Established in 1990 to meet the growing demand for a consistent reporting framework, the GHG Protocol collaborates with governments, NGOs, corporations, and others to provide globally accepted guidelines for emission calculations.
Nations and businesses committed to the Paris Agreement must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Compliance involves tracking, disclosing, and mitigating emissions, with criteria outlined in the GHG Protocol. This protocol has been instrumental in driving decarbonization efforts across public and private sectors by offering a unified framework for emissions management. Organizations seeking carbon accounting software should ensure alignment with GHG Protocol principles.
Businesses: Used by companies of all sizes and industries globally, with 92% of Fortune 500 companies incorporating GHG Protocol in their reporting.
Governments: Enables national, regional, and local government entities to track and report emissions, supporting policy and strategy development.
NGOs: Allows non-governmental organizations and charities to assess emissions and advocate sustainable practices.
Cities and Municipalities: Assists urban areas in measuring and managing emissions from various sources within their boundaries.
Suppliers: Extends throughout the supply chain as larger organizations often require emissions reporting from suppliers.
Investors: Utilized by investors and financial institutions to assess environmental performance and risk exposure of their investments.
Academic Institutions: Used by universities and research organizations to study emissions trends and contribute to climate change understanding.
Consulting Firms: Adopted by environmental and sustainability consulting firms to provide emissions measurement and management expertise.
Industry Associations: Employed by trade associations and industry groups to establish standardized emission measurement practices.
Corporate Standard: Guides companies in preparing corporate-level GHG emissions inventories, covering scope 1, scope 2, and scope 3 emissions.
GHG Protocol for Cities: Provides cities and communities with a framework for accounting and reporting city-wide greenhouse gas emissions.
Mitigation Goal Standard: Offers guidance to countries and cities for designing national and subnational mitigation goals.
Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard: Enables companies to assess their entire value chain emissions impact.
Policy and Action Standard: Suited for countries and cities, providing a standardized approach for estimating the greenhouse gas effect of policies and actions.
Product Standard: Allows companies to understand the full life cycle emissions of a product.
Project Protocol: A comprehensive tool for quantifying the greenhouse gas benefits of climate change mitigation projects.
To calculate emissions, the GHG Protocol considers six greenhouse gases: CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs, and SF6. Emissions are categorized into three scopes:
Scope 1: Direct emissions from controlled and company-owned resources.
Scope 2: Indirect emissions from purchased energy generation.
Scope 3: Indirect emissions from the entire value chain, including upstream and downstream activities.
Relevance: Ensure GHG reporting meets the decision-making needs of internal and external users.
Completeness: Account for and report all GHG emission sources within specified boundaries.
Consistency: Use consistent methodologies, data, and assumptions for meaningful comparisons over time.
Transparency: Address relevant issues transparently, disclosing assumptions and referencing data sources.
Accuracy: Systematically quantify emissions with reasonable assurance of accuracy and minimize uncertainties.
The GHG Protocol serves as a critical tool in advancing sustainability efforts, offering a comprehensive and standardized approach to measuring and managing greenhouse gas emissions.