Greenhouse Gas Protocol

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP) standardizes the methods for categorizing, measuring, and accounting for greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide, methane, hydrocarbons, and others, with the hope that such visibility can lead to reductions in those emissions.

 

The GHGP divides emissions into three categories, or “scopes”:

 

Scope 1 emissions emanate directly from the company or organization itself, such as from burning fuel in factories and company-owned vehicles, and so-called fugitive emissions, that is, leaks.

 

Scope 2 emissions cover emissions from energy purchased by the company or organization, for example, from a power company or utility.

 

Scope 3 emissions cover all other “indirect” emissions, that is, from the end-to-end value chain of the organizations. Scope 3 includes employee commuting and travel, emissions from the production of goods purchased by the company, emissions from investments, emissions from goods sold to consumers, and emissions generated at the end of product life, for example, during a waste-disposal process. Scope 3 is composed of some 15 defined categories. Microsoft’s Cloud for Sustainability covers some but not all of scope 3.