Spreadsheets are painful
If you’ve ever tried to track your company’s carbon footprint in a spreadsheet, you probably know the pain. Endless rows. Cryptic formulas. That one column you’re scared to touch because the whole thing might implode. Tracking emissions this way isn’t just soul-crushing — it’s risky, time-consuming, and surprisingly easy to get wrong.
1. Human error is inevitable
One wrong formula, one misplaced decimal, and suddenly your “progress” report shows emissions from Mars. Spreadsheets weren’t designed for precision carbon accounting — and when you’re dealing with compliance, guesswork isn’t an option.
2. They don’t scale with your business
Spreadsheets might limp along when you’re tracking one office’s electricity bills. But throw in flights, suppliers, or multiple locations, and you’ll be scrolling until retirement. The bigger your footprint, the bigger the mess.
3. Zero real-time insights
Carbon data changes constantly. Energy use spikes, travel bookings add up, suppliers update their invoices. A spreadsheet just sits there. By the time you’ve manually updated everything, your numbers are already out of date.
4. Reporting becomes a nightmare
Generating a clean, board-ready report from a spreadsheet is like squeezing juice from a rock. You end up spending more time formatting than analyzing. And let’s be honest — no one is wowed by a pie chart in Excel 2003.
5. There’s a better way
Smart tools (yes, like LowrCarbon) automate the boring stuff: pulling in your data, crunching the numbers, and even suggesting what to do next. You get reliable, up-to-date insights without the late-night spreadsheet wrestling match.
Bottom line: You’ve got better things to do than babysit rows and columns. Carbon tracking should feel clear, actionable, and maybe even… enjoyable. And that’s never going to happen in a spreadsheet.
