The amount of carbon emissions which is happening around the globe is unreal. For many years, experts have urged us to take action because failure to do so will result in severe hunger, mass migration as a result of flooding, the demise of financial markets, and numerous other socioeconomic catastrophes. If COVID-19 anxiety caused businesses to worry, climate change will make them even more anxious. Leaders and executives are now paying more attention to sustainability and reevaluating their mission and purpose because of this. Sustainability should not be viewed as merely a part of corporate social responsibility; it is a business necessity.
Businesses must lessen their impact on the environment. One of the most important ways to achieve this is to lessen their carbon footprint, which begins with keeping an eye on carbon emissions.
In this blog, we will understand what scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions are.
At All India Solar, our objective is to make you understand the importance of renewable energy and maybe in that process inspire you to take responsibility and help humanity reach the target of Net Zero.
What are scope 1 2 and 3 emissions?
Understanding and measuring the origin of carbon emissions is necessary before taking any steps to minimize them.
The three scopes serve as a means of classifying the various emissions that a firm produces both within its operations and throughout its larger “value chain” (its suppliers and customers).
The name derives from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, which is the most widely-used greenhouse gas accounting standard in the world, but it is unclear why they are named “scopes” rather than “groups” or “types”.
According to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, “Developing a full emissions inventory – encompassing Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions – enables enterprises to understand their full value chain emissions and focus on the greatest reduction potential.”
Scope 1 and scope 2 emissions are those that a company owns or controls, whereas scope 3 emissions are a result of that company’s operations but come from sources that are not under its ownership or control.
What are Scope 1 Emissions?
Scope 1 includes emissions from sources that a company directly owns or manages, such as burning fuel in our fleet of vehicles.
Direct GHG emissions come from sources that the company owns or controls, such as combustion emissions from boilers, furnaces, cars, etc., and chemical manufacturing emissions from owned or controlled process equipment.
Direct CO2 emissions from the combustion of biomass must be recorded separately rather than being included in scope 1. CFCs, NOx, and other GHG emissions not covered by the Kyoto Protocol are excluded from scope 1 but may still be reported separately.
What is Scope 2 Emissions?
Scope 2 emissions are those that an organization unintentionally produces when the energy it purchases and consumes is created.
The electricity that has been purchased or brought into the company’s organizational border is referred to as purchased electricity. Physically, scope 2 emissions take place at the location where electricity is produced.
What is Scope 3 Emissions?
All other indirect emissions may be handled under Scope 3, an optional reporting category. Scope 3 emissions result from company operations but come from sources that the company does not own or control.
Activities falling under scope 3 include things like using goods and services, transporting fuel that has been purchased, and extracting and producing materials that have been purchased.
How to reduce scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions?
Although there are many factors beyond emissions alone to take into account, such as cost and practicality, we can, to some extent, choose whether our fleet has low or zero emissions, decide how our buildings are heated, and look for ways for manufacturers to lower the carbon cost of their production processes.
However, neither a manufacturer of appliances nor a maker of soft drinks can dictate how we will dispose of their plastic bottles or whether we would use the most or least environmentally friendly settings on our washing machines.
For scopes 1 and 2, quantifying emissions is a little bit simpler. Companies can obtain the information required to translate direct purchases of gas and electricity into a value for the related greenhouse gases for energy use, as an example.
Scope 3 emissions, however, represent by far the biggest percentage of overall emissions for many organizations. Unfortunately, these are frequently the most difficult to eliminate. Working with current suppliers and their clients to find ways to cut their emissions is one of the steps a business may take to do so.
Why do organizations need to measure their Scope 3 Emissions?
The measurement of Scope 3 emissions has a variety of advantages. Most potential for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and costs for many businesses are found outside of their operations.
Measurement of Scope 3 emissions enables organizations to:
- Determine where in their supply chain the emission hotspots are.
- Identify the supply chain’s resource and energy concerns.
- Determine which vendors perform best in terms of sustainability and which perform worse.
- Recognize supply-chain opportunities for cost and energy savings.
- Engage suppliers and help them put sustainable measures into action.
- Enhance the products’ energy efficiency.
- Constructively engage employees to lower emissions from employee and business travel.