Scope 1, 2, 3 GHG Emissions Infographic
Carbon and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) are categorized into three scopes by Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, the international standard for carbon accounting. In most parts of the world, when a company reports its carbon footprint to regulators, ESG investors, or standards organizations it categorizes and shares its emissions data divided into Scope 1, 2, and 3:
- Scope 1 direct emissions count carbon from buildings, facilities, and vehicles the company owns
- Scope 2 indirect emissions include carbon from purchased electricity, heat, steam, and cooling that comes from an electrical utility or municipal source
- Scope 3 indirect emissions are all the other indirect emissions that come from a company's value or supply chain, including things like waste, shipping products, or product usage by customers
To help make Scope 1-2-3 carbon accounting easier to understand, share, and communicate, we created this free infographic below with examples of each GHG category. Feel free to use this infographic wherever it might be helpful to visualize or diagram GHG Protocol's carbon accounting methodology - including reports, presentations, blog posts, or your own website:
To learn more about carbon accounting, please see our full guide to calculating Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
We wish you all the best as you continue your sustainability journey. If we can be helpful at all (at any step in your process), please get in touch. A central part of our mission and work here at Brightest is enabling better data-driven decision-making (and actions) that lead to a better future for us all.