Greenhouse Gas Protocol in 3-2-1

Have you heard about the GHG Protocol and the benefits of it? Well, it stands for Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and it's a global standard created to make reporting and managing of greenhouse gas emissions easier for organizations. To simplify the process, the emissions are divided into three categories: scope 1, 2 and 3.

Scope 1 includes everything from your own house, so to speak. The so-called direct emissions; from your machines, from your company cars, from fuel combustion.

Your indirect emissions are the ones that come from your purchased energy, such as electricity and heating, and are reported within scope 2.

These numbers are very helpful for those of us who work strategically within sustainability, or if you just want to find out if you’ve made the right decisions and investments. In our case, electricity accounts for the largest part of our scope 1 and 2 emissions, and looking at the numbers, it’s clear we’ve made the right choice using hydro power. However, it’s important to remember that the greenest energy is the one you didn’t use. Energy management should always be on the agenda, in other words.

Scope 3 includes all indirect emissions that occur outside the boundaries of the business – both upstream and downstream. For instance, we need to calculate the emissions from producing the carbon products and alloys, as well as the ones from shipping and all the way to the processing and final use of the sold products.

As you can see, scope 1 and 2 are fairly straightforward. Scope 3 on the other hand, can be very complex to measure. Aside from the vastness of data to manage, there’s also the issue of assessing the credibility of the input. Nevertheless, we think these questions need to be posed, the demands need to be made, and the standards need to be set. It’s the safest path to a more sustainable industry.

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