GHG accounting principles

To make sure that your greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory represents your emissions fairly and accurately, the GHG Protocol has 5 principles to consider: relevance, completeness, consistency, transparency, and accuracy.

Learn more about GHG accounting principles.

On this page:

• Overview
• Relevance
• Completeness
• Consistency 
• Transparency
• Accuracy 

Overview

The GHG accounting principles are helpful when deciding which emission sources to measure. That includes deciding which activities to include in your inventory while setting operational boundaries and choosing data collection methods.

Sometimes, two principles might feel at odds. For example, estimating emissions might support completeness but compromise accuracy. A Climate Smart Advisor can recommend how to follow the principles to reach your organization’s goals. To get access to a Climate Smart Advisor, contact our Customer Success team.

Relevance

Your GHG inventory must include information that your organization needs for decision making. This means understanding why you’re measuring your emissions in the first place and creating an inventory that’s relevant to those goals.

To decide if emission sources are relevant for your inventory, consider factors such as:

• Your organization’s values
• Stakeholder needs
• Organizational structures
• Business context and relationships

For example, your organization might focus on Scope 1 and 2 activities because cost savings are important to your stakeholders, making it the most relevant goal for your organization.

Completeness

Do your best to include all the emission sources that you control in your inventory. If you don’t have enough data for an activity, or if you don’t include certain Scope 3 emissions in your inventory, make sure you document what’s missing and why.

To learn more about the information you need to collect, review tips for data collection.

Consistency

Measure the same type of data every year to create the most accurate record of how your emissions change over time. This means using the same sources of information for the same activities and applying the same calculation methods for each GHG inventory.

For example, if your organization pays for electricity from a utility provider at an office, you’ll track Electricity > Purchased > Actual consumption for that location. Your data source might be your utility bills. To follow the GHG Protocol principle of consistency, you should continue to use your utility bills to track Electricity > Purchased > Actual consumption for that location in your next inventory period.

If you lose access to a data source or if you no longer want to track an activity in your inventory, document what’s changed between inventory periods and why.

Transparency

Keep records of all decisions your organization makes for your GHG inventory. This includes being clear about which emission sources you’re measuring in your inventory. Remember to document why you exclude certain activities.

When entering data about your activities, document any assumptions or estimations you made in the Notes section. Include supporting documents whenever possible.

Transparency supports consistency because keeping thorough documentation makes it easier to create a comparable inventory in the future.

Accuracy

GHG inventories should use the most accurate data collection methods possible. This supports relevance and consistency, while giving you more confidence to understand how your emissions change over time.

Enter exact amounts when available and avoid entering estimated information without documenting your assumptions. For example, if you need to add the amount of fuel your vehicles consumed during the year but you don’t have this information, avoid entering a random number into the software. If you need to estimate information, document how you calculated the amount of fuel and why this number was estimated.