to equal your CO2e. For example:
Activity Data x Carbon Factor = CO2e
- Emissions factors are always expressed in kgCO2e, such as kgCO2e/mile (kgCO2e per mile) for transport. For example, transport is calculated using the following equation:
Distance travelled x carbon factor of vehicle engine type = CO2e
So for an average petrol car, this looks like this:
10 miles x 0.33875 kgCO2e/mile = 3.3875 kgCO2e
Where do our carbon factors come from?
In TRACE, all of our data is scientifically backed and verified and as such, our calculations rely on accurate carbon factors. As technology advances and standard practice changes, the carbon factors will also need to change in order to represent the most up-to-date emissions associated with an activity. Given the differences between countries, the carbon factors may need to change based on this too.
TRACE uses a mix of accredited bodies to generate the most accurate factors including using the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) for energy factors in the UK, with equivalent bodies providing figures within each country.
Other modules will use a mixture of life-cycle analysis (LCA), averages pulled from global databases and modelling as a way of determining factors for different material and meal types.
How will the update impact my data?
The update will retrospectively change the factors for all of the events that were held in 2025 and for any 2025 data that has been currently inputted into the platform. Your 2022, 2023 and 2024 events are still using using the factors for those years.
The changes all happen behind the scenes in the calculations and will lead to small but not insignificant changes to your final emissions.
You’ll most likely notice this in your combined dashboard where the cumulative impact of the changes will be most apparent. This will be the most accurate value for your 2025 event emissions.
This doesn't mean that reports based on previous data are incorrect or need updating -- they were produced using the most up-to-date data available, supported by externally validated methodology. Please email support@traceyour.events for more details on our methodology.
Has anything notable changed?
Air travel factors have changed significantly this year. These factors were last updated by DESNZ in 2023, using data from 2021. However, the 2021 data was still being affected by the impact of Covid, and load factors were unusually low. Updated datasets weren't available in 2024 in time for the Govt to use. This year, in the 2025 dataset, load factors (number of passengers) have gone back up to roughly pre-pandemic levels, thus reducing emissions per passenger.km.
Therefore the same distance flight will have lower emissions in 2025 to 2024. This doesn't relate to any improvements in fuel efficiency / airplane technology and there's still a significant carbon impact due to any flight.
When discussing these results with clients, it's worth including this caveat against any reductions for transparency in reporting. You may also want to look for alternative metrics to report alongside the carbon data such as numbers of journeys, % of business class flight compared to economy, or total mileage.
UK waste calculations have been updated, and in England, an average of 90% of general (non-recycled) waste now goes to incineration. For new events created, we prepopulate this 90.10 split. If you know that your event is 'zero to landfill' or 'zero to incineration', or there is a different local / national split where your event is run, you can edit these numbers in the Waste module.
NOTE: we have not changed any existing events. You may want to manually make this change but it is not required/automated.
The Built Items materials factors taken from the Embodied Carbon - ICE Database released in late 2024 are also updated where there were changes. In addition, we have added the following materials:
- Ceramic tiles
- Linoleum
- Paint (solvent-based and water-based)
- Resin
- Stainless steel
- Synthetic rubber
Paper packaging has also been updated to clarify that it can be used to measure general printing paper (either in Built Items or in Graphics.)