Carbon Accounting and ESG Services
Whether you’re required to report your carbon footprint by law or your clients demand it as part of their financial reporting obligations, Westcourt is well placed to help you manage your carbon accounting obligations. We offer expert carbon accounting services designed to streamline your reporting and compliance, including:
- Understanding your Scope 1, 2, and 3 carbon emissions.
- Measuring, tracking, and recording your carbon footprint.
- Providing audit-ready reports with full documentation.
- Assuring your carbon emissions data.
What is Carbon Accounting?
Carbon accounting tracks, records, and reports the carbon emissions of your business, measured in CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e). This is essential for reporting within financial statements under the new Australian Accounting Standards.
Starting from 1 January 2025, large businesses must comply with two key standards:
- AASB S1: General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability Related Financial Information (voluntary).
- AASB S2: Climate-Related Disclosures (mandatory), aligned with the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS S2).
Many small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are now required to track and report carbon emissions as part of their supply chain obligations to larger enterprises. Westcourt has partnered with the Trace carbon accounting software to seamlessly manage your business and carbon accounting programs.
Measuring Carbon Emissions
Your carbon emissions are measured through your cloud accounting software programs. At Westcourt, we apply 6 different steps to report on your carbon footprint:
- Define organisational boundaries.
- Identify emission sources.
- Select a calculation approach.
- Gather data and choose emission factors.
- Apply calculation tools.
- Prepare audit-ready reports.
Importantly, integrating your carbon accounting journey with your cloud accounting software programs is a critical step in controlling the carbon accounting and reporting workload your finance team will need to manage the additional workload for their carbon accounting journey.
Carbon Accounting Reporting Requirements
Many Perth SME’s are already being asked to prepare carbon accounting reports for their major suppliers. The accounting standards take a staggered approach to forcing medium-sized businesses to report their own carbon emission footprint directly within their financial statements.
From 1 January 2025
Your business passes two of the three criteria
- You employ over 500 people.
- Your gross assets exceed $1bn
- Your revenue is over $500m.
From 1 January 2026
Your business passes two of the three criteria
- You employ over 250 people.
- Your gross assets exceed $500m.
- Your gross revenue exceeds $200m.
From 1 January 2027
Your business passes two of the three criteria
- You employ over 100 people.
- Your gross assets exceed $25m.
- Your gross revenue exceeds $50m
While none of our current clients are mandated by the 2025 requirements, many will be affected from 2026 and 2027. We help Perth SMEs prepare carbon accounting reports for large company tenders, ensuring they remain competitive in supply chains.
Understanding Scope 1, 2, and 3 Emissions
Knowing the different types of carbon emissions is key to managing your carbon footprint:
- Scope 1 Emissions: Direct greenhouse gas emissions from sources owned or controlled by the business, such as emissions from company-owned vehicles and on-site fuel combustion (e.g., boilers, furnaces).
- Scope 2 Emissions: Indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating, and cooling consumed by the business.
- Scope 3 Emissions: All other indirect emissions that occur in the value chain of the company, both upstream and downstream. This includes emissions from suppliers, transportation, waste management, and even employee commuting.
Scope 3 emissions are often the most significant and hardest to reduce. Working with suppliers and customers, businesses can implement strategies to lower these emissions. Without carbon reporting, your supply chain may be assessed at the highest emissions level, which can negatively impact your business.
Employee Engagement
To further improve accuracy and engage your workforce, we also provide an Employee Engagement Survey. This tool helps collect precise data on work-from-home and commute emissions, giving you a more accurate carbon footprint. Engaging employees in your company’s climate initiatives not only improves reporting but fosters a stronger commitment to your sustainability goals.
Offsets
In addition to measuring and reporting your carbon emissions, Westcourt partners with Trace to offer carbon offsetting solutions. Offsetting allows your business to invest in verified carbon reduction projects, helping to balance out emissions that are hard to eliminate.
Why Westcourt?
At Westcourt, we simplify the carbon accounting journey. Using cloud accounting software, we create structured steps to turn carbon reporting into an opportunity, not just a compliance cost. Our goal is to help you manage your carbon footprint efficiently while unlocking new business opportunities through sustainability.