Carbon Footprint Calculation Methodology of Sayari
Since 2024, Sayari has been conducting its carbon footprint assessment. Here you’ll find the key elements and methodological assumptions used.
We relied on the BEGES method (Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory) developed by ADEME [1].
🧾 BEGES is the official French method for measuring, analyzing, and reducing an organization’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the course of a year.
🎯 The goal of this method is to:
- Account for both direct and indirect GHG emissions related to an organization’s activities
- Identify the main emission sources to implement a reduction plan
👣 The assessment is carried out in several steps:
1️⃣Scoping : Defining the assessment boundaries
2️⃣Identification of GHG emission sources
3️⃣Data collection: Consumptions, distances traveled, etc.
4️⃣Calculations and analysis: Using official emission factors and identifying main emission sources
5️⃣Transition plan: Reduction strategies
6️⃣Publication
☝️ Conducting a BEGES is mandatory for companies with more than 500 employees in mainland France.
We invite you to review how these steps were applied at Sayari ➡️
1 – Scoping
This first step involves defining the boundaries of the entity for which the carbon footprint will be conducted. For Sayari, this step is straightforward since our organizational scope is quite simple:
📆 The assessed period is the year 2024 (from January 1st to December 31st). For example, the 2024 carbon footprint covers the emissions generated between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024.
2 – Identification of emission sources
The BEGES method distinguishes direct GHG emissions (often called ‘Scope 1’ emissions) from indirect emissions (Scopes 2 and 3).
We have no Scope 1 emissions! We don’t own any boilers or cars, so there’s nothing emitting GHGs directly.
For indirect emissions (Scopes 2 and 3), it’s a bit more complex. The methodology divides these into five different categories:
- Indirect emissions related to energy:
- Our electricity consumption at work (both on-site and remote) ⚡
- Our energy consumption for heating (on-site and remote) 🔥
👉 In theory, since our workplace is a service we purchase, these emissions should be accounted for under the purchased products category. We did not do this to better understand the relative scale of emissions across categories. On this point, we do not fully comply with the BEGES method.
- Indirect emissions associated with transport:
- Our daily commute 🚲
- Our business travel (client visits, conference attendance, etc.) 🚊
- Travel by visitors and clients
- The upstream transportation of goods purchased by Sayari 🚚
- Indirect emissions associated with purchased products:
- Purchase and use of goods (office supplies, communication materials, etc.) 🖇️
- Fixed assets (depreciation of IT equipment) 🖥️
- Purchase of services (banking, accounting, communication, team building, etc.) 🏦
- Waste management (office supplies, IT equipment) 🗑️
- Upstream leased assets (rented accommodations for business trips) 🏨
- Indirect emissions associated with sold products:
-
- Sayari’s intellectual services are not concerned by this emission category
- We do not finance projects that would fall under this emission category
- Other indirect emissions:
- Team members’ meals 🍴☕🍫
👉 The BEGES method does not require accounting for emissions from meals, but we chose to include them in our evaluation for educational purposes, to better understand their relative scale compared to other emission sources.
For indirect emissions, the methodology recommends considering only direct emissions as well as significant indirect emissions resulting from our activity.
We therefore neglected some emission sources that seemed minor to us:
- Visitor and client travel (we travel much more than our clients)
- Upstream transportation of purchased goods (our purchases are relatively few)
- Some occasional service purchases (e.g., team-building activities)
- Waste management (we generate very little waste)
- Upstream leased assets (we use these very rarely, and only occasionally for conference participation, for example)
3 – Data collection
After identifying the emission sources to consider, it is necessary to collect two types of data for each source:
- Activity data, that is, the ‘Sayari’ data that help characterize the emission sources (purchase volumes, distances traveled, consumption, etc.)
- Emission factors that allow the calculation of GHG emissions resulting from these activities.
➡️ For activity data, we relied on:
- Accounting data (invoices, financial statements, etc.)
- Data collected from team members throughout the year (commutes, meal types, teleworking days, heating types, etc.)
➡️ For emission factors:
- We mainly used emission factors from ADEME’s Base Empreinte® [2].
- Sometimes we preferred more precise values for certain emission factors, based on other databases or public information. On this point, we were not always fully compliant with the BEGES methodology.
We also made a few assumptions to simplify the process. For example:
- Using a default electricity consumption value for remote work days
- Estimating energy consumption related to heating during telework based on heated surface areas and energy performance diagnostics (DPE)
- Using average default values when no data was collected for a specific activity
4 – Calculation of the carbon footprint and analyses
To calculate GHG emissions from the activity data and emission factors, we centralized all the information in a calculator and then created some charts to better visualize the orders of magnitude.
5 – Transition plan
Based on the calculated emissions, we have considered possible improvement paths to reduce our carbon footprint in the coming years.
We have also thought about ways to improve data collection.
6 – Publication
Carbon footprints carried out within the regulatory framework using the BEGES method must be submitted on a dedicated ADEME platform. It is also recommended to produce a detailed report presenting emissions by category along with in-depth analyses.
👉 Although we are not required to submit such a declaration, we wanted to share our carbon footprint for the sake of transparency and awareness, hence this blog 🙂. Additionally, since we did not strictly follow the BEGES methodology, we have not officially submitted the report to the ADEME platform.
Would you like to learn more about our carbon footprint or measure your own environmental impacts? Contact-us!
Sources
[1] Method for Conducting Greenhouse Gas Emission Inventories, ADEME, version 5 (July 2022), available on the website of the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
[2] Base Empreinte®, ADEME, accessed March 2025, available at base-empreinte.ademe.fr
Member of the European PEF (Product Environmental Footprint) Technical Advisory Board
Member of the French ADEME environmental labelling working group
