In an industrial company operating in LATAM, the information needed to measure emissions may be spread across facilities, offices, and suppliers in different countries. Operations teams track fuels, administrative teams receive electricity bills, and procurement and logistics teams hold supply chain information.
The challenge is to bring these records together using consistent criteria and build an inventory that supports reduction decisions and requests from customers or financial institutions.
This guide explains how to prepare a verifiable corporate emissions inventory. If you first need to distinguish between corporate, product, event, and personal footprints, read our guide to types of carbon footprints.
A corporate inventory quantifies an organization’s greenhouse gas emissions over a defined reporting period, usually one year. Results are expressed in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO₂e).
The GHG Protocol distinguishes three scopes:
The distribution across scopes depends on the business activity. A cement producer, textile manufacturer, and assembly company may have different emissions profiles. The inventory helps identify where their emissions are concentrated.
For an industrial company in LATAM, measuring emissions can support four decisions:
The inventory can support the assessment of sustainable financing opportunities. Eligibility and financing terms also depend on the project, the company’s financial position, and each institution’s criteria.
Set the reporting year and identify the entities, facilities, and operations to include. Document the chosen consolidation approach, such as operational control, financial control, or equity share.
If you have facilities in several countries, apply consistent criteria and retain a breakdown by location. Assign responsibility for providing and reviewing information across operations, maintenance, procurement, logistics, and finance.
Request records covering the same reporting period and retain their supporting documents:
Standardize units before consolidating data. For example, identify which gallon definition a record uses and distinguish between different fuels reported in litres. Record the facility, period, unit, and source for each data point.
For many sources, emissions are calculated by combining activity data with emission factors:
Emissions = activity data × emission factor
Select factors that match the activity and units. If the result is expressed by individual gas, apply the corresponding global warming potentials to convert it to CO₂e.
For electricity, use factors appropriate to the grid and reporting period of each facility. Do not automatically apply the same factor to facilities in Mexico, Colombia, and Chile.
Where applicable, report Scope 2 using both location-based and market-based approaches, checking the requirements for the contractual instruments used.
Review the 15 categories to identify which apply to your company. Do not limit the assessment to raw materials: transportation, waste, the use of sold products, and other activities may also be relevant.
Conduct an initial assessment to prioritize data collection. Adapt requests to each supplier’s capabilities: they may provide consumption figures, material quantities, or emissions information, depending on the chosen method.
Where data is missing, use justified estimates and document their limitations. Prioritize improvements where emissions or uncertainty are greatest.
Check reporting periods, units, duplicate entries, and unusual variations. Document factors, methods, assumptions, and exclusions, and present results by scope.
Complete an internal review before sharing the inventory. If external verification is needed, agree on its scope and organize the evidence so that calculations can be reviewed.
Primary data relates to specific activities within the company or its value chain, such as recorded consumption or a supplier’s production information. Secondary data includes sector averages and databases.
Specific information can better represent an operation, but it still needs to be checked: receiving data directly from a supplier does not guarantee that it is complete or matches the reporting period.
If some suppliers do not yet have inventories, request the information they can provide and select appropriate methods to address gaps. Document estimates and establish a plan to improve the most relevant data.
Quality depends on how representative and consistent the information is, as well as where it comes from.
A verifiable inventory allows a reviewer to understand how results were obtained and examine the supporting evidence. Organize a documentation package containing:
For companies with several facilities, maintain traceability from each local record to the consolidated corporate results.
Excel can be part of the process when supported by appropriate documentation and controls. A platform helps manage information, but it does not guarantee verification on its own.
Verifiable does not mean verified: verification requires a review with a defined scope and criteria.
Regulatory pressure arrives through different paths in each country, but fertilizers point to the same place: carbon data as the condition for access.
In Mexico, the immediate trigger is CBAM. From 2026, Mexican exporters of steel, aluminum, cement, fertilizers and other high-carbon-intensity products selling to the European Union face tariffs calculated on the difference between the carbon price at origin and the European price. Without a verifiable per-product emissions inventory, the company cannot demonstrate its real intensity and pays the maximum tariff. Mexico's Voluntary Carbon Market is active and can generate additional revenue for companies with documented reduction projects, but only if the baseline inventory is solid. A manufacturing company in Monterrey without a verifiable footprint measurement cannot participate in either mechanism.
In Colombia, the situation is equally urgent but from another angle. The Bogotá Chamber of Commerce survey published in 2026 confirms that only 16% of companies in the Bogotá Region measure thetransition,footprint. The remaining 84% operate without visibility into their climate position in an environment where Law 2169 of 2021 already sets the foundations of the energy transition and European buyers of Colombian suppliers are beginning to demand data under the CSRD. Companies that do not have the inventory ready before 2027 will lose contracts, not fines. Carbon without primary data is an invented number, and buyers with SBTi targets already know it.
In Chile, the carbon tax of 5 dollars per ton of CO₂ has been the operational reality for years. Companies that measure accurately can optimize their tax burden with verified reduction projects and access CORFO Verde financing, which has specific lines for industrial decarbonization projects. The Framework Law on Climate Change (Law 21.455) sets the carbon neutrality target for 2050, and companies that arrive late to the inventory also arrive late to the financing that makes the transition profitable.
The timeline depends on the number of facilities, inventory coverage, and availability of records. For operations spread across countries, coordinating responsibilities and formats also affects the schedule. Before setting a deadline, assess the information available and allow time for calculations, review, and external verification where required.
Yes. Depending on the category and method, you can use purchased quantities, transportation data, consumption figures, or other documented estimates. You do not need to wait until every supplier has an inventory. Identify gaps and progressively improve information for the most relevant activities.
It depends on the country, activity, applicable thresholds, and reporting framework. Customers or financial institutions may also impose contractual requirements. Review each operation’s obligations separately from the commercial conditions your company needs to meet.
Does your industrial company in LATAM need to organize its emissions data and determine where to begin? Schedule a conversation with Bono to review the information available, identify gaps, and define the next steps for measurement and reduction.