Baseline

When planning for the future -- and, ideally, trying to improve on the past -- an individual, firm, or organization needs to know their present-day carbon footprint in order to determine where they can improve and how much they can improve by.  Baseline is the term that will be used to stand for the GHG emissions total at the beginning of the carbon reduction process.  The utility of a particular policy or strategy is often discussed in terms of how far it improves on the baseline. Baselines may be calculated by extrapolating from recent trends, growth rates, present emissions data, and other quantitative measures.  It is essential that any company whose aim is to lower their carbon footprint carefully audit their emission sources -- within the company, along the supply chain, upstream and downstream -- in order to have a complete and accurate baseline in preparation for determining their carbon reduction goal.

The baseline is related to the concept of the Business As Usual Scenario (BAU), the estimated future emissions of a company or country in the absence of policy changes given present emissions and rates of growth.  "Business as usual" essentially means a baseline projected forward, without any commitments to reductions.