For years, measuring a carbon footprint was something most Australian businesses did because they wanted to, for customers, for investors, for tenders, or simply because it aligned with their values. The work often happened quietly, in an annual sprint with an external consultant, and the output was a sustainability report and a spreadsheet filed somewhere on SharePoint.
That world is gone.
Under the Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards (ASRS), entities now have to disclose climate-related financial information, including Scope 1, 2 and material Scope 3 emissions, as part of their annual report. It's board-signed. It's assured. And the numbers need to hold up to the same level of scrutiny as anything else sitting inside a financial statement.
Over the past year, we've been reviewing a steady stream of carbon inventories that ASRS reporters have had built by external consultants, typically over several years of voluntary reporting. We usually come in on the end-to-end ASRS requirements, helping companies with their metrics and targets, and translate their existing footprint work into disclosure-ready outputs.
What we keep finding is worrying us.
We expected edge cases. We expected methodology debates. What we didn't expect was how often the underlying numbers themselves and the basic application of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol are simply wrong.
Here are some examples of simple, but significant errors we found:
Measurement and scope errors
Spreadsheet structure and formula errors
Data quality and review gaps
None of these came from bad intent. They came from the way the work is done: bespoke spreadsheet models, often rebuilt each year, managed by a small number of people.
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Spreadsheets are extraordinary tools. They're also where a surprising share of material errors tend to appear, and carbon accounting puts them under particular strain.
Emissions factors update regularly. Methodology guidance evolves. Activity data flows in from many sources with a variety of units: utility bills, fleet logs, expense categories, supplier statements, and needs to be mapped consistently year after year. A spreadsheet model built in 2022 is rarely the same spreadsheet model in 2026, even if the file name hasn't changed. Every manual edit is a place an error can enter, and very few of those edits leave a trail an auditor can follow.
Under the previous voluntary regime, that fragility was an annoyance. Under ASRS, it's a material risk.
When we talk to finance and sustainability leaders about the alternative to a spreadsheet approach, the conversation often starts with price. That's a fair place to begin: platform-based measurement is generally more cost-effective than a bespoke annual engagement. But price alone undersells what's actually at stake.
If a material error is identified, you don't just change a figure. You may need to:
Once you add up the internal hours, the rework, the reputational impact and the drag on the rest of your disclosure program, a "cheap" inventory can become the most expensive line item in your reporting stack.
The inventories that hold up best under scrutiny share a handful of characteristics. They are:
This is the standard we've built Trace against. Not because spreadsheets and consultants can't reach it in theory, but because holding that standard consistently, across every customer, every year, at audit-grade quality is what software, a controlled methodology and an expert team are genuinely good at, and it's exactly where bespoke, spreadsheet-based engagements tend to drift.
If your organisation is a Group 1, 2 or 3 ASRS reporter, the single most useful thing you can do this year is have someone independent look at the numbers before your assurance provider does. Better yet, well before your disclosure deadline.
If the numbers hold up, you've gained confidence heading into your first disclosure. If they don't, you've given yourself time to fix it on your terms, not in a footnote to next year's annual report.
We'd much rather help a business avoid that conversation than walk them through it. Book a call with the Trace team to have your current carbon inventory reviewed ahead of your first ASRS disclosure.
Trace is a climate reporting platform specialising in ISSB and AASB standards, helping businesses navigate mandatory climate disclosure with clarity and confidence.
London - Sydney
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