Scope 1, 2 and 3 are the three GHG Protocol categories used to organize a company’s emissions inventory. Scope 1 is what the company burns directly (fleet, boilers, generators). Scope 2 is purchased electricity. Scope 3 covers everything else in the chain: suppliers, freight, travel, and how the product is used and disposed of.
Why it matters: for most services and retail businesses, 70 to 90 percent of the real footprint sits in scope 3, the hardest one to measure because it depends on someone else’s data.