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Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions
The World Resources Institute categorised climate change-causing emissions (greenhouse gases) into three ‘scopes’ in their Greenhouse Gas Protocol (a global methodology for calculating emissions). These are defined as follows:
Scope 1 emissions: direct emissions caused by an organisation’s own operations, including when using purchased fuel for factories, machines, and on-site vehicles.
Scope 2 emissions: indirect emissions from the purchase of electricity, steam, heating or cooling by an organisation.
Scope 3 emissions: ‘upstream’ and ‘downstream’ indirect emissions in the supply chain and are often referred to as ‘value chain emissions’ or ‘supply chain emissions’.
Comment regarding Scope 3 emissions: Examples of upstream emissions include purchased goods and services (including raw materials), transportation, employee commuting, business travel, and other products and services procured from external sources. Examples of downstream emissions include processing of sold products, further transport and distribution, use of products, and waste related emissions.
Carbon, Climate and Life Cycle Assessment