How can a company present its greenhouse gas balance in a way that actually earns the trust of customers, investors, and business partners? That is the question at the heart of a new publication from the Cluster Decarbonisation of Industry (CDI), aimed at helping companies — particularly small and medium-sized enterprises — communicate their emissions data transparently. The guide draws on findings from the CDI Summer Summit 2025.
Whether a greenhouse gas balance is seen as robust or arbitrary is increasingly becoming a matter of trust. For many companies, this creates a real tension: expectations around transparency are rising, while the time and staff available for climate reporting are often limited. To address this challenge, CDI has published a new guide: "Greenhouse Gas Accounting in Practice – A Step-by-Step Approach to Transparent Climate Management." Drawing on concrete examples, it shows organizations how to present their emissions data in a way that genuinely builds trust.
A solid greenhouse gas balance is far more than a bureaucratic exercise: it reveals where within a company the largest emission sources lie, where reductions are worthwhile, and how far decarbonization efforts have actually progressed. In practice, however, a recurring problem emerges: because companies draw different system boundaries, work with varying data quality, and apply inconsistent methodologies, the figures they report are often difficult to compare or interpret from the outside. This is precisely where the new guide comes in, offering recommendations that can be implemented without adding further complexity to the accounting process itself.
Developed Through Expert Dialogue
The guide grew out of presentations and workshops held as part of the CDI Summer Summit 2025, where experts from industry and research closely examined real-world greenhouse gas balances and sustainability reports. The subsequent discussion focused on identifying the criteria emissions data must meet to be understandable and credible for both internal and external audiences. From the analysis of these case studies, participants derived core quality criteria, which were then translated into concrete, actionable recommendations. This process was led by Dr. Ricarda Tänzer-von Daake, Deputy Head of the Centre of Competence for Climate Protection in Energy-Intensive Industries (KEI), who developed the guide together with workshop moderators Dr. Burkhard Huckestein of the German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt) and Markus Will of Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences.
"Reporting standards alone aren't enough for many companies — they also need practical, hands-on support to present their climate data in a way that is understood beyond their own organization. That's exactly where our guide provides support," says Madeleine Henning-Waniek, Head of the CDI Coordination Office.
Seven Guiding Questions
At the core of the guide are seven questions companies can use to systematically assess their own greenhouse gas balance — covering everything from the basic findability of data to completeness, transparency, and comprehensibility, through to consistency, accuracy, and verifiability. For each of these areas, the publication offers practical guidance along with a roadmap of short-, medium-, and long-term measures.
Designed with Smaller Companies in Mind
The guide's overall approach remains deliberately pragmatic: all recommendations are designed to be integrated into existing processes with manageable effort, regardless of which specific reporting standard a company follows. This gives small and medium-sized enterprises in particular a practical tool for gradually professionalizing their climate reporting and strengthening trust in their climate action. For CDI, the publication also serves as a good example of how insights from expert dialogue with business leaders and specialists can be translated into concrete, everyday tools.
The CDI guide "Greenhouse Gas Accounting in Practice – A Step-by-Step Approach to Transparent Climate Management" is now available in German for free download on the CDI website: https://www.cluster-dekarbonisierung.de/de/newsroom/details/neuer-cdi-leitfaden-unterst%C3%BCtzt-unternehmen-bei-der-erstellung-von-transparenten-treibhausgasbilanzen.html
Source: Cluster Dekarbonisierung der Industrie
