A carbon footprint is the sum of the greenhouse gases emitted, directly or indirectly, by an organization, a product, a person or an event. It is expressed in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, abbreviated tCO2e.
That is the definition. The rest of this guide explains what sits behind each part: which gases count, what "equivalent" means, how you get to the number and what a company in Chile uses it for.
Which gases count
Seven: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride and nitrogen trifluoride.
Carbon dioxide is the most abundant. In Chile's 2022 national inventory it accounted for 76% of total emissions, followed by methane at 14%, nitrous oxide at 5% and fluorinated gases at another 5%.
Why "equivalent"
Not all gases warm the same. To add them up, each is converted into the amount of carbon dioxide that would produce the same effect over 100 years. That multiplier is called global warming potential.
| Gas | Global warming potential over 100 years |
|---|---|
| Carbon dioxide | 1 |
| Methane, non-fossil | 27 |
| Methane, fossil | 29.8 |
| Nitrous oxide | 273 |
| Nitrogen trifluoride | 17,400 |
| Sulfur hexafluoride | 24,300 |
These are the values from the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. Earlier reports use somewhat different values, which is why an inventory should always state which ones it applied.
In practice this explains why a small refrigerant leak can weigh more than the fuel used by several vehicles.
How it is calculated
There is one operation, repeated for every source:
activity data × emission factor = emissions
Activity data is a quantity you can measure: litres of diesel, kilowatt-hours of electricity, kilos of gas, kilometres travelled. The emission factor says how much is emitted per unit, and it is published by official or technical bodies.
An example with made-up numbers to show the mechanics. If an office uses 10,000 kWh of electricity in a year and the grid factor is 0.3 kg of CO2e per kWh, the emission is 3,000 kg, or 3 tCO2e. The real grid factor changes every year and you have to use the official one for the period.
The arithmetic is easy. The hard part is having the data: gathering every invoice, from every site, for the whole year, and being able to show them if someone asks.
The three scopes
The GHG Protocol organizes an organization's emissions into three groups.
Scope 1 is direct emissions from sources the organization owns or controls: boilers, its own vehicles, processes, refrigerant leaks.
Scope 2 is emissions from the electricity, steam, heat or cooling it buys.
Scope 3 is everything else in the value chain: what it buys, transport, travel, staff commuting, waste, the use of its products. It is usually the largest part and the hardest to measure.
ISO 14064-1 organizes the same thing into six categories. How to move from one to the other is in the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064 guide.
Whose footprint
The term is used for four things, and it helps to know which one is meant.
An organization's footprint counts the emissions of a company or institution over a year. It is the one official programs, regulators and customers ask for, and the one this guide is about.
A product footprint counts emissions across its life cycle, starting with raw materials. It has its own standard, ISO 14067.
A personal footprint estimates the emissions of someone's daily life. It is what online calculators compute.
The footprint of an event or a territory is also measured. Chile's as a country was 111,049 kilotonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2022, excluding the forestry and land-use sector. The energy sector accounted for 76%.
Why a company in Chile measures it
The reasons are concrete and almost always come from outside.
A customer asks for it. It arrives as a CDP or EcoVadis questionnaire, or in the customer's own spreadsheet. We cover that in the questionnaires guide.
A regulator asks for it. Chile's Financial Market Commission (CMF) will require Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions from entities applying IFRS S2, from annual reports covering 2027. See the NCG 461 and NCG 519 guide. Law 21,455 also requires facilities that report to the pollutant register (RETC) to report.
The company wants official recognition. In Chile that comes from the HuellaChile Program, with four seals. In Peru, from Huella de Carbono Perú. Each has its guide: Huella Chile and Huella de Carbono Perú.
Or it exports products covered by CBAM to Europe, and its buyer needs the product's emissions.
Measure, reduce, offset
Measuring is the first of three steps, and the order matters.
Reducing means emitting less than before: replacing a boiler, electrifying a fleet, contracting renewable energy.
Offsetting means funding reductions or removals outside the organization, through carbon credits, for the emissions that remain. Official programs leave it for last. In HuellaChile, the neutralization seal comes after the reduction seal.
A company that calls itself carbon neutral without having measured properly has no way to prove it.
Where Grumbic fits
Grumbic calculates your organization's footprint from your invoices, with the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064-1, and keeps every figure linked to the document it came from.
See the platform or talk to us.
Sources
Information reviewed on October 13, 2026.
