What is tCO₂e?

The short answer

tCO₂e stands for tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. It's the standard unit for measuring greenhouse gas emissions — a single number that combines all the different warming gases into one comparable figure.

Think of it like kilometres per litre for a car. Just as one number describes fuel efficiency whether you drive a diesel truck or a hybrid, one tCO₂e figure describes emissions impact whether the source is natural gas, petrol, or electricity.

Why "equivalent"? Different greenhouse gases warm the planet by different amounts. Methane, for example, traps far more heat than carbon dioxide over its lifetime. The "equivalent" part converts every gas onto a single scale based on its warming impact relative to CO₂ — so one tonne of CO₂ stays at 1 tCO₂e, while one tonne of a stronger gas counts as many times more. That's how a mix of gases becomes one clean number.

Scope 1 and Scope 2 — the two parts of your number

Emissions are grouped into "scopes." ScopeSimple measures the first two, which together make up the footprint it calculates for you.

Scope 1 · Direct

What you burn

Greenhouse gases you produce directly — by burning fuel on-site or in vehicles you operate.

Natural gas in a furnace or boiler
Petrol or diesel in your vehicles
Propane for heating or equipment
Refrigerant leaks from cooling systems

Scope 2 · Purchased energy

The electricity you buy

Emissions created elsewhere to generate the electricity you use — produced at the power station, not at your home or premises.

Household or office electricity
Workshop, shop, or warehouse power
Varies a lot by region (see below)
Purchased heat or steam, where it applies

Why your region matters so much

Your Scope 2 emissions depend entirely on how your region makes its electricity. A place that runs mostly on hydro, nuclear, or wind produces very little carbon per unit of electricity; a place that leans on coal or gas produces a great deal more. So the same kilowatt-hour can carry wildly different emissions depending on where you plug in.

That's why two otherwise identical users — same size, same activity — can have very different footprints simply because of where they are. It's also why ScopeSimple applies the emission factor for your specific province or state rather than a national average, and documents exactly which factor it used, so the result holds up to scrutiny. The exact figures for every region live in our methodology.

What does a tonne actually look like?

A number on its own is hard to picture. Equivalencies turn it into something tangible — these are illustrative comparisons, not precise claims:

✈️

Roughly one return long-haul flight per tonne

🌳

About 48 trees growing for a year to absorb one tonne

🚗

Around 5,200 km driven in an average car per tonne

⛽

About 430 litres of petrol burned per tonne

🏠

Powering an average home for about five weeks per tonne

🍔

Around 330 cheeseburgers per tonne

The point isn't the comparison itself — it's that a measured, documented number you can track over time is far more useful than a vague sense of "doing your bit." ScopeSimple exists to give you that number, honestly.

Still have questions?

Do I need prior knowledge? Who is this for? Is my data private? It's all answered plainly.

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