# What do 'complete, consistent and transparent' mean when I count my carbon?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/five-rules-for-counting-carbon-in-plain-words

The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol names five rules: relevance, completeness, consistency, transparency and accuracy. In plain words: count what matters, leave nothing out without saying so, count the same way every year, keep the paper trail, and do not lean high or low.

## The rules, one at a time

The Corporate Standard, the main GHG Protocol rulebook for company footprints, says greenhouse gas accounting and reporting shall be based on five principles. Each is paired below with a household budget comparison.

## Relevance

The standard: make sure the inventory appropriately reflects the company's emissions and serves the decision-making needs of its users. Plain words: the number should answer the question being asked. A buyer asking about your factory needs the factory, not your home.

## Completeness

The standard: account for and report all emission sources and activities within the chosen boundary, and disclose and justify any specific exclusions. Plain words: a household budget that skips the gas bill is not a budget. If you leave something out, write down what and why.

## Consistency

The standard: use consistent methods so emissions can be compared over time, and document any change to the data, boundary or methods. Plain words: weigh yourself on the same scale each time, and if you change the scale, say so.

## Transparency

The standard: address issues in a factual and coherent manner, based on a clear audit trail, and disclose assumptions and sources. Plain words: keep the bills and the factor sources in one folder, so a stranger could redo your sums.

## Accuracy

The standard: make sure the numbers are systematically neither over nor under actual emissions, as far as can be judged, and reduce uncertainty as far as practicable. Plain words: a number with some uncertainty is fine, a number that always errs the same way is not. A bathroom scale that always reads light is not, because it errs the same way every time.

## Example: why consistency means writing a note

- Year 1: 12,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) x 0.710 kilograms (kg) of carbon dioxide per kWh, the grid factor for financial year (FY) 2024-25 = 8,520 kg
- Year 2: the same 12,000 kWh x 0.675, the FY 2025-26 grid factor = 8,100 kg
- Drop: 8,520 minus 8,100 = 420 kg, or 4.9 percent, with no change in how much power you used.
- A one-line note, 'grid factor updated by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA)', stops anyone thinking you cut your use.

Example use of 12,000 kWh a year. The two grid factors are the CEA figures for those years.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into records, so the quantities behind each figure are on file. It keeps the bill quantity and the factor used beside each line. It does not decide what your buyer counts as relevant.

- [Common carbon accounting mistakes by Indian small businesses](https://senseible.earth/answers/common-carbon-accounting-mistakes-smes)
- [What proof of emission factor source a verifier wants](https://senseible.earth/answers/verifier-asks-emission-factor-source-proof)
- [Is the GHG Protocol a law?](https://senseible.earth/answers/is-the-ghg-protocol-a-law)
- [Get my free carbon number](https://senseible.earth/msme-carbon-number)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, revised edition (Chapter 1, accounting principles)](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard), [CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 22.0](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-view?mappingId=234&lang=en)

Last reviewed 2026-11-07. The five principles are quoted from Chapter 1 of the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard (revised edition). The household comparisons are ours. Re-check the grid factors when the CEA publishes a new edition.