Scope 1 Emissions Overview
What’s required to measure scope 1 emissions?
Understanding Scope 1 Emissions
In the context of carbon accounting, Scope 1 emissions refer to direct emissions that result from sources owned or controlled by a company, as defined in the The Greenhouse Gas Protocol, a widely respected set of standards for carbon accounting (Need a recap? Visit What is the GHG protocol for a quick overview).
So, what do ‘direct emissions’ look like?
Scope 1 includes direct emissions from sources owned or operated by the company, but what exactly does this look like? The GHG Protocol guidelines have categorised Scope 1 emissions into four main categories:
- Mobile Combustion
Mobile combustion refers to the burning of fuels in the transportation of mobile (moving) devices such as cars, trucks, buses, trains, airplanes, ships, etc. Essentially, anything that moves due to the burning of fuels needs to be accounted for in mobile combustion emissions as long as the assets are owned or controlled by the business.
Some common mobile sources are shown in the table below:
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- Stationary Combustion
Stationary Combustion involves the combustion of fuels that produce emissions including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Stationary combustion is not to be confused with mobile combustion, which involves combustion from assets that move – instead, as the name implies, this is combustion of fuels for non-moving, stationary objects.
For example, companies may have commercial kitchens using liquid petroleum gas (LPG) as the heat source. As LPG burns, it releases carbon dioxide and trace amounts of methane and nitrous oxide, with each litre of LPG used equating to around 1.56 kg of CO2e.
- Fugitive Emissions
These are emissions from the intentional or unintentional release of GHGs from equipment and processes, such as leaks from fridges, air conditioning units, coal mines, vents etc. Many people are surprised, but if you think about refrigerants that are used in fridges to keep them cool, overtime as the refrigerant cycles through transitioning between liquid to gas and back again, some of that gas will leak and result in GHGs being released into the atmosphere unintentionally.
- Process or Chemical Emissions
These emissions occur during the chemical transformation of raw materials, such as in cement production, aluminium production etc. Not all businesses will have process or chemical emissions, these emissions are typically only relevant to specific industry sectors such as oil and gas, aluminium, and cement.
Summary
Many businesses have processes and operations that involve one or more of the above activities, and as a result, produce these direct Scope 1 emissions that need to be accounted for. By accurately measuring their Scope 1 emissions businesses can gain insights into their direct environmental impact and develop strategies to mitigate and reduce these emissions!
Interested to learn more about Scope 1 emissions and other aspects of carbon accounting? There’s a whole chapter on this in the Introduction to Carbon Accounting course, check out the Sumday Academy for free when you start a trial.