The GHG Protocol
Measuring, reporting, and reducing your organization’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is essential – not only for compliance, but also to identify inefficiencies, reduce costs, build supply chain resilience, and take strategic steps toward decarbonization. But, it can be daunting, overwhelming, and confusing to even know where to start.
Enter the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol – the world’s leading standard for measuring and managing GHG emissions. The GHG Protocol provides the framework to harmoniously classify and understand emission sources for different types of organizations and different types of climate policies and business goals.
The Three Scopes of Emissions
The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol defines three “scopes” – Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 – to provide clarity and avoid double-counting in emissions accounting and reporting. These scopes help identify where an organization’s emissions come from, who controls them, and how they should be accounted for.
It is now the global standard used by organizations and forms the basis of many sustainability frameworks for reporting – including with Nasdaq ESG, VSME, and ESRS – as well as regulatory disclosure requirements in numerous countries.
Scope 1: Direct Emissions. It covers fuel consumption and fugitive emissions from refrigerators and coolers.
Scope 2: Indirect Emissions from Purchased Energy. It covers purchased electricity, heating, and gas-based cooling.
Scope 3: Indirect Emissions in the Value Chain, both upstream and downstream of the reporting company. It is largest and most complex category, and you have likely heard many mention that it can account for up to 98% of a company’s total emissions, because this scope includes 15 different categories.
GHG protocol informs Klappir's data management
By structuring data within a framework like the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, we ensure it is consistent, comparable, auditable, and meaningful. Klappir adopts the GHG Protocol methodology because it is the most widely used and recognized international accounting standard for governments and businesses to understand, quantify, and manage greenhouse gas emissions.
In Klappir’s Sustainability Platform, emissions are categorized based on their source – i.e., the assets they come from, such as ships, buildings, vehicles – and the organization’s level of control over those sources. If your organization controls an emission source, those emissions are included in your reporting (typically Scope 1 or 2). Emissions from parts of the value chain outside your direct control – such as suppliers or customers – fall under Scope 3.
Following this framework enables Klappir to help organizations visualize their sustainability footprint through the Dashboard, identify emission hotspots via Insights, engage suppliers within the Value chain and Due Diligence, and make informed, data-driven decisions based on KPIs analysis.