🔧FAQ

Below you will find the frequently asked questions about BC+!

Membership: access to BC+ is only possible with an ABC membership. If you have not renewed your ABC membership for the current year, you will only have read-only access to your studies on BC+. For more information, you can contact us at [e-mail]

• For any technical question about BC+: we invite you to contact us at [e-mail]

• For any question about the methodology:

  • You can consult the Bilan Carbone® methodology here

  • Or contact us at [e-mail]

The transition plan has been available on BC+ since 6 May 2026! If you have any questions about this feature, you can go directly to the corresponding section in this FAQ

If you experience problems while activating your account, we invite you to try the following steps:

• First, log in to your ABC account and check that you have entered a SIRET number for your company. If not, please add it. You will then be able to activate your account on BC+ within 1 hour at most.

• Also check that the correct training level is indicated on your ABC account. Otherwise, please send your training certificate to the support address ([e-mail]).

If all the information on your ABC account is correct, contact the support address ([e-mail])

Creating your account

I have just joined the ABC, how do I access BC+?

First of all, we would like to welcome you to the ABC! Accessing BC+ couldn't be easier. Simply go to this link: https://bilancarbone-app.com/login and follow the account activation process. We invite you to carefully read the box at the top of this FAQ if you run into any problems.

I already had an account on the old BC+, do I need to reuse the same credentials?

No! This new version of the application is completely separate from the previous version. We therefore invite you to activate your account using the standard procedure. If you had data on the old BC+ and wish to recover it, please refer to the "BC+ migration" section.

How do I create my account?

If your organisation is not a member, follow this link to the ABC website If your organisation is an ABC member, your organisation account has already been created and you simply need to activate your personal account from the BC+ login page.

To do so, click on "Activate my account", and enter the email address you used during training or when joining (if you are not trained, or if you did not indicate your organisation during your training). You will receive a link by email that will allow you to set a password for your account. You will then just need to log in using your email address and password!

If you are the first BC+ user within your organisation, we recommend that you quickly add to your team all the colleagues who will need to be users of the application, via the "My Team" page.

If you are not the first BC+ user, an access request will then be sent to your colleagues, who will need to accept it in order for you to gain access to the application.

BC+ doesn't seem to recognise my email address, what should I do?

If your organisation is not a member, it is normal for the software not to recognise you; follow this link to the ABC website to join.

If your organisation is indeed a member, it may be that you have not entered your SIRET number on the ABC website. If you think this is an error, we invite you to contact us at [e-mail].

If you are not trained and your organisation is not a member, you can still be added as a reader or contributor on certain studies by other BC+ users.

Managing my organisation and my team

How do I edit the information related to my organisation?

To edit your organisation, you can go to the "My organisation > General information" page, accessible directly from the banner at the top of every BC+ page.

I would like to add a colleague to BC+, how do I do this?

To add colleagues within the application, you can go to the "My organisation > My team" page, accessible directly from the banner at the top of the page.

You then simply need to enter your colleague's email address and define their role, and they will be invited to create their own access. If the person you invite is not trained, the role assigned to them will be manager even if you selected a different one.

If your colleague is trained and wants a role other than manager, they must create an account on the ABC website and then send us their training certificate at [e-mail]

Managing my clients

I would like to create a new client organisation, how do I do this?

If you have joined the ABC within the "Consulting and Research" college, you can create clients. On your home page, you can click the "create a new organisation" button. If you are a Consulting and Research member but do not have access to this button, please send a message to [e-mail].

I would like to edit my clients, how do I do this?

If your client already exists, you simply need to go to the page dedicated to that client, then click on "edit" at the top of the page.

Managing a study

I would like to create a new Bilan Carbone®, how do I do this?

If you have joined the ABC within the "Consulting and Research" college, you must first create a client, then within the page dedicated to that client, click on "Add a Bilan Carbone®". You can also create a Bilan Carbone® for your organisation from the My organisation > My Bilan Carbone® page.

If you have joined the ABC within other colleges (Business, Association/NGO, Public Sector), you must click directly on "Add a Bilan Carbone®" from your home page.

What is the difference within BC+ between a Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Bilan Carbone®?

We would like to remind you that these maturity levels come from the new Bilan Carbone® method, which we strongly encourage you to consult before using the application.

