GHG Emissions Scope 1: Direct Company Emissions

Is Your Business Ready to Measure and Report Its Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

Whether your company is just beginning to consider the benefits of getting involved in green energy segments or you’re a current player seeking to expand your markets, it will be important to have an understanding of the role of greenhouse gas emissions.

The first article in this four-part series covered basic information about greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). Now we take a deep dive into measuring and accounting for greenhouse gas emissions.

Three different types of emissions, called “scopes,” are commonly used to delineate direct and indirect sources of greenhouse gas emissions. The first steps in a GHG inventory include understanding the three different types of emissions and current practices, setting boundaries, and deciding on a model for evaluating emissions. The three types of emissions are called scopes, and they account for upstream emissions (Scope 2), direct emissions (Scope 1) and downstream emissions (Scope 3).

What’s Inside

Scope 1 emissions, the subject of this article, are direct emissions from a company-owned source. These are most often associated with fire suppression and burning of fuels for heat, transportation, and fugitive emissions from air conditioning. The Environmental Protection Agency Scope 1 emissions as stationary and mobile combustion sources and fugitive emissions from refrigeration, air conditioning, fire suppression and industrial gases.

What are Scope 1 emissions?
Four steps to manage GHGs for organizations.
How to reduce Scope 1 emissions.

Why It Matters

With emerging economic opportunities and the possibility of new regulations in this arena, it is important to have an understanding of the steps involved in measuring and reporting GHG emissions