✓
Good Base Year
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Reliable and complete data
Complete coverage with verified measurements across all emission sources that matter to your business.
Manufacturing
A manufacturing company selected 2019 as its base year after implementing energy monitoring across all facilities and establishing a complete inventory of scope 1, 2, and key scope 3 categories with third-party verification.
✓
Representative operations
Reflects normal business conditions and typical operational patterns without anomalies.
Retail
A retail chain chose 2018 as base year instead of 2019, which saw unusually high shipping emissions due to a warehouse relocation. The 2018 data better represented their typical logistics and store operations.
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Program compliance
Meets requirements for reporting frameworks and initiatives your company participates in.
Technology
A software company seeking SBTi approval selected 2017 data (rather than their more complete 2014 data) because SBTi requires base years of 2015 or later. They reconstructed and verified the 2017 emissions to ensure compliance.
✗
Poor Base Year
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Incomplete or unreliable data
Missing emission sources or relying heavily on estimations rather than actual measurements.
Financial Services
A bank attempted to use 2017 as its base year, but discovered they only had energy data for 60% of their branches and no reliable business travel data. This would have created a falsely low emissions baseline, making future reductions harder to demonstrate.
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Abnormal operations
Years with unusual business conditions that don't represent typical operations.
Hospitality
A hotel chain considered using 2020 as their base year because their reported emissions were lower, but this coincided with COVID-19 lockdowns and 75% reduced occupancy rates. This would set an artificially low baseline impossible to maintain during normal operations.
✗
Framework non-compliance
Doesn't satisfy requirements of frameworks your company reports to.
Automotive
An auto manufacturer chose 2010 as their base year because it predated their EV program launch, giving them credit for that transition. However, this choice made their data incompatible with SBTi requirements and complicated comparisons with industry peers using more recent baselines.