GEME Journal · Sustainability
Carbon Audit 2024
We publish the assumptions, accounting boundaries, exclusions, and limitations behind our carbon assessment.
This is not a universal carbon-saving claim for every household or region. It is a transparent account of how the model is built, what it includes, and where it stops.
No greenwash math. No hidden boundary. No result without its assumptions.
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Assumptions
02
Boundaries
03
Exclusions
04
Limitations
Publish the method before promoting the result.
Quick Answer
GEME Carbon Audit 2024 is a methodology and transparency summary. It reviews the accounting method, system boundary, input assumptions, operational energy, emission factors, comparison scenarios, exclusions, and uncertainty behind a carbon assessment.
It does not claim that every household, country, electricity grid, landfill, municipal treatment system, or user behavior produces the same result.
The number is never separated from the conditions that produced it.
Table of Contents
What This Audit Is—and Is Not
Carbon accounting is only useful when the assumptions behind the final number remain visible.
The GEME Carbon Audit 2024 therefore does not begin with a simplified claim about how much carbon one product, one household, or one behavior will always save.
It begins with the framework: what enters the model, where the boundary starts and ends, which comparison scenario is used, what is excluded, and which uncertainties remain.
| What This Page Provides | What This Page Does Not Claim |
|---|---|
| Accounting method and calculation structure | One guaranteed carbon-saving figure for every user |
| System boundaries and comparison assumptions | A region-independent lifecycle result |
| Operational-energy and emission-factor assumptions | That household composting always replaces landfill |
| Exclusions, limitations, and uncertainty | That every electricity grid or waste system is equivalent |
Our principle: publish the assumptions before promoting the result.
Why We Conducted a Carbon Audit
Food waste has environmental consequences long after it leaves the kitchen. Collection, transportation, treatment, landfill conditions, energy use, and material recovery can all affect the final outcome.
Household composting changes part of that pathway. The scale and direction of the change, however, depend on the local conditions in which the system operates.
A household using lower-carbon electricity in a region with long waste-collection routes may produce a different accounting result from a household using a carbon-intensive electricity grid in a city with advanced municipal organic-waste treatment.
The purpose of the Carbon Audit 2024 is therefore not to manufacture one universal marketing number. It is to establish a transparent accounting structure that can be reviewed, challenged, and improved.
What We Tested: Accounting Method + Assumptions
The audit reviewed how potential environmental impacts are calculated within a defined scenario. The focus was the accounting framework—not a universal product claim.
| Audit Component | What Was Reviewed | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Scenario definition | The household, region, food-waste pathway, and comparison case being assessed | A result has no meaning without a clearly defined scenario |
| System boundary | Where the assessment begins and ends | Adding or removing production, operation, transport, treatment, or end use can change the result |
| Input assumptions | Food-waste quantity and composition, usage pattern, electricity consumption, and output use | These are model inputs, not universal facts |
| Emission factors | The factors applied to electricity, transport, treatment, landfill, or avoided activities | Factors must match the geography, period, and scenario as closely as possible |
| Comparison pathway | The assumed alternative, such as landfill, municipal composting, or anaerobic digestion | The baseline can materially change the direction and scale of the result |
| Uncertainty and exclusions | Known data gaps, proxies, omitted stages, and non-generalizable conditions | Uncertainty should be visible rather than buried in a headline |
The Accounting Sequence
- Define the scenario being assessed.
- Set the system boundary.
- Identify measurable inputs.
- Select and document relevant emission factors.
- Calculate the result within the stated boundary.
- Record exclusions, limitations, sensitivity, and uncertainty.
A reader should be able to trace the result back to the assumptions that produced it and understand how changing those assumptions may change the outcome.
What We Did Not Test
The Carbon Audit 2024 is not a universal claim for all households, cities, countries, electricity grids, climates, or waste systems.
It does not establish that every user will achieve the same carbon outcome, and it does not assume that household composting replaces the same waste-treatment pathway in every region.
- We did not assume all food waste would otherwise go to landfill.
- We did not assume all landfills manage methane in the same way.
- We did not assume all municipal composting systems have the same emissions profile.
- We did not assume all electricity grids have the same carbon intensity.
- We did not assume all households operate the appliance in the same way.
- We did not assume all resulting compost material is used under identical conditions.
What We Do Not Count
A transparent assessment must identify not only what it includes, but also what it excludes.
We do not count environmental benefits simply because they are possible. A benefit is included only when the scenario, boundary, and supporting assumption are defined.
- No universal landfill-avoidance assumption without local evidence.
- No use of the most optimistic scenario as the default result.
- No application of one regional emission factor to every market.
- No counting of the same environmental benefit more than once.
- No presentation of uncertain estimates as guaranteed outcomes.
- No hiding of operational electricity use.
Why Regional Context Matters
Carbon accounting for food waste is highly sensitive to the alternative pathway used as the comparison.
| Regional Variable | How It Can Change the Result |
|---|---|
| Electricity mix | Operational emissions differ between lower-carbon and fossil-intensive grids |
| Waste collection distance | Longer transport routes can increase the baseline impact |
| Landfill methane management | Capture efficiency and treatment practices affect landfill emissions |
| Municipal organics treatment | Industrial composting or anaerobic digestion can change the comparison case |
| Climate and household behavior | Usage pattern, moisture, loading, and output use affect real-world performance |
Where regional data is unavailable, the responsible approach is to disclose the proxy used and explain the resulting uncertainty.
Methods and Boundaries
Any carbon figure or environmental comparison derived from this audit should be read together with its detailed methodology.
The supporting documentation explains the accounting objective, functional unit, system boundary, baseline scenario, data sources, emission factors, assumptions, exclusions, known limitations, and the conditions under which the result should not be generalized.
Read the supporting method
Review the assumptions before using the result
Open the detailed methods, system boundaries, exclusions, and verification context behind GEME’s environmental claims.
Measurement Before Marketing
GEME develops household systems for real microbial composting. That process can help households manage food scraps closer to where they are generated and return organic material to soil-related use.
But a product category, technology, or biological process should not be described as automatically carbon-negative, zero-emission, or universally superior without a clearly defined comparison.
Our responsibility is to measure carefully, document the method, distinguish evidence from assumptions, and revise the model when better data becomes available.
Carbon Audit 2024 is not a perfect number. It is a transparent one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main takeaway from GEME Carbon Audit 2024?
Carbon figures should be published together with their assumptions, system boundaries, exclusions, and limitations. The audit is not presented as a universal result for every household or region.
What did GEME test in the Carbon Audit 2024?
The audit reviewed the accounting method, scenario definition, system boundary, input assumptions, operational energy, emission factors, comparison pathways, exclusions, and uncertainty.
What did the audit not test?
It did not establish one universal carbon-saving figure for all countries, grids, waste systems, households, climates, or user behaviors.
Why can carbon results vary by region?
Electricity generation, collection distance, landfill management, municipal treatment, climate, and household behavior differ between regions. These factors can materially change the accounting result.
Does the audit count every possible environmental benefit?
No. A potential benefit is included only when the scenario, boundary, and supporting assumption are defined. Unsupported or double-counted benefits are excluded.
Real composting, clearly explained
See how GEME applies the same boundary-first approach to product claims
GEME Terra 2 uses real microbial composting to process suitable household food scraps into concentrated compost material for soil blending, without relying on disposable activated-carbon filter replacements.
The claim boundary
- No universal carbon-saving number
- No hidden operational energy
- No unsupported avoided-impact claim
- Methods remain visible
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