For now, the only difference between these levels concerns the qualities that must be filled in for the various data, with the Beginner and Intermediate levels having the option to rate a "macro" quality instead of rating the five qualities defined in the method. The Advanced level, on the other hand, must rate all five qualities.

In the future, the application will include other elements that differentiate these maturity levels.

I want to add a user to my Bilan Carbone®, how do I do this?

By default, all members of your organisation have read access to any Bilan Carbone® set to "Public visibility". Administrator members, for their part, have validation access to these same Bilan Carbone®.

If you wish to add an additional validator or editor within your Bilan Carbone®, you can go to the "Framing" page, then click on "Add a person to the study". Four scenarios are possible:

• If the person you wish to add already exists on the "My Team" page, you simply need to select them from the drop-down list

• If the person you wish to add is not a BC+ user but does work within your organisation, it may be relevant to first add them to your team (via the "My Team" page), then add them to the desired Bilan Carbone®

• If the person you wish to add is not a BC+ user and does not belong to your organisation, you can still add them to your Bilan Carbone® by entering their email address in the add bar. An email will be sent to them offering to create an account to access the study. This person will only be able to access the study as a reader.

• If the person you wish to add is a BC+ user but does not belong to your organisation, you can still add them to your Bilan Carbone® by entering their email address in the add bar. An email will then be sent to them offering to access the study, and this person will then be able to access your study from their own account. Once an external user has been added, when they enter your Bilan Carbone®, they are indeed working on your organisation account and therefore use your emission factor database (including those added by your organisation).

I want to add a contributor to my Bilan Carbone®, how do I do this?

Contributors are people external to your organisation who need to fill in certain data within the Bilan Carbone®. They are generally resource people within the organisation whose Bilan Carbone® you are carrying out.

If you wish to add an additional contributor within your Bilan Carbone®, you can go to the "Framing" page, then click on "Add a contributor". You will then need to define all the categories on which this person can contribute. Contributors cannot create emission sources, but only complete certain information within already-created emission sources.

What do the contributors I add to my study see?

Contributors find on their home page the various Bilan Carbone® for which they are contributors. They can click on the Bilan Carbone® they are interested in. They then have write access only to the emission sources of the categories and subcategories for which you added them. They cannot add a new emission source and can only edit the following fields:

• Emission factor

• Source

• The fields concerning quality

• The value of the activity data

What are tags and tag families for?

Tags allow you to analyse your emissions according to the topics you define. For example, if you want to obtain the carbon impact of one of your teams' activities, you simply need to create a tag associated with that team and tag all the relevant emission sources. You will then be able to view the aggregation of these emissions on the "Results" page. An emission source can be associated with several tags, for example with a team on the one hand, and with a product sold on the other.

Tag families, for their part, are used to avoid double counting. Ideally, within a "Teams" tag family containing your various teams, emission sources would only be associated with a single tag (i.e. no emission source would be tagged both "Team A" and "Team B"). You will then have the option to choose which tag family you want to display in your chart, in order to overlay the emissions linked to that tag family (thereby visualising the breakdown by tag) with the breakdown by category of the Bilan Carbone®.

What is the purpose of validating emission sources?

For each Bilan Carbone®, BC+ asks you to define one or more "Validators" ("Administrators" are "Validators" by default on all public Bilan Carbone®), who can validate an emission source once all the mandatory information has been filled in.

This validation is used in particular to check the data entered by any contributors, so that the person in charge of the study can properly verify all the information that has been filled in before validating the emission source.

By default, only validated emissions are included in all the results of the Bilan Carbone®, but this setting can be changed via the "Settings" section, accessible via the cog icon on the banner at the top of the screen.

I would like to enter emission sources that concern the entire organisation and not a specific site, how do I do this?

It is not currently possible to do this. You can always create a site named "Global" or equivalent in which you enter all the information that is not specific to a site.

I would like to enter GHG emissions directly in tCO2e within a category, how do I do this?

This feature is not currently developed within BC+, but is intended to be fairly soon. In the meantime, we recommend that you manually create an emission factor with a value of 1 kgCO2e/unit, and use this emission factor to arrive at the desired emissions.

Some fields or terms used within BC+ are unclear to me, even after reading the explanatory tooltips. What should I do?

