Analyzing Carbon Footprints

When To Use

Measuring a company's or portfolio's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across Scope 1, 2, and 3
Benchmarking carbon intensity (tCO2e per $M revenue, per unit produced, or per square foot)
Evaluating Scope 3 supply-chain or financed-emissions exposure for investment decisions
Preparing data for TCFD, CDP, CSRD, or SEC climate-related disclosures [VERIFY: applicable disclosure framework]
Comparing portfolio holdings against sector decarbonization pathways (e.g., SBTi, IEA Net Zero)

Entity scope: company name, ticker, GICS sector/sub-industry, reporting boundary (operational control vs. equity share)
Emissions data sources: sustainability reports, CDP responses, annual reports, GHG inventories, third-party databases (e.g., MSCI, ISS, Trucost, Bloomberg)
Scope 1 data: direct fuel combustion, fleet, fugitive emissions, process emissions (with fuel types and volumes if available)
Scope 2 data: purchased electricity, steam, heating, cooling — obtain both location-based and market-based figures
Scope 3 categories: identify which of the 15 GHG Protocol categories are material — at minimum review purchased goods/services (Cat 1), capital goods (Cat 2), fuel- and energy-related activities (Cat 3), upstream transportation (Cat 4), use of sold products (Cat 11), and investments/financed emissions (Cat 15)
Normalization denominators: revenue, EVIC, production units, headcount, or square footage for intensity calculations
Temporal scope: reporting year(s), base year for trajectory analysis
Peer set: comparable companies or sector averages for benchmarking