Scope 1 — direct
Emissions from sources you own or control: fuel burned in your boilers and vehicles, and fugitive refrigerant leakage. Example: diesel in an owned fleet, gas in a factory.
Guide · GHG Protocol
Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, explained.
The GHG Protocol splits a company’s emissions into three scopes. Here is what each one means, in plain terms, with examples — and why the factor you apply and the record you trace back to decide whether the number holds up.
Scope 2 — purchased energy
Emissions from the electricity, heat or steam you buy. Reported two ways — location-based (grid average) and market-based (what you contracted). Example: grid electricity at a depot.
Scope 3 — value chain
Indirect emissions up and down your value chain: purchased goods, business travel, freight, waste. Usually the largest and the hardest, because the data is not yours to meter directly.
From definition to a defensible figure
The scope is only half the answer — the factor and the trail are the rest.
Classifying an activity into a scope is the easy part. A figure you can file also needs the right emission factor for the activity’s own period and geography, and a trail back to the record it came from. That is what Terrametri’s carbon accounting enforces, and what feeds a reconciled ESRS E1 disclosure.
Questions
Scopes, answered
What is the difference between Scope 2 location-based and market-based?
Location-based uses the average emissions intensity of the grid you draw from; market-based reflects the specific electricity you have contracted (e.g. a supply tariff or certificate). ESRS E1 asks for both, so a reporting platform computes each from the relevant factor.
Why is Scope 3 usually the largest and hardest?
Scope 3 covers indirect emissions across your value chain — purchased goods, business travel, freight, waste — which depend on supplier and activity data you do not directly meter. It is where factor choice and traceability matter most.
Does the reporting period affect which factor is used?
Yes. A defensible figure prices each record with the emission-factor edition valid for that record's own period, not the current edition — so 2023 activity is never priced with a 2024 factor.
See your scopes resolved to the record.
We’ll compute your scopes on a sample of your data and show the trail behind each figure — all three for UK operations, and for EU data, electricity (Scope 2) on EEA factors with the rest held for review rather than estimated.