GHG Protocol

The most widely used standard for corporate greenhouse gas accounting; the origin of Scope 1, 2 and 3.

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard defines how an organisation draws its boundary, which gases it counts, and how emissions are grouped into scopes.

It is a standard for accounting, not for verification. It tells you how to build the inventory; it does not, by itself, make the result checkable by anyone else.

Most regulatory frameworks — including ESRS E1 — build on its definitions rather than replacing them, which is why the scope vocabulary appears almost everywhere.

Scope 1 Direct emissions from sources a company owns or controls — its own combustion, its own vehicles, its own process emissions.
Scope 2 Indirect emissions from the electricity, heat and steam a company buys.
Scope 3 All other indirect emissions across the value chain — purchased goods, transport, use of sold products, end of life.
ISO 14064 An international standard for quantifying, reporting and verifying greenhouse gas inventories.