Accountants
This page describes one of the possible roles for a carbon on invoices precursor, which aims to associate each product or service with its precise and truthful greenhouse gas weight (or « carbon footprint »). The list of roles is at the bottom of the page.
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The climate challenge is leading each profession to re-evaluate its skills in the light of what it can contribute to the climate transition and to reinvent itself.
Carbon on Invoices innovation puts the accounting profession at the heart of the climate challenge by enabling it to « scale up » the accounting of the carbon footprints of companies, public authorities, and their products and services.
Carbon on Invoices is the name of a climate innovation that, in a few years, has made it possible to equip virtually all accountable organisations, even the smallest, with their carbon footprint and the strategic information that it provides. It relies on cooperation along the production and distribution chains and on the organisation’s accountant, who will break down the carbons he finds on suppliers’ invoices for services rendered (for a public authority) or on customers’ invoices (for a company) (see the mechanism)
Carbon on invoices is also the name of a full-scale experiment to test the innovation and get it started. The first step is to define a common charter for Carbon on invoices Precursors, describing the commitments they make and from which they benefit from the other Precursors. This page is dedicated to the « accounting » part of the charter, as essential advice for the Precursor companies and communities.
For the collective interest, it is a formidable accelerator of the climate transition (see why).
It is also an opportunity for a precursor accountant. It helps to count carbons (next to costs) and to transmit them through invoices (next to prices): an interesting link with the major project of electronic invoicing. The upstream carbon footprint is added to current accounting information, and the accounting rules applied to monetary flows are transposed to carbon flows (from the depreciation of a machine’s carbon over several years, to the consolidation of a subsidiary’s carbon footprint or the analytical breakdown of footprints between products). The accountant provides his client or employer with essential data : because it will enable him to make better decisions ; and will enhance his reputation with all his stakeholders.
The accountant acquires a new responsibility, aligned with his expertise, rewarding and even exciting, at the heart of the most important challenge of humanity.
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- The Precursor accountant applies the principles of the carbon side of accounting.
- He cooperates in the consolidation of these principles within their professional bodies.
- An independent accountant can also be a Precursor as a business and demonstrate to his clients the principles he applies.
- Other points to consider? Involve the profession in thinking about minimal management overhead for small businesses and local authorities
Having its greenhouse gas weight on each product represents a fabulous accelerator of the climate transition
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- Every company, city, administration, and individual get the information to manage their climate risk.
- Political, economic, and financial institutions are entering into a virtuous climate competition.
- The political debate is based on a simple and sincere measure that improves the efficiency and equity of climate effort.