The GHG Protocol: A corporate reporting and accounting standard (revised edition)

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative is ...

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative is a multi-stakeholder partnership of businesses, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), governments, and others convened by the World Resources Institute (WRI), a U.S.-based environmental NGO, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a Geneva-based coalition of 170 international companies.

Launched in 1998, the Initiative’s mission is to develop internationally accepted greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and reporting standards for business and to promote their broad adoption.

The GHG Protocol Initiative comprises two separate but linked standards:

• GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (this document, which provides a step-by-step guide for companies to use in quantifying and reporting their GHG emissions)
• GHG Protocol for Project Accounting (a guide for quantifying reductions from GHG mitigation projects)

The first edition of the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (GHG Protocol Corporate Standard), published in September 2001, enjoyed broad adoption and acceptance around the globe by businesses, NGOs, and governments. Many industry, NGO, and government GHG programs1 used the standard as a basis for their accounting and reporting systems.

Industry groups, such as the International Aluminum Institute, the International Council of Forest and Paper Associations, and the WBCSD Cement Sustainability Initiative, partnered with the GHG Protocol Initiative to develop complementary industry-specific calculation tools.

Widespread