To fight climate change at the corporate level, the imperative starting point is to measure its greenhouse gas emissions. Here, we will explain to you in detail what the famous scopes are, which you have heard about.
If you are looking for more general information on the carbon footprint of a company, Sami is still there for you! All you need to do is consult our complete carbon footprint guide.
So what are scopes? To measure a company's GHG emissions, there are various methodologies (GHG Protocol in particular), which all have in common that they categorize emissions into 3 perimeters, called “scopes”. The famous scopes 1, 2 and 3 of a carbon footprint.
1. How are programs categorized?
In order to facilitate the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the activity of a company, a categorization into 3 scopes exists.
The GHG Protocol is at the origin of this categorization, which is used in various methodologies such as the Bilan Carbone in France, the ISO14064 standard or the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) methodology internationally.
1.1. Scopes 1, 2 and 3
- Scope 1 = direct greenhouse gas emissions
These are greenhouse gas emissions that take place directly at the company level. A few examples:
- emissions associated with gas heating in an office or factory
- emissions related to the combustion of fuel from service vehicles owned by the company
- refrigerant gas leaks from an air conditioning, a fridge or a cold room
- Scope 2 = indirect energy-related emissions
These are mainly emissions related to electricity, which does not emit directly at the workplace but at the time of its production (the combustion of a gas-fired power plant for example).
- Scope 3 = other indirect emissions
It's all the other shows. Scope 3 is very broad by definition and generally represents the vast majority of emissions related to a company's activity. Not taking Scope 3 into account means having a very incomplete vision of your company's carbon footprint.
Some examples of “scope 3” emissions:
- Purchases of goods and raw materials
- service purchases (administrative, digital, etc.)
- Commuting between home and work
- the use of the products or services sold
We will go into more detail on the 3 scopes in the rest of the article.
1.2 The 23 program sub-categories
Each Scope is divided into sub-categories that are also called “emission stations”. The Bilan Carbone® methodology has 23, which are as follows:
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2. Scope 1: direct emissions
Scope 1 accounts for direct emissions within the scope of the company. The company is directly responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.
Here are the various sub-categories (or “emission items”) of Scope 1 in detail:
To make it clearer, we have entered the results of what the carbon footprint of a supermarket could be:
For a service company, which has no gas heating or company vehicles, Scope 1 is generally limited to refrigerant gas leaks from fridges and air conditioning, which are powerful greenhouse gases. This is often low compared to the rest of the emissions generated by an activity!
Note: emissions that take place before combustion are not counted in scope 1: only emissions that take place directly at the time of combustion are counted.
For example, emissions related to the extraction, refining and transport of diesel burned by executive vehicles are not counted in Scope 1 but in Scope 3 (sub-category “Upstream Energy”).
3. Scope 2: indirect energy-related emissions
The Scope 2 accounts for indirect emissions related to energy consumption, whether electricity, heat or cold. It is by definition a very small Scope, with only 3 sub-categories.
Here are the 2 sub-categories (or “emission items”) of Scope 2:
Example of the Scope 2 of a supermarket:
Note: here too, so-called “upstream” emissions from electricity production are not included in Scope 2.
For example, emissions related to the extraction and transport of gas burned in thermal power plants that produce electricity or the construction of solar panels and wind turbines will not be counted in Scope 2 but in Scope 3 (sub-category “Upstream energy”).
4. Scope 3: other indirect emissions
Scope 3 accounts for all other indirect emissions. Basically, it's “everything else.”
It is common to divide Scope 3 emissions into “upstream” emissions (before the production of the goods or services sold) and “downstream” emissions (after the production of the goods or services sold). Here are the details of all the sub-categories (or “emission items”) of Scope 3:
Scope 3 emissions therefore very often represent the vast majority of emissions induced by a company's activity!
Example of the Scope 3 of a supermarket:
The challenges of categorization in 3 Scopes.
In detailing this Scope 3, we realize two things:
1/ The limited usefulness of this categorization into 3 Scopes.
Indeed, reading the results through the prism of the 3 Scopes will often be inconclusive given the much greater weight of Scope 3 and the diversity of its sub-categories.
2/ The growing scope of scope 3 in French law
Since 2012, a greenhouse gas assessment has been mandatory for some companies but only took account of Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Although the Climate law was not ambitious enough, the decree of July 2, 2022, on the other hand, made it mandatory to take scope 3 into account in the GHG assessment, which is encouraging!
A new categorization of Scope 3
With the new BEGES regulatory decree v5, Scope 3 is now itself divided into 3 categories.
It is simply a new visualization and No of 3 new Scopes or additional categories to study.
They only make reading Scope 3 easier, but the posts are the same, only the names have changed. So let's talk more about emissions related to transport, products purchased or products sold within Scope 3.
Focus on the sub-category “Use of products sold”
It is interesting to focus on category 18 “Use of products sold.”
Indeed, it can often crush a company's overall carbon footprint. Let's take 2 examples.
- Total
We sometimes hear that Total's carbon footprint is equivalent to that of France. If the comparison may seem surprising, it is because in fact this comparison takes into account Total's Scope 1, 2 and 3 carbon footprint, which therefore includes the use of its products, namely the combustion of all petroleum products sold!
For Total, it's like this:
- Scope 1 and 2:20 Mt CO2e
- Scope 3:292 Mt CO2e
Even if there are other sub-categories in Scope 3 than “Use of products sold”, we can bet that the figure of 292 Mt of CO2e is almost exclusively composed of the use of the products sold.
- Mozilla (Firefox)
Mozilla markets the famous Firefox web browser. In the case of a digital service, “the use of the products sold” is generally more difficult to calculate. The question of the scope of emissions in the use of the product can be complicated.
Mozilla has retained in the use of its service the electricity consumption of all its users' terminals when they use Firefox. This represents 98% of the total carbon footprint!
Conclusion
Scopes 1, 2 and 3 represent the various main categories of greenhouse gas emissions of an organization. Scope 3 generally includes the vast majority of induced emissions and therefore actions that can be put in place to act for the climate. Not taking it into account when calculating your company's carbon footprint shows not only a lack of ambition but also a breach of the law because from January 1, 2023 it will be mandatory to include scope 3 in the GHG balance sheet.
This categorization by scopes is interesting and used around the world by the various carbon accounting methodologies. But in our opinion, it is insufficient to clearly read the carbon footprint and easily draw concrete actions from it.
That's why at Sami, in addition to reading by Scope, we offer a more natural categorization that is as close as possible to the company's activity!
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