English translation: carbon footprint assessment / calculation
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07:32 Jul 21, 2011
French to English translations [PRO] Tech/Engineering - Environment & Ecology / bilan carbone
French term or phrase:réalisation du bilan carbone
This comes in a list of measures taken by a company as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility efforts.
The 'full' sentence is this:
Avancer sur cet axe, nécessite
De sensibiliser nos équipes [ex. formation interne sur le bilan carbone; formations HQE, Bilan Carbone,… ; réalisation du bilan carbone...
It's the 'realisation du bilan carbone' I'm not too sure about. So far I simply said "meeting our carbon footprint targets' - is that right? Later on it says "nous avons effectué notre bilan carbone" - is this saying the same thing?
Hello folks. official sources are a good starting point. Of they have been transalted, which is the case of the Bilan Carbone, then the lexical choices made there may have the weight of being considered official too. We all know that they are translated by folks like you and me and that is not necessarily the sign of being "right"! However, such sites do remain a godd starting point and a reference point. You can and should use your own judgment to determine whether you make use of those sources. I agree with Leslie on "réaliser, effectuer" being "assess, calculate" etc here.
- Final caveat : even if they correlate, do not always translate!
Even if there is a correlation between the two assessment tools, unless they are the same, point for point, then in my view, translating in a copy & paste Bilan Carbon (R) and Carbon Footprint (TM) which may be understandable may also be erroneous. Even is European directives require certain rules and regs to be brought into force, methods of application vary form country to country. France does not have a Carbon Footprint ; the UK no Bilan Carbon. OK - just seen Bourth's post. ... which is why I suggested "greenhouse gas emissions assessment"
that Bilan Carbone CAN be a protected name, but it need not be. Seems to me that here they are talking about the 'generic'. It's news to me that "Carbon Footprint" is protected too, but that should not prevent it being used generically. The chicken came before the egg, surely.
IMO, it doesn't mean they've met their targets at all. It means an outside company has come in and checked/controlled their footprint and given them a report. It's more along the lines of "calculate carbon footprint"; "carbon footprint calculated"...
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Answers
8 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +6
carbon footprint assessment / calculation
Explanation: See my comment in the discussion
Example sentence(s):
Calculating the carbon footprint of your organisation can be the first step in a programme to reduce emissions. If you're new to carbon footprinting, find out more about what a carbon footprint measures, or go ahead and calculate your organisation's footp
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +6