Industry carbon benchmark: how do your emissions compare?
En resumen
Divide your Scope 1 emissions by your gross value added (roughly staff costs plus operating profit plus depreciation) and compare the result with the ONS figure for your industry. Across all UK industries ONS puts direct emissions at 140 tCO₂e per £ million of value added in 2024, down from 500 tCO₂e in 1990.
Actualizado el por el equipo de Carbon Recycling. Las cifras usan los factores de conversión oficiales del Gobierno británico y se comprueban con la guía vigente de gov.uk.
Pick your industry, add your Scope 1 emissions and three figures from your accounts, and see how your emissions for each £ million of value you add compare with the official figure for your industry. We don't ask for your name or email.
A specialist building contractor (SIC 43) has 30 tonnes of Scope 1 emissions, mostly van diesel and site plant. Its accounts show staff costs of £400,000, operating profit of £80,000 and depreciation of £20,000: value added of £500,000. That's 60 tonnes per £ million, against 70 tCO₂e per £ million for specialised construction work in 2024.
Where Carbon Recycling helps
Every plan works out your Scope 1 from your fuel, vehicles and refrigerants with the government's conversion factors, and the benchmark in the app fills it in for you, year by year.
Preguntas frecuentes
›What does the benchmark compare?
Your Scope 1 emissions divided by your gross value added, beside the same measure for your industry from the Office for National Statistics. ONS publishes it for 110 industries every year from 1990.
›Why only Scope 1?
ONS counts each industry's direct emissions: the fuel it burns in buildings, machines and vehicles, its process emissions and gases like refrigerants. The electricity an industry buys is counted against power stations, so adding your Scope 2 would compare unlike with unlike.
›What is gross value added?
The value a business adds: what it sells less the goods and services it buys in. From your accounts it is roughly staff costs plus operating profit plus depreciation and amortisation, which is how ONS builds it up on its income approach.
›How accurate is it?
Rough. ONS rounds to the nearest 10 tonnes per £ million and shows anything under 5 as low, it measures value added in constant prices while your accounts are in today's pounds, and an industry average mixes businesses of every size and kind. Use it to see whether you're in the same range, not as a score.
›Do you keep what I type?
No. The comparison runs in your browser and we don't ask for your name or email.
Tenga sus cifras e informes listos en una tarde
Añada un año de facturas y Carbon Recycling elabora su huella de carbono, su Carbon Reduction Plan conforme a PPN 006 y su informe SECR, con cada cifra vinculada a su factor oficial. Los precios figuran en la página de precios, desde £59 al mes + IVA.