LOG IN CARBULATOR

FAQ

METHODOLOGY

  • It depends on the size and organization of your company. Large structures will have the resources to dedicate a person to this task. However, their data is more voluminous and complex to collect (multiple physical sites, several departments, etc.). Smaller structures may not be able to dedicate a specific person to the task, but their data is more easily accessible and limited in scope.
  • Regardless of your company’s size, we encourage you to set up processes to collect information as it becomes available. For example, every spring, you could organize an update of data related to meals and employee commuting by conducting a new survey.
  • In Carbulator, the FTEs to be reported include everyone working in the studio during the reporting year (2024, 2025 datasets, etc.), whether they are permanent or intermittent staff. The term FTE refers to the Full-Time Equivalent workload performed over a year. For example, two people working half-time correspond to 1 FTE. You should therefore obtain the total number of paid hours for the year from your HR/Accounting department to calculate this figure.
  • This includes:
  • Permanent employees (standard open-ended or fixed-term contracts)
  • Intermittent entertainment workers (CDDU):
  • If employed by the studio → counted in the studio’s FTEs.
  • If employed by another entity (e.g., an external service provider) but working on your premises → that entity counts them in its own FTEs.
  • In a co-production, each structure enters its own FTEs for its share.
  • Note: Freelancers (paid via invoices) are to be excluded.
  • No, you are not required to count personal equipment used by employees while teleworking. In theory, this could refine the calculation, but in practice, it is very complicated to track (declarations, machine monitoring, etc.).
  • As long as you have declared at least the equipment present in your studios, it is sufficient for the report to be considered complete. 

CO-PRODUCTIONS AND EXTERNAL SERVICES

  • The lead production company (usually the executive production company) is responsible for preparing the carbon footprint report for the production. In France, it is this company that submits the report to the CNC – even if the production is a co-production.

    However, partners, service providers, or third-party studios are required to measure the carbon footprint of their contribution and provide the results to the production company, which will consolidate them into the final report for the work.
  • No. Carbulator operates by independent organizations: each structure has its own non-shareable workspace. It is not possible to open a project to an external user or to complete it across multiple organizations. External contributors are invited to provide you with the report of their contribution directly in the form of a carbon footprint measured in kgCO2e. You will declare this in the “Work” section using a “service provider” type group.
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  • Each service provider involved in a project (3D animation studio, sound recorder, post-production, etc.) must provide a carbon footprint measurement corresponding only to their share of work on that specific project, and not the annual carbon impact of their entire studio.
  • Post-production service providers can use calculator from Ecoprod, Carbon’Clap.
  • Animation and VFX service providers can use Carbulator. They will need to create their own Carbulator account and proceed exactly as you do: declare a physical site (Studio), declare a Work (Project), and allocate human and technical resources to it. The result of their Work report will constitute their share in kgCO2e for your project.
  • If it is impossible to obtain this data from a provider: in you Production section > Workgroup tab, still enter a workgroup of “Service Provider” type, fill in all known fields (name, dates of intervention, etc.), and leave their contribution at 0 kgCO2e.

    When exporting for the CNC (France), you can use the comments field to mention the impossibility of obtaining this data.
  • As of now (Summer 2026), Carbulator works exclusively with French carbon data. We are currently developing partnerships with different countries to obtain certified Emission Factors specific to each location and compatible with the calculation methodology. The list of countries will grow over time. The carbon footprint calculation will then automatically take local data into account when declaring a studio in that country.

TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

  • The Inventory is a list of all your IT equipments. It serves as the basis for calculating your studio’s annual IT carbon footprint.
  • Configurations allow you to assemble multiple pieces of equipment into functional units used in production. They form the basis for calculating carbon impacts related to IT in connection with workgroups.
  • Yes, all major equipment present in your studio(s) must be declared in the inventory, even if it is not used for a specific project. This allows the carbon impact of this equipment to be accounted for and allocated to the studio annually.
  • Equipment used for the creation of a work must be assembled into configurations. These can then be associated with workgroups, and their impact will be allocated to the Project based on the time used.
  • Even if it is not part of any configuration, equipment declared in the inventory is still taken into account in the annual studio’s carbon report. Its impact is calculated based on its lifespan, its presence during the year, and the number of units declared.
  • However, it cannot be mobilized for the production of a specific work by a workgroup.
  • We suggest assembling into configurations (and thus making them available for projects) mainly workstation + monitor setups, as well as render servers. Typically, service or storage servers are considered “cross-functional” to the studio. It is therefore not necessary to integrate them into specific Projects.
  • No, it is not necessary to create a distinct configuration for every variation in reference or quantity. Using groups and distribution percentages, Carbulator allows you to model multiple variants of the same workstation (for example: 25% of artists use a 24″ screen, 75% use a 22″ screen). This avoids unnecessary duplication and better reflects the actual diversity of your hardware.
  • These items are missing from the equipment list because, after many attempts and exchanges, manufacturers have not provided us the carbon impact in kgCO2e for their products.

STUDIO AND PROJECT ACTIVITY DATA

  • Studio data is structural. It relates to the overall operation of the Studio entity (e.g., annual energy, employee commuting, general purchases, supplies, etc.).
  • Project data is specific to a production (e.g. number of days worked for a task, travel for a validation meeting, dedicated expenses, etc.)
  • It is necessary to distinguish between headcount and working time:
  • FTEs (Full-Time Equivalents) correspond to the number of people employed over the year by a studio. They should only be entered in the studio data and are used to evaluate the average carbon cost of a person-day.
  • In the Project, you will enter a number of days worked to complete a task (person-days) rather than a number of people. These are two complementary levels; there is no double-counting if each is correctly filled out.
  • If the categories are not distinct, enter the total global electricity consumption. Detailed breakdowns are only necessary if you have separate measurements.
  • When the production of a work spans several years, you must ensure that each studio attached to this work has a complete dataset for each of the years concerned. For example, if a work is produced between September 2026 and June 2028, you must enter: one Studio dataset for the year 2026 and another for the year 2027 and 2028.