Scope 1 Emissions

ESG

Direct greenhouse gas emissions from sources owned or controlled by an organisation.

Sources

1. GHG Protocol — A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (revised edition), WRI & WBCSD ghgprotocol.org accessed 23 September 2026

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard defines these directly: “Direct GHG emissions occur from sources that are owned or controlled by the company, for example, emissions from combustion in owned or controlled boilers, furnaces, vehicles, etc.; emissions from chemical production in owned or controlled process equipment.” The test is ownership or control of the source, not who benefits from the activity — which is why a leased vehicle can move between scopes depending on the control approach a company uses.

Quoted from the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, published by the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Later GHG Protocol guidance refines scope 2 (location- and market-based methods) and scope 3 (fifteen categories); those documents are not quoted here.

Related terms

• Carbon Footprint
• Circular Economy
• CSDDD
• Environmental Social Governance
• Fair Trade Certification
• GOTS Certification

From the AJG lexicon archive (July 2026).