Photo: Eyþór Árnason/norden.org

13. Climate accounting and compensation

Assess whether it makes sense to do a climate account for the event and decide in advance what you want to use it for.
Choose which categories to include in the account and start collecting data from suppliers and participants early on. Different types of resource usage and emissions are often converted into a common unit of measurement, typically CO². Make it a requirement in agreements with suppliers that they submit data on CO²emissions for the services or products they provide. Examples of categories:
- Electricity
- Water
- Participants' transport
- Participants' accommodation
- Waste
- Cleaning
- Shipping and delivery
- Food and drink
- Materials and equipment purchased
- Materials and equipment rented.

Choose whether to pay climate compensation for the event’s emissions and allocate funds for that purpose. The market for climate compensation is large and not all options are equally efficient. Be sure to learn how the scheme works and make sure it has a real positive effect on the climate. If you have advertised that the event will pay climate compensation, then it must be done as soon as the climate account has been drawn up.
Remember that even if compensation is paid, the event is not CO^2-neutral. It is greenwashing to suggest that, because it implies the environmental impact has been "annulled". Compensation schemes such as tree planting can take decades to absorb the CO²emitted today and do not address the actual emissions that are the root of the problem.

Climate accounting helps you identify where the CO²emissions are highest and where you can cut consumption and emissions at future events. Climate accounts can be divided into three scopes according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. This is all about allocating and calculating emissions for which the company or organisation is responsible.

Scope 1: Direct emissions from things your organisation owns or controls, such as vehicles or buildings.
Scope 2: Indirect emissions from energy, electricity and heating that the organisation buys.
Scope 3: Other indirect discharges emissions from things that the company affects but does not own. Scope 3 is comprehensive and covers 15 categories, such as procurement of goods and services, waste and transport.