Climate accounting: Scope 1, 2 and 3 explained
How a company's greenhouse gas emissions are calculated
To be able to reduce its climate impact, a company must first know how large it is and where it comes from. That is what a climate account does: it calculates greenhouse gas emissions — primarily CO2 but also other gases calculated as CO2 equivalents. Without an account climate effort easily becomes loose claims.
§A common benchmark: GHG Protocol
For climate accounts to be comparable, most follow the same international standard, the GHG Protocol (Greenhouse Gas Protocol). It divides emissions into three categories, called scopes, depending on where in the value chain the emissions occur. The division ensures that you don't double-count and that you remember to look at the whole picture — not just what happens within your own walls.
§The three scopes
| Scope | What it covers | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Scope 1 | Direct discharge from sources the company itself owns or operates | Fuel for own vehicles, gas in own production, heating in own buildings |
| Scope 2 | Indirect emissions from purchased energy | Electricity, district heating and steam, the company buys and uses. |
| Scope 3 | All other indirect emissions in the value chain | Purchased goods and services, transport from suppliers, employees' commuting, use and disposal of products |
§Why is it divided like this?
The division makes it possible to see where you can act directly yourself (Scope 1), where you can choose greener purchased energy (Scope 2), and where you must collaborate with suppliers and customers to move something (Scope 3). It also helps avoid two companies counting the same emission as their own — what's Scope 1 for one is typically Scope 3 for the other.
§From data to action
A climate account is based on data: litres of fuel kilowatt-hours of electricity kilometres of transport quantities of purchased materials. These quantities are multiplied by fixed conversion factors to find the emissions. The quality of the account therefore depends entirely on how reliable the collected data is — and many employees' daily registration plays a role here.
- 01Record consumption carefully – electricity, fuel, materials, waste
- 02Be precise with quantities; an estimate is better than nothing, but data is best
- 03Understand that your registration can end up in the company's climate account
- 04Point out where emissions can be reduced in practice
§Reduction instead of compensation
A climate account is the starting point not the goal. The real work is reducing emissions — preferably by using less energy and fewer resources not just by buying your way out of the problem. Credible climate work prioritises real reductions and is honest about how far you have come.
For the individual employee the climate account means that daily behaviour and recording becomes part of a larger measurable picture — and that care with data and consumption has value far beyond one's own workplace.