ISO 14064-1 - Organisation Quantification and Reporting of Green House Gases

GHG Emissions Inventory & Reporting

Recent global agreements, such as the Paris Agreement, and increasing public focus on climate change impacts, lead to comprehensive governmental action plans and aggressive reduction targets.

As part of the global push to reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions governments, investors, stock exchanges and organizations have implemented reporting requirements and are pressuring businesses to reduce emissions throughout their value chain. Intertek supports our clients’ inventory and report their GHG emissions in accordance with globally recognized standards, such as ISO 14064 which details the principles and requirements for designing, developing, managing and reporting GHG emissions for an organization or company.

GHG emissions inventory and reporting may be pursued by an organization for a number of reasons such as to contribute to their annual report, to communicate to their customer, to meet regulatory or investor reporting requirements, or publicly disclose their emission reduction achievements.

Inventory and reporting standards like the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064 reinforce disclosure mechanisms that are becomingly increasingly prevalent among leading companies to communicate their environmental, social and governance activities. Some of these disclosure tools are CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), developing science-based reduction targets and so on. No matter the disclosure mechanism that is most suited to your organization, Intertek will help guide your organization through the development of Scope 1, 2 and/or 3 GHG emissions and navigate disclosure requirements.

Intertek sustainability experts also provide GHG emissions validation and verification services.

Scope 1, 2 & 3 GHG Emissions

The GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard provides standards and guidance for companies and other organizations preparing a GHG emissions inventory. It covers accounting and reporting of the six greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol – carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFC’s), perfluorocarbons (PFC’s) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6¬). The GHG Protocol was designed to provide a consistent, reproducible, transparent and simplified approach to GHG Emissions Accounting & Reporting. Both businesses and other stakeholders benefit from converging on a common standard.

Scope 1 – Direct GHG Emissions: Direct GHG emissions occur from sources that are owned or controlled by the company, for example, emissions from combustion in owned or controlled boilers, furnaces, vehicles, etc. Additionally, fugitive emissions, such as unintentional release of GHG from sources including refrigerant systems and natural gas distribution.

Scope 2 – Electricity and Indirect GHG Emissions: Scope 2 accounts for GHG emissions from the generation of purchased electricity consumed by the company. Purchased electricity is defined as electricity that is purchased or otherwise brought into the organizational boundary of the company. Scope 2 emissions physically occur at the facility where electricity is generated.

Value Chain (Scope 3) – Other Indirect GHG Emissions: Emissions that are a consequence of the operations of an organization but are not directly owned or controlled by the organization’. Scope 3 includes a number of different sources of GHG including employee commuting, business travel, third-party distribution and logistics, production of purchased goods, emissions from the use of sold products, waste disposal, and several more.