What are scopes and what are categories?

Two of the most popular international carbon emission reporting standards are the GHG protocol, and ISO 14064-1:2018. Both standards give guidance on how your company can universally account for, and report on, their organisational carbon emissions. The way the two standards guide business to account for their emissions is fundamentally the same, the difference comes in the reporting of those emissions. Below details how emissions are categorised and divided.

The GHG protocol splits emissions into 3 Scopes. ISO 14064-1:2018 splits emissions into 6 Categories (see Table 1 below).

Scope 1 emissions from the GHG protocol, or Category 1 from ISO standards, are direct emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by an organisation. These include emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels in boilers, fuel in fleet vehicles, greenhouse gas leakage from fridges and AC units. They also include the direct emissions from nitrogen fertiliser as N2O is released when fertiliser is applied.

Scope 2 emissions from the GHG protocol, or Category 2 from the ISO standard, are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, heat, or steam used by an organisation.

Scope 3 emissions from the GHG protocol are also indirect emissions, but they are emissions that are not produced directly by the company itself, but by those that they are indirectly responsible for, up and down the value chain.

Now this is where its starts to get confusing. The GHG protocol also splits Scope 3 emissions into 15 further categories (see Table 2 below). ISO 14064-1:2018 classifies Scope 3 emissions as Category 3, 4, 5 and 6. Which ever standard you use, they include things such as freight, business travel, waste, purchased goods, and end-of-life treatment of products.

Discovering which Scope 3 emissions are relevant to your business is part of understanding your total emissions profile. The GHG Protocol has comprehensive Scope 3 guidance to understand what is relevant and what can be measured. It can get complicated so reach out to an expert if it all gets too much.

Whether an organisation needs to report on their emissions depends on various factors such as industry, location, and size. In some countries, reporting emissions is a legal requirement for companies, while in others it is voluntary. Government expectations on who is required to report is constantly being updated.

Additionally, some organisations choose to report their emissions voluntarily as a way to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and reduce their environmental impact. Global initiatives such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) provide guidelines for companies to report their emissions.

Below further details how Scopes 1, 2 and 3 compare with ISO 14064-1:2018 Category's emissions:

Table 1
GHG PROTOCOL	ISO 14064-1:2018	What emissions?	Examples
Scope 1	Category 1	Direct GHG emissions or removals	Burning of fuel, fertiliser application, leaking fridges
Scope 2	Category 2	Indirect GHG emissions from energy	Purchased electricity
Scope 3	Category 3	Indirect GHG emissions from Transportation	Employee commute, business travel, freight, Working from home
Scope 3	Category 4	Indirect from products an organisation uses	Water supply and wastewater
Scope 3	Category 5	Indirect GHG emissions (use of products from the organisation)	End of life emissions, emissions from investments
Scope 3	Category 6	Indirect emissions (other sources)	Specific emissions or removals which don't fall into another category.

Categorising scope 3 emissions

Table 2
What emissions?	GHG protocol	ISO 14064-1:2018
Upstream emissions
Purchased goods and services	Category 1	Category 4
Capital goods	Category 2	Category 4
​Fuel and energy related activities not included in Scope 1 or 2	Category 3	Category 4
Upstream transportation and distribution	Category 4	Category 3
Waste generated in operations	Category 5	Category 4
Business travel	Category 6	Category 3
Employee commuting	Category 7	Category 3
Upstream leased assets	Category 8	Catagory 4
Downstream emissions
Downstream transportation and distribution	Category 9	Category 3
Processing of sold product	Category 10	Category 5
Use of sold products	Category 11	Category 5
End of life treatment for of sold products	Category 12	Category 5
Downstream leased assets	Category 13	Category 5
Franchises	Category 14	Category 5
Investments	Catagory 15	Category 5