We strongly encourage you to consult the new Bilan Carbone® method before using the application. Update training sessions will be available in the coming months to help you get to grips with this method.

Furthermore, the application will incorporate other features linked to this new Bilan Carbone® method as its development progresses.

Methodology within the tool

The result in Bilan Carbone® format is different from the one in BEGES-R format, is this normal?

It is entirely normal for these two results to be different, for two reasons:

• The Regulatory GHG Assessment does not include the "Use in dependency" subcategory, because the notion of dependency does not exist in this method.

• The Regulatory GHG Assessment includes all the emissions from waste recycling in the assessment of the waste producer, whereas the Bilan Carbone® only assigns to the waste producer the weight of waste collection and transport. Thus, the emission factors with a value of 41 kgCO2e/t within the tool are those used for the Bilan Carbone®, while the values including material regeneration (the recycling process, for the "Recycling" or "Average end-of-life" emission factors) are used for the BEGES-R. The emission factor displayed on BC+ is only the one used for the Bilan Carbone®, but the calculations for the BEGES-R export are indeed carried out with the emission factors linked to recycling or to ADEME's average end-of-life.

These differences are presented and explained in a modal on the tool's "Results" page.

If your results show abnormal differences that are not explained by the two points above, we invite you to contact us at [e-mail].

The result in Bilan Carbone® format is different from the one in GHG-P format, is this normal?

It is entirely normal for these two results to be different, for two reasons:

• The GHG Protocol does not include the "Use in dependency" subcategory, because the notion of dependency does not exist in this method.

• The GHG Protocol does not include emissions linked to visitor and customer travel if these are non-operated.

• The GHG Protocol accounts for all emissions linked to capital goods at the time of their acquisition, and does not amortise the emissions.

• The Bilan Carbone® includes all GHGs, whereas the GHG Protocol only includes the GHGs of the Kyoto Protocol.

• Other indirect emissions that do not correspond to any GHG Protocol category can nevertheless be filled in within the Bilan Carbone®. In particular, certain parts of emission factors may not be accounted for within the GHG Protocol, for example the upstream of a non-operated energy consumption.

• When you view your emissions in market-based format in the GHG Protocol, there is an additional difference compared to the Bilan Carbone® format, which always remains location-based.

These differences are presented and explained in a modal on the tool's "Results" page.

If your results show abnormal differences that are not explained by the two points above, we invite you to contact us at [e-mail].

The "Recycling" and "Average end-of-life" EFs for waste have different values on BC+ and on Base Empreinte®, is this normal?

Yes, this is entirely normal. Here are a few elements to help understand the subject, as waste treatment through recycling must be handled with care.

Regarding the methodological approach:

• For the Bilan Carbone® method: The waste producer includes the impacts of collection & operation of the sorting centre. The waste producer does not include the impact of the material regeneration (recycling) process. With this method, waste directed towards the recycling stream is not counted as waste, but as a secondary raw-material supply flow. Refer to Annex 1 of the new Bilan Carbone® method. It is therefore considered that it is rather up to the organisation that organises this recycling, as well as to the organisations that consume recycled material (in their inputs), to include the material regeneration (which is indeed the case in the emission factors of the "Inputs - goods and materials" category).

• For the regulatory method (BEGES-R), this material regeneration step must be included in the treatment of the waste produced. This step is taken into account in the "Waste - recycling" EFs available on Base Empreinte®. These "Waste - recycling" EFs are therefore on average higher than the EFs linked to other treatments - which is logical from a physical point of view, as there is "an additional step" linked to the regeneration of the waste (e.g. melting of metals, etc.).

Regarding the values used:

• The EFs available in BC+ automatically manage the correct values to use in the context of the Bilan Carbone® and in the BEGES-R export.

• In the context of the Bilan Carbone®, as a first approach one can consider an EF of 41 kgCO2e/t for recycling, regardless of the type of waste. This corresponds to the storage EF for inert waste, i.e. the collection of the waste and the operation of the sorting centre. Refer to the Base Carbone® documentation (scope 3 – waste treatment – cross-cutting contributions).

• In the context of the BEGES-R, the total EF from Base Empreinte® (collection, sorting centre, and recycling impact) will be automatically included.

• As a general rule, it is not the person who generates the waste who can decide whether it will be recycled/recyclable and to what extent. This is why the "average end-of-life" EFs are frequently used (and are sometimes the only ones available). However, for a Bilan Carbone®, please do not use the "Waste - average end-of-life" EFs, which currently include the recycling impact (in proportion to the recycling rate in the relevant sector). They are left available for BEGES-R use.

• Calculation of new EFs: Note that more specific values by sector are being developed (drawing on the PCG expert committee, and in the discussions of the Base Empreinte working groups). In the meantime, feel free to calculate and add "recycling EFs" yourself, via the "Emission factors" page. The same applies to the "Average end-of-life" EFs: they should be recalculated by excluding the recycling impact, or by simulating the end-of-life of the waste based on the EFs specific to other treatments. For example, the total quantity of waste can be broken down according to the following proportions: X% incinerated (with the corresponding EF) and Y% recycled (using an EF of 41 kgCO2e/tonne for recycling)

Regarding the analysis of results:

• It is not a problem to obtain 2 different results between the Bilan Carbone® export and the BEGES-R. Both values make sense, as long as they are explained in an educational way.

Can I import emission factors into the tool?

This feature is planned and will be available by the end of May 2026. You will be able to import emission factors by filling in a template.

Can I import activity data or old Bilan Carbone® into the tool?

This feature is planned and will be available by early June 2026. You will be able to import all the data relating to emission sources into the tool via a template, but you will still need to set up the study.

Transition Plan

What is the SNBC? SBTi?

The SNBC and SBTi are two reference decarbonisation trajectories, which are used in BC+ to give you an initial idea of a decarbonisation trajectory that you could follow.

The National Low-Carbon Strategy (SNBC) is France's roadmap for fighting climate change. It provides guidelines for implementing, in all sectors of activity, the transition towards a low-carbon, circular and sustainable economy. It defines a trajectory for reducing greenhouse gas emissions until carbon neutrality is reached in 2050, and sets short-to-medium-term objectives: the carbon budgets. Currently, it is the second version of the SNBC, the SNBC2, that is used in the tool. It recommends a 40% reduction in emissions between 1990 and 2030, then reaching carbon neutrality by 2050 (including offsetting for residual emissions).

The SNBC3 is expected to be published by decree in spring 2026. More information on the SNBC is available here. The Science-Based Target initiative provides a trajectory aimed at limiting global warming to 1.5°C, and a second one aimed at limiting it to well below 2°C (WB2C, Well-below 2°C). These trajectories consist of linear reductions, which apply:

• To scopes 1 & 2 for the 1.5°C trajectory.

• To scope 3 for the WB2C trajectory

As BC+ does not generally use the principle of scopes, the reduction percentages are applied to the entire assessment.

The SBTi also provides sectoral trajectories, and carbon-intensity trajectories, which are not available in the application at this stage. More information on SBTi is available here.

Why should I fill in my previous Bilan Carbone®?

If you have already carried out assessments in the past on the same organisational boundary, it may be useful to report the emissions of these assessments via the "Past Bilan Carbone®" feature, especially if you are already following a decarbonisation trajectory based on the assessments in question. This allows the tool to display your real emissions on the charts, rather than assumptions, which will enable you to implement the trajectory you are following in BC+.

What is the purpose of the proposed sectoral breakdown?

The SNBC is made up of several differentiated trajectories that apply to different sectors, and of a more general trajectory. It often happens that an organisation is not located in a single sector, but combines several, or that all or part of the organisation's activity does not correspond to any of the sectors provided for in the SNBC.

This part of the application allows you to obtain an SNBC curve that is closer to what your organisation should follow, by positioning yourself across the different sectors. The tool will apply the SNBC's sectoral trajectories to the chosen emissions and combine them to obtain the SNBC trajectory of your organisation.

If these sectors do not suit your activity, you should use the general trajectory (simply do not indicate any sectoral emissions).

Why do my decarbonisation trajectories start in 1990?

Some reference trajectories start at fairly distant dates (-40% reduction between 1990 and 2030 for the SNBC2, reductions starting in 2020 for SBTi).

Organisations starting their decarbonisation today are then heavily penalised if we assume that no reduction has taken place in the past. Consequently, and in the absence of data from previous assessments (which you can fill in on the transition plan initialisation page), we assume that you have reduced your emissions at the same pace as France, based on the national inventories.

