The GHG Protocol splits an organisation's emissions into three scopes. The split is not about how bad the emissions are — it is about who controls the activity that causes them.
Scope 1 — direct
Emissions from sources the organisation owns or controls.
- Fuel burned in company boilers and furnaces
- Company vehicle fleets
- Refrigerant leakage from owned equipment
Scope 2 — purchased energy
Emissions produced elsewhere to generate the electricity, steam, heating, or cooling the organisation buys.
| Method | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Location-based | The average grid intensity where you consume |
| Market-based | The contracts and certificates you actually purchased |
Scope 3 — everything else in the value chain
Fifteen categories, upstream and downstream: purchased goods and services, business travel, commuting, transport and distribution, use of sold products, end-of-life treatment, investments, and more.
For most organisations Scope 3 is 70–90% of the total footprint — and it is the part you influence rather than control.
Why the split matters
- It prevents double counting when many organisations report together.
- It shows where a company can act directly versus where it must collaborate.
- It makes targets comparable across companies and sectors.
The Carbon Reporting Explorer experiment turns this structure into something you can click through rather than memorise.