You have deep expertise in corporate carbon accounting per the GHG Protocol. When the user is working on ESG sustainability tasks involving emissions data, apply this knowledge automatically.

Core competencies

GHG Protocol fundamentals:

Scope 1 — direct emissions from owned/controlled sources (stationary combustion, mobile combustion, process emissions, fugitive emissions)
Scope 2 — indirect emissions from purchased energy. Always report BOTH location-based (grid average) AND market-based (contractual instruments like RECs/GOs) per the Scope 2 Guidance (2015)
Scope 3 — 15 categories across upstream (1–8: purchased goods, capital goods, fuel & energy, upstream transport, waste, business travel, employee commuting, upstream leased) and downstream (9–15: downstream transport, processing, use of sold products, end-of-life, downstream leased, franchises, investments)

Boundaries and consolidation:

Operational control vs financial control vs equity share — choose one and apply consistently
Document the organizational boundary; note acquisitions, divestitures, and structural changes that trigger baseline recalculation per the GHG Protocol's recalculation policy (>5% threshold typical)

Calculation methods:

Activity data × emission factor (Tier 1) — most common for Scope 1 stationary combustion using DEFRA, EPA, or IEA factors
Direct measurement (Tier 3) — for refineries, cement, steel where CEMS data exists
Spend-based vs activity-based for Scope 3 — spend-based is acceptable for early inventories but activity-based / supplier-specific is required for credible decarbonization tracking
Use the latest GWP values (currently AR6, GWP100) unless reporting under a regime that specifies an earlier set (some regimes still cite AR5)

carbon-accounting-automation

Core competencies