The carbon footprint turns twenty
It’s an anniversary that has flown under the radar: Bilan Carbone® is twenty years old! Created in 2004 by Ademe in collaboration with climate engineer Jean-Marc Jancovici, this tool brought the expression “carbon footprint” into common parlance, to designate any approach to calculating the greenhouse gas emissions weight of a product, service or organization… even without using the real Bilan Carbone® methodology (with a capital B, a capital C and a capital ®). In fact, this is a registered trademark, the use of which is reserved for members of the Association pour la Transition Bas Carbone (ABC), which inherited it from Ademe in 2011.
In so doing, the expression has become synonymous with carbon footprint, since it implies reasoning about the entire life cycle of the emissions source studied, from manufacture to end-of-life. This is what has made it so distinctive, robust and renowned: the tool takes into account all direct, indirect and associated greenhouse gas emissions generated by the source studied, all expressed in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq). Another method, the GHG Protocol, proposes similar reasoning in terms of “scopes” (scope 1, scope 2, scope 3).
Carbon footprinting, a comprehensive and rigorous tool
This holistic, life-cycle approach to emissions categories is precisely what brings Bilan Carbone® into line with the world of AFNOR’s voluntary standards, in particular the international standards in the ISO 14060 family, which describe methods for calculating and quantifying greenhouse gas emissions. These include NF EN ISO 14064-1 , which sets out the famous division into direct and indirect emissions, and NF EN ISO 14067 , which covers the calculation of a product’s carbon footprint. ” ISO standards set the pace for accounting; Bilan Carbone® adds action to this: a carbon footprint is always accompanied by a transition plan, a fundamental step in building a low-carbon roadmap. There’s a starting point and a finishing line e”, explains Claire Delabre-Chagué, head of AFNOR Energies, the AFNOR group entity that federates all our offerings in this field.
In France, Bilan Carbone® really took off with the Grenelle Environment Round Table: in 2010, it was enshrined in law, under the official name of “greenhouse gas emissions balance sheet” (BEGES). Under the Grenelle 2 law, major public and private players were required to publish their reports at regular intervals. This measure is still in force today, and is proving extremely useful for the new extra-financial reporting rules. Thanks to the results obtained, economic players can get an idea of how their activity contributes to global warming, and act accordingly. For example, by revising their import policy, in order to reduce their indirect and associated emissions, a lever that is destined to be used to a greater extent with the arrival in Europe of the carbon tax at borders (MACF system). At the end of February 2025, Ademe’s Bilan GES database contained 8,727 BEGES reports duly completed and submitted.
In addition to distributing ISO standards for calculating greenhouse gas emissions in France, the AFNOR group is actively involved in developing assessment methods based on the Bilan Carbone®. A partnership signed at the end of 2024 with ABC will soon enable its subsidiary AFNOR Compétences to roll out training courses on the Bilan Carbone® methodology and, more broadly, on the theme of decarbonization. The AFNOR group itself has a team of consultants with expertise in the Bilan Carbone® tool, housed in the AFNOR Energies Ingénierie entity. ” The exercise is seen as part of a broader approach encompassing decarbonization and energy efficiency,” explains Marion Ripaux, head of development for this entity.
AFNOR Compétences already delivers training courses on the fundamentals of carbon accounting, emphasizing the notion of life cycle analysis. The growing community of Bilan Carbone® assessors – the experts who verify the declarations made by companies using this standard – will soon have something to show for their professionalism: AFNOR Certification, another Group subsidiary, is working with ABC to develop a skills certification scheme. AFNOR Certification already offers a carbon footprint verification and validation service for companies choosing to have their carbon claims verified by an independent third-party organization. ” This service provides transparency and credibility for environmental data, thus encouraging more responsible management of climate impacts, as opposed to greenwashing “, explains Marie Vigier, head of the service at AFNOR Certification.
Are you interested in these prospects? Come and meet the AFNOR Group and its partners at the anniversary event organized by ABC on March 10, 2025 in Paris!