If this display bothers you, you can at any time reduce the visible period by moving the cursor on the "Display period" slider below the chart.

What is a top-down trajectory? Bottom-up?

A top-down trajectory, or descending approach, is built from a definition of the objectives that the organisation wishes to set itself, and reflects the path it wishes to take between these objectives. When we talk about reference top-down trajectories, these are generally built to meet a global ambition of limiting global warming to below 1.5°C or 2°C. We therefore start from global ambitions to arrive at a trajectory: we build from the top down.

A bottom-up trajectory, or ascending approach, is built from a mix of reduction actions whose reduction potentials have been quantified. We therefore start from different reductions at different timescales, which we add up to obtain a trajectory: we build from the bottom up.

Why do I have so many curves displayed?

Some curves are linked to reference trajectories that appear by default. Others are your own trajectories, either from the sectoral breakdown you filled in on the initialisation page, or from your own trajectory additions. Finally, the last curve displayed is your bottom-up trajectory, compiled from your various actions.

On top of all this, some curves are displayed in duplicate if you have not followed their recommendations in the past (see the following question)!

Don't panic, you can of course uncheck all the curves that are not relevant to your organisation via the cog icon available on all the transition plan charts.

Why are some reduction rates displayed in orange?

These orange rates are linked to existing trajectories, which are corrected if you have not followed them.

It often happens that an organisation has not decarbonised at the rate initially required by a trajectory (especially when these were designed to start in 1990 or 2020!). In this case, and if nothing is done to adapt the trajectory, the carbon budget initially allocated to the organisation will be exceeded. This overshoot is therefore automatically corrected by BC+, and you will then have two displays:

• The trajectory in its initial state, with the reference annual reduction rate

• The trajectory corrected for the current year, with the corrected annual reduction rate, in orange

The trajectory resulting from this correction is more ambitious: it is up to you to choose whether to comply with it or to build a new one. Note that if you decide today to follow a trajectory whose base year is old, it is entirely normal for you to be below its expectations. Trajectory correction is only triggered when a gap of more than 5% between the expectations and the Bilan Carbone® is observed.

How do I define the base year of my trajectory?

The base year of your trajectory generally corresponds to the year of your first Bilan Carbone®, except in special cases (complete change of boundary, change of ambition, etc.).

If you are in the process of carrying out your first Bilan Carbone®, the base year will therefore be the current year.

By setting increasingly large reduction % over the years, my ambition seems to decrease. Why?

In BC+, all the % currently apply based on the year in which the reduction starts.

Let's imagine that your assessment in 2020 is 1000 tCO2e. If you apply a 5% reduction for 18 years, until 2038, you will reduce your emissions by 50 tCO2e each year, and will therefore have reduced your total emissions by 90%, which will therefore be 100 tCO2e in 2038. If you now apply a second reduction, this time of 10%, these 10% will be calculated relative to the remaining 100 tCO2e, i.e. a reduction of 10 tCO2e each year, which is less ambitious than the 50 tCO2e planned previously.

How are my sub-objectives taken into account?

When you add a sub-objective, it replaces a more general objective over the period considered. The order of priority is as follows: Tag > Subcategory > Category > Site > General.

Thus, if I have defined over the same period an objective on a particular site, and another on the Energy category of all sites, the objective on the Energy category will apply to the entire Energy category of all sites, while the objective on the site will apply to the entire site, with the exception of the Energy category.

Help, I can't find my action/my objective!

Have you checked your filters? If your objective is defined on a particular tag, category, subcategory or site, it disappears if the latter is not checked within your filters!

How do I properly fill in my action sheet?

An action sheet can be filled in three stages:

• First, you can simply create a mix of actions with different time horizons and different reduction potentials, without necessarily filling in all the fields

• Next, you can activate or deactivate these actions in order to align your top-down trajectory and your bottom-up trajectory - The idea is to reach your objectives, but other criteria such as the resources available for implementation are of course very important

• Finally, once you have made up your mind on certain actions, you can finish filling in the action sheets by completing all the fields, in order to arrive at an operational roadmap for each action!

BC+ migration

How do I recover my data from the old BC+?

Our team is working on this so that you can recover, from the old version of the application:

• Your organisations and sites

• Your emission factors

• Your Bilan Carbone®

If you wish to migrate your data, please send an email to [e-mail]