May 7, 2023
The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard classifies a company’s GHG emissions into three ‘scopes’. Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from owned or controlled sources. Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy. Scope 3 emissions are all indirect emissions (not included in scope 2) that occur in the value chain of the reporting company, including both upstream and downstream emissions. Typically scope 3 emissions account for about 90% of a company’s GHG emissions.
Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions that include greenhouse gases (GHG) that arise from the combustion of fuels owned or controlled by the reporting SME. It’s helpful to consider scope 1 emissions in three categories:
– Stationary combustion of fossil fuels at a facility (such as boiler, combustion turbines, process heaters, incinerators)
– Fugitive Emissions, which result from leaks of greenhouse gases over the operational lifetime of the equipment (refrigerated transport, industrial process refrigeration, cold storage warehouses, mobile air conditioning)
– Mobile combustion of owned or leased mobile sources (on-road vehicles, non-road vehicles (mobile machinery)
Scope 2 emissions include greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions that result from the consumption of purchased or acquired energy such as electricity, heating, cooling, and steam. They are called indirect emissions because the organisation doesn’t burn the fuels directly, but because of their consumption, they are made responsible for the equivalent amount of emissions that arise directly, for example at the power plant owner.
It’s useful to divide Scope 2 emissions into market-based and location-based emissions. The market-based approach refers to the emissions of the electricity supplier or an individual electricity product, whereas location-based figures refer to the average emission factors of the area where the electricity consumption takes place.
Scope 3 emissions are basically all other emissions. Typically they account for about 90% of most businesses GHG emissions. This means that SMEs are directly involved in the calculations of supply chain partners. investors and lenders. That’s one of the reasons SMEs are receiving requests for ESG data.
Scope 3 emissions include the remainder of indirect GHG emissions which cannot be categorised as energy-related emissions in Scope 2. Scope 3 emissions occur outside the organisation, e.g. in the supply chain, as well as during transport and distribution (by subcontractors), business travel, employee commuting, and waste.
The GHG Protocol lists 15 different categories of Scope 3 emissions in the value chain which bring SMEs directly into the calculations.
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The ESG Framework Mapping Project was commissioned in October 2021 to independently assess the coverage of the EU Taxonomy (EUT) provided by the leading ESG frameworks. Find our more about the study here.
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Company performance on the various E, S and G measures is reported against science based benchmarks rather than self-selected goals.
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