Greenhouse Gas Accounting Efforts Undermined by Disparate Tools & Frameworks

Scope 3 emissions, which include emissions upstream and downstream from a given company within its supply chain, represent a considerable challenge, and discussion about how to both account for and mitigate these emissions is a hot topic amongst companies taking climate action. For many companies, these Scope 3 emissions, which lie outside the company’s direct control, represent the majority of their climate impact and mitigation potential.

While rigorous organization-level greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting using the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard has enabled companies to identify emissions hotspots and track corporate progress in reductions over time, variability in product-level GHG accounting standards and methodologies can prevent companies from understanding both their true emissions and their progress in reducing them. Greater harmonization in product-level accounting could accelerate progress and enable better cross-organizational comparison.