Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reporting is crucial to any sustainability program, whether for corporate ESG or because your customers are requiring it. It is one of the most prevalent environmental criteria the public associates with climate change and is an important part of most major sustainability reporting frameworks.  

However, tracking emissions is less straightforward than other resources like water use or waste generation. They can't be directly tracked from a single source, or easily measured by meters or waste removal logs. Instead, they are generated by varying actions that a company takes across the value chain from the extraction of raw materials used to make products, through the sales process and also include end-of-product-life impacts. As a result, some emissions are directly under the control of the business, while others are not — such as emissions related to a supply chain. This can make tracking and reporting emissions a challenging yet necessary process.  

Tracking GHG Emissions 

Recording GHG emissions focuses on tracking actions that produce emissions and quantifying the emissions associated with those actions. These actions are split into three categories: Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions. Each scope relies on various metrics to quantify the associated emissions, which translates to varying efforts to track and reduce the associated emissions.  

Scope 1: Direct Emissions  

Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from sources owned or controlled by the company. The primary Scope 1 emissions include: 

• Onsite Energy Consumption: These emissions are generated by fuels directly used in onsite operations. One of the most common examples is natural gas used for heating buildings. Tracking this is primarily done by reviewing utility bills outlining the quantity of gas purchased and used. 
• Company Vehicles: Emissions generated by vehicles directly owned by a company fall into Scope 1. Companies need to monitor the distance traveled and fuel efficiency of their vehicles. This data, often recorded through fleet management systems, helps quantify direct emissions from transportation. 

Scope 2: Indirect Emissions  

Scope 2 accounts for indirect GHG emissions from the consumption of purchased energy — typically from a utility company. A company does not directly generate these emissions, but they are the result of their demand. 

Tracking Scope 2 GHG emissions is almost entirely reliant upon utility bills. This helps calculate the emissions attributable to their energy use, even though the actual generation of these utilities occurs off-site. 

Scope 3: Value Chain Emissions  

Scope 3 is the most extensive and challenging, encompassing all other indirect emissions from a company's value chain. This includes upstream and downstream activities — typically all emissions that don't fall into Scope 1 or 2. Take a look here at the 15 different categories:

Important aspects to consider are: 

• Supply Chain: Identifying emissions related to goods and services a company purchases. This may be from a supplier that produces a part you use or emissions from a third-party transportation company that moves your product. Tracking these emissions is challenging and relies on third-party suppliers self-reporting them to you.  
• Employee Commuting and Travel: Companies should track the emissions related to employee commuting and business travel. Again, this relies on self-reporting of mode of transportation and mileage. 

• Waste Management: Waste is different from supply chain and travel because it results from direct operations, like manufacturing. However, the waste does not release emissions until it goes through combustion or breakdown, which happens at a landfill or waste facility — making it Scope 3. To calculate these emissions, the waste needs to be quantified and its handling understood. Whether it's recycled, landfilled, or incinerated, it provides insights into the associated emissions. This information is typically available from local waste management companies. 

How Reporting and Certifications Support Each Other 

While knowing your company’s emissions profile is important, doing something about it is important too. There are tools and resources to manage and track emissions, and also support other aspects of a sustainability strategy, including stakeholder engagement. Take, for example, ArcSkoru, the free software behind LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (LEED O+M). 

A key component of LEED O+M is tracking resource use of a building's operations — such as energy consumption, water use, and waste generation. Arc, as it is known for short, allows ongoing data tracking of several performance categories in LEED EBOM. By entering utility and waste data into Arc, it is easy to extract emissions impact and track performance over time. This data can be used as the baseline for Scope 1, Scope 2, and some Scope 3 emissions for a building. 

GHG reporting also helps with companies reporting with other frameworks including GRESB, TCFD, CDP, and GRI.

Annual Reporting and Reducing Emissions 

Ultimately, when GHG emissions are regularly tracked and monitored, they can be reported on and reduced. GHG reporting is not only a common requirement for ESG frameworks but an essential part of building consumer trust, meeting ESG obligations, and showing progress in reducing emissions. 

To get started with reporting, you should first clarify what emissions categories will be included in a report — and what will not. It is ok to start with limited categories, and if you do it is important to be equally transparent as to what data you do have and what data could be collected later. For example, Emerald started its reporting journey in 2022 with Scope 1, 2, and “company-controlled Scope 3 transportation emissions.” In 2023, we expanded to include additional Scope 3 categories and will continue to expand and refine our reporting year over year. 

When it comes to reducing emissions, it is important to understand what matters most — i.e. what are your biggest impact categories. Emerald’s biggest emission categories are from electricity and heating fuel, over which we have limited control in our leased office space. Thus, we focus on other impact categories. As a professional service firm that is predominantly digital, while we may be able to save emissions by switching postal carriers for urgent deliveries since those happen 1-2 times a year, the impact would be negligible. Whereas with a decision to dedicate resources to offset travel emissions and allow higher car rental fees for EV rentals, we would have a greater impact since travel emissions is a larger impact category for us.

For an example of what we do, check out our 2022 GHG Emissions Report!

Track Your Emissions with Emerald 

Emerald Built Environments can assist businesses in their GHG tracking and reporting journey. With our expertise, companies can navigate the complex landscape of GHG reporting, ensuring compliance and capitalizing on the benefits. To get an idea of what might be involved, click the button above to see our own 2022 GHG Emissions Report. If you're ready to get started, click below to learn how we can help you create your own robust emissions-tracking system.