Name the event, the reporting dates and what the file covers. Then give each statement its own row: a target, a measured result, an estimate, a gap, or a copied calculation. A target needs a reference back to the commitment. A measured row needs a source you can identify. Do not judge the target until the unit and the scope match, and do not treat a match as a verdict this file makes. A copied emissions total is still a calculation, even if the activity data behind it was measured.

The arithmetic for an emissions inventory stays in the carbon guide. An organisational report stays on the ESG guide. Before a sentence leaves the building, use the green claims guide. If the next question is whether a management system is in place, the six starting questions are that page. This report does not answer them.

Identify the event before the rows

The header names the event, the first and last reporting dates, and the coverage in words. Coverage means what is inside the file and what was left out, such as food waste at the kitchen, electricity for the hired room, and travel that was not collected. A later reader should not have to guess which event the numbers belong to.

Each following row has one role.

A target says what was intended. It needs a reference you can trace, such as a commitment identifier on the event policy. It is not evidence that the thing happened. Leave the measurement source blank.

A measured row needs a value, a unit and a source that identifies the measurement, such as the scale and the notebook line. It is a direct measurement of that quantity only.

An estimate needs a value, a unit and a method note. It is not a measurement.

A gap is something you meant to report and could not. Leave the value blank. A gap is not zero impact, and it is not stored as zero.

A calculation is a figure you copied from an inventory or worked out from factors. Name the inventory it came from, the method, the factor year and the boundary. “Copied inventory total” on its own is not that source. Do not label it measured, even when the activity inputs that fed the inventory were measured. Do not file a copied figure for something the header still records as uncollected. This sheet does not work the figure out again and it does not provide assurance.

Before you compare a result with a target, the unit and the scope have to be the same. Food waste in kilograms for the venue kitchen can sit beside a target in kilograms for that same kitchen. It cannot sit beside a travel figure. Even when they match, this file does not say the target was met or missed. You may notice the numbers. The status cells stay in their own roles, and the rows are not added together.

Fill in the report

Download both files. Save a copy of the blank file and type into that copy. You type every cell. The spreadsheet does not add a target to a result.

Worked example: four statements that stay apart

The example is Northgate Studio’s fictional supplier morning on 9 April 2026. The numbers are invented for the example.

Statement What is written Role
Header The morning, that date, and coverage for kitchen food waste, room electricity, and travel that was not collected. Header. Not a result.
Food waste 10 kg. Reference: fictional organiser note NT-1, 1 March 2026, for this morning only. It is not policy row FW-1, which stays a draft with no number. Scope: venue food waste. Target. Not evidence it happened.
Food waste 14 kg. Fictional kitchen scale, notebook line 9 April 2026, food waste only. Same unit and scope as the target. Measured. The file does not say the target was met.
Room electricity 18 kWh. Method: apportioned by occupied hours. Estimate. Not a meter reading.
Delegate travel Value left blank. Gap. Not zero.

There is no copied emissions figure in this example. Delegate travel is already an uncollected gap, so a 12 kg CO2e travel inventory would not be a separate, traceable source. If you later copy a figure from a different inventory, name that inventory, the method, the factor year and the boundary, and do not add it to the 14 kg. No factor value from the government tables is printed here.

Limits

This is not an ESG report, an assurance statement or a certificate. Offsets are outside the file. A public sentence still has to survive the green claims guide.

Sources