Stop Rebuilding Your Carbon Report at Wrap: Scope 1 and 2 Tracking in Business Central

In Part 1, we made the case for moving carbon reporting out of the standalone spreadsheet and into your production finance system. This follow-up covers the practical side: which Scope 1 and 2 data points a production actually needs, where that data already sits in your accounts, and what changes when your team captures it as money is spent rather than piecing it together at wrap.

A quick recap: what Scope 1 and 2 mean on a production

The scopes come from the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, the framework most sectors use for greenhouse gas reporting. In August 2025, BAFTA Albert and the Sustainable Entertainment Alliance published joint guidance on Scope 1 and 2 emissions for productions, which applies those definitions to film and TV.

In production terms:

• Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from sources the production owns or controls. That includes generator fuel, fuel for owned, leased or hired vehicles, and gas or other fuels burned in production offices and facilities. The guidance says a production claims Scope 1 where it owns the source, holds the operating licence, or has a lease or rental agreement that hands it operational control.
• Scope 2 emissions come from grid electricity the production buys and uses. Examples include production offices, stages and working warehouses, or charging rented electric vehicles.

Everything else, from flights and hotels to catering and freight, falls under Scope 3. Scope 1 and 2 are usually the smaller part of the picture. They're also the easiest to measure precisely, and you already pay for every litre and kilowatt hour involved.

The data points already flowing through your finance system

Every Scope 1 and 2 source has a matching invoice, receipt or purchase order. The Albert and SEA guidance names bills, invoices and receipts as the documentation behind fuel and electricity figures. It lists litres of fuel, kilowatt hours and kilometres travelled as the preferred primary data.

For a typical production, the data worth capturing at the point of spend includes:

• Generator fuel: litres, fuel type (diesel, HVO or other), supplier, date and location or unit.
• Vehicle fuel: litres and fuel type for unit vehicles, facility vehicles and hired cars the production controls, coded by department.
• Heating fuel: gas or oil for production offices, workshops and any facility under your control.
• Electricity: kWh per site and billing period, supplier and tariff, plus evidence of any renewable supply. The guidance asks for both location-based and market-based Scope 2 figures, so the tariff matters.
• EV charging: kWh drawn by rented electric vehicles, where the production pays for it.

Your accounts team already enters the supplier, cost, date and cost code for each of these lines. All that's missing is the quantity and the emission source.

Why capturing at the point of spend beats reconciling later

The Albert and SEA guidance sets out a data hierarchy. Complete primary data (actual litres and kWh) sits at the top. Below it comes financial data converted into estimated consumption, then proxy data, then externally sourced data. Productions that only look at carbon at wrap usually end up further down that list than they need to be, because by then the detail has gone. A fuel card statement might show a total spend, but not which unit burned the fuel or whether it was HVO.

Capturing quantities when invoices are coded fixes several problems at once:

1. One entry, one source of truth. The same line that updates your cost report also records the emission, so the carbon figures always match the finance figures.
2. Evidence is attached from day one. The invoice behind every litre is already in the ledger, ready for certification review.
3. Problems show up while you can still act. If generator use is running above plan in week three, the producer sees it in week three rather than in the final report.
4. The workload stays spread out. Nobody has to spend a fortnight after wrap chasing departments for receipts.

It also matches what commissioners now expect. Channel 4 tells producers that "early planning starting in pre-production or earlier" is needed because certification depends on accurate, comprehensive data tracking. It also expects production budgets to cover that work.

Before and after: one production, two approaches

Picture a six-part drama (an illustrative example) with a nine-week shoot across two studio stages and four locations.

Before: assembling the carbon report at wrap

The accountant closes the cost report, then opens a separate sustainability spreadsheet. Generator fuel is spread across three suppliers' invoices, and only some of them give litres; the rest show cost alone. Vehicle fuel came through petty cash, fuel cards and crew expense claims, with no split between diesel and petrol. The studio electricity bill covers both stages plus another tenant, so someone has to estimate the production's share. Nobody logged whether the generator supplier delivered HVO or diesel. The team spends roughly two weeks emailing heads of department and converts much of the spend into estimated consumption. The footprint they submit relies heavily on estimates, with gaps they can't fill.

After: capturing Scope 1 and 2 as they go

The same invoices arrive, but each fuel and energy line is coded with a quantity, a unit, a fuel type and an emission source as it's entered. Fuel card imports carry litres automatically. The studio bill is split using an agreed allocation method and posted once; for shared facilities, the guidance suggests splitting by days used and floor area. By wrap, the Scope 1 and 2 totals already exist, backed by invoices and broken down by location and department. The accountant exports the figures, checks the exceptions and moves on to Scope 3.

The spend and the suppliers are identical in both versions. The only difference is when the detail gets recorded.

How this ties into BAFTA Albert certification

BAFTA Albert launched its Next Generation Toolkit on 16 September 2026. The current toolkit closes on 17 December 2026, according to Channel 4's producer guidance. The new toolkit comes with a Carbon Footprint Data Tracker, designed to help teams collect good-quality data before uploading it. Certification now runs through two routes: a Committed route for qualifying productions and a Certified route for all other production types.

Whichever route applies, BAFTA Albert certification rests on a credible carbon footprint and a Carbon Action Plan. The volume of reporting is significant. The BAFTA Albert 2023 Annual Review recorded 3,003 footprints in 2023, with average emissions of 16.6 tCO2e per hour of content, up from 12.8 tCO2e the year before. The same review found that energy made up around 21% of an average production's footprint, and travel and transport 51%. Those are the categories where most fuel and electricity spend sits.

A finance system that holds this data by source, date and location can feed the tracker directly, instead of someone rebuilding it from memory at the end.

What this looks like in Business Central

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central includes sustainability management features that support this way of working. You can set up sustainability accounts for Scope 1, 2 and 3, define emission factors, and record emission data directly on purchase documents or general journals. Entries post to a sustainability ledger that can be analysed by dimensions. That means the episode, location and department codes your production accountants already use for cost reporting can also structure your carbon data.

For UK productions, emission factors can be based on the UK government conversion factors for company reporting, published every year by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Pair that with a production accounting tool such as Just-TV, and fuel and energy lines become carbon lines the moment they're posted.

Talk to CTM about sustainability tracking in Business Central

If your next production will need BAFTA Albert certification, the simplest time to set up Scope 1 and 2 capture is before the first invoice arrives. Speak to Creative Total Media about sustainability tracking inside Business Central, and about bringing your carbon data and production finances into one place.