- 1BEGES and Bilan Carbone® involve the same technical engagement, with 2 output formats, regulatory or strategic.
- 2A range of €12,000 to €25,000 excl. VAT for a company with 500 to 2,000 employees, including scope 3.
- 3The price varies mainly with the depth of the action plan and how scope 3 is addressed, using physical data or spend-based ratios.
- 4A rushed BEGES has to be redone urgently after DREAL intervention, at a higher cost than a scheduled assessment.
- Does a BEGES cost less than a Bilan Carbone®?
No. It is the same technical work, with 2 output formats.
- €12,000 to €25,000 excl. VAT for a company with 500 to 2,000 employees, in the 2 cases.
- A reputable provider refuses to produce a bare minimum BEGES covering only scopes 1+2.
- The difference between 2 quotations mainly reflects the depth of the action plan and the scope 3 assessment.
The idea that a mandatory BEGES costs less than a voluntary Bilan Carbone® persists. For a consultancy, the work is the same.
1What the two cover
BEGES (Bilan d'Émissions de Gaz à Effet de Serre) is the French regulatory requirement provided for in Article L.229-25 of the Environmental Code. Three categories of organisations are concerned:
What are you really looking for?
Click on your aim: the quote depends on what you expect from the assessment.
- Private companies with more than 500 employees in mainland France (250 in overseas territories)
- Local authorities with more than 50,000 inhabitants
- Public establishments with more than 250 staff
Submission takes place on ADEME's BEGES platform. Publication frequency: 4 years for private companies, 3 years for public-law legal entities. Since 1 January 2023 (Decree No. 2022-982), significant scope 3 has been mandatory for public-law legal entities and companies subject to sustainability reporting (formerly DPEF). For other private companies, only scopes 1 and 2 are required and scope 3 remains recommended.
Bilan Carbone® is a proprietary method managed by the Association Bilan Carbone® (ABC). It is a voluntary approach with broader boundaries, which systematically includes scope 3 in practice and delivers a strategic report structured around 11 activity categories, with a quantified action plan.
On paper, one is narrower than the other and should therefore cost less. In practice, a competent provider refuses to produce a "bare minimum" BEGES limited to scopes 1 and 2: this format is only permitted for private companies not subject to sustainability reporting, captures less than 15% of actual emissions and is useful neither internally nor with clients.
2What makes the price vary
The price difference between a "BEGES" and a "Bilan Carbone®" comes down to 3 variables, far more than to the technical boundaries.
Do it properly or fix it urgently
Cumulative cost of failing to meet the BEGES requirement
The deliverable format. BEGES follows a format prescribed by ADEME: a standardised Excel file, a public summary report and submission on the platform. Bilan Carbone® delivers a richer report on business activities, with visualisations, strategic insights and a presentation to the executive committee. Writing and formatting take slightly longer, accounting for a difference of €1,500 to €3,000 excl. VAT. We explain all the variables that change a Bilan Carbone® quote in another analysis.
The depth of the action plan. BEGES requires publication of a transition plan, but this may be minimal (a few generic measures without quantified figures) or substantiated (quantified, sequenced measures aligned with a pathway). A minimal plan takes 1 day to produce, while a quantified strategic plan takes 3 to 5. At €800 to €1,200 excl. VAT per consultant-day, this accounts for most of the difference.
How scope 3 is addressed. A "minimum compliance" BEGES can address scope 3 using very quick spend-based ratios (3 to 4 days of data collection). A thorough Bilan Carbone® addresses scope 3 using sector-specific physical data (8 to 12 days). The price difference follows the difference in days, and this category accounts for most of the ways to reduce the cost without sacrificing quality.
If a provider offers a BEGES at €6,000 excl. VAT and a Bilan Carbone® at €18,000 excl. VAT for the same company, the proposed BEGES is generally a superficial assessment that will cost more to redo in 2 years when a client or bank requests a proper assessment.
3The fine changes the calculation
Failing to publish your BEGES when subject to the requirement exposes you to an administrative fine. Since the 2023 Green Industry Act, the ceiling has been €50,000, and €100,000 for a repeat offence (the 2019 Energy and Climate Act had raised it to €10,000). The prefect imposes the penalty following formal notice, and it may be published on ADEME's website, with a naming-and-shaming effect.
In practice, few companies have received financial penalties so far, but a company subject to the requirement that has not published remains exposed to formal notice at any time.
A recent Celsius example: a mid-cap company's CFO called us in March 2024, two weeks after receiving formal notice from DREAL. The company had been subject to the requirement since 2020 but had never published. The urgent quote to produce a complete BEGES in 6 weeks came to €22,000 excl. VAT, or 40% more than an assessment scheduled 4 months in advance.
These figures put the cost of the assessment into perspective. Paying €15,000 excl. VAT for a sound BEGES protects against a fine of up to €50,000, the cost of urgently redoing an assessment and public exposure. If the same assessment also serves as a decarbonisation roadmap and a response to clients, the expense is all the more justified.
4When to choose one over the other
Unlike the GHG Protocol versus Bilan Carbone® debate, the question here is not a clear-cut either/or question: you can and should do both in the same engagement. BEGES is the legal requirement, Bilan Carbone® the strategic deliverable. The two are compatible.
BEGES alone, at the bare minimum, should be reserved for 2 cases: a public organisation with a constrained budget that needs to comply (including scope 3, since it is mandatory), or a large company that produced a Bilan Carbone® the previous year and only wants to submit the ADEME version for the current reporting year.
The combined Bilan Carbone® + BEGES engagement is the default option for any company subject to the requirement that takes the subject seriously. It provides regulatory compliance, an internal management tool, a commercially usable deliverable and the basis for a quantified decarbonisation plan, for an extra €1,500 to €3,000 excl. VAT compared with a "strict" BEGES.
Bilan Carbone® alone, without a BEGES submission, suits SMEs not subject to the requirement (fewer than 500 employees) that want to anticipate pressure from their clients or use Diag Décarbon'Action to reduce the bill.
5What changes when you do both in one engagement
In a combined BEGES + Bilan Carbone® engagement, the extra cost is €1,500 to €3,000 excl. VAT compared with a "strict" BEGES, for a deliverable serving compliance, internal management and responses to clients. In separate engagements, BEGES remains a regulatory document that will need to be followed by an assessment a year later, and an assessment redone urgently costs more than a scheduled one, without counting the fine of up to €50,000 if publication was forgotten. Over 3 years, the combined engagement therefore costs less than 2 separate engagements, even before discussing added value.
Beyond price, the question is whether the requirement becomes a management tool or a box ticked that will have to be redone. A competent consultancy delivers the 2 formats in the same engagement, and BEGES becomes a by-product.
