# What are the warning signs in a carbon footprint report from a consultant?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/carbon-report-red-flags-from-consultant

The main warning signs are totals with no activity data behind them, factors with no source or version, a missing boundary, carbon credits subtracted from emissions, spend-based Scope 3 presented as precise, and suspiciously round numbers. Any one of these means you cannot check the figure yourself.

## Signs the figures cannot be traced

- Scope totals with no litres, kWh, tonnes or kilometres beside them.
- Factors given as numbers only, with no publisher, edition or year.
- No list of the documents used, such as which months of electricity bills.
- Totals rounded to the nearest 100 or 1,000 tonnes with no stated uncertainty.

## Signs the boundary is unclear

- No statement of which entity and sites are covered, or which consolidation approach was used.
- No reporting period, or a period that does not match your financial year.
- No mention of exclusions at all. Every real inventory leaves something out, and the GHG Protocol asks for exclusions to be disclosed.

## Signs the result is presented better than it is

- Carbon credits or RECs subtracted inside the Scope 1 or Scope 2 total instead of shown separately.
- Scope 3 built entirely from spend, with no note that spend-based figures carry wide uncertainty.
- A claim of reduction with no base year, or a base year that changed without explanation.
- Words like certified, audited or verified with no named verification body, standard or statement.

## How to raise it with the preparer

Ask for the working file: one row per source, with quantity, unit, factor, factor source and result. A sound report can produce this in a day. If the preparer cannot, treat the total as an estimate and say so wherever you use it.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible's reports keep the source document, its SHA-256 fingerprint, the quantity and the factor for each line, the kind of trail this checklist asks for. Its figures are self-declared estimates, and a Verified status means its rule checks passed.

- [How to read a GHG inventory report](https://senseible.earth/answers/how-to-read-a-ghg-inventory-report)
- [What auditors check in GHG assurance](https://senseible.earth/answers/what-auditors-check-in-ghg-assurance)
- [Greenwashing self-audit checklist](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/msme-greenwashing-self-audit-checklist-2026)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, Chapter 1 (accounting principles) and Chapter 9 (reporting)](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard), [ISO 14064-1:2018, clause 9 (GHG report content)](https://www.iso.org)

Last reviewed 2026-10-18.