What are the carbon footprint 'Scopes?'

In carbon accounting for business, emissions are divided into three Scopes: Scope 1, 2, and 3. They help to clarify and segment how much influence a company has over reducing emissions.

We've included a breakdown of the 3 Scopes, as well as a some real life examples below.

Scope 1

Scope 1 emissions include any greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) that are directly controlled or owned by the company.

What this really means:

All the emissions that come out directly from a company (the gas used in a boiler, the fumes that come out of a company-owned car, etc). You can generally think about this Scope as 'what do we burn?'.

Scope 1 sub-categories:

1. Stationary combustion - Fuel burned within company facilities.

2. Mobile combustion - Fuel burned by company-owned vehicles.

3. Process emissions - Fuel burned specifically by manufacturing processes at company facilities.

4. Fugitive emissions - GHG gas leaks from air con units and refrigeration.

Example of Scope 1 emissions:

Gas heating within a company office (Stationary Combustion).

Scope 1 emissions categories

Scope 2

Scope 2 emissions include any GHGs released indirectly by the company through the purchase of electricity.

What this really means:

When you use electricity, someone else is burning the fuel, but your company is using the energy generated. If Scope 1 is, 'what do we burn?' you can think of Scope 2 as 'how much electricity do we buy?'.

There are 2 ways to report your Scope 2 emissions:

1. Location-based emissions - Assumes electricity is delivered directly from your local electricity grid.

2. Market-based emissions - Assumes electricity is delivered by a specific electricity provider (and is usually used to report on renewable energy usage).

Example of Scope 2 emissions:

Electricity delivered to an office building using a '100% renewable tariff'. If this tariff passes audit, the company could report a lower market-based Scope 2 than location-based Scope 2.

Using renewable energy sources can help reduce scope 2 emissions

Scope 3

Scope 3 emissions are any indirect emissions from the company’s business activity (also known as 'value chain'), which aren’t already covered in Scope 2.

What this really means:

Scope 3 is all the other emissions related to the company. It includes anything that comes in (purchases, staff traveling to work, etc) and comes out of it (goods and services sold and used by clients at their home, waste generated by the use of the products sold, etc).

There are two parts to Scope 3 emissions: 

1. Upstream emissions - Emissions relating to your "enablers of business" e.g. suppliers and workforce.

2. Downstream Emissions - Emissions relating to your distributors or customers once they have your product/service.

Example of Scope 3 emissions:

A clothing company might generate Scope 3 emissions through the production and delivery of textiles to make their clothes (both upstream).

They might also generate Scope 3 emissions through shipping the finished items to customers, and through customers throwing away the clothes eventually.

The same clothing company might also generate Scope 3 emissions through employee commuting or through the work-from-home emissions of remote team members like a marketing or sales team.

Upstream and downstream emissions within Scope 3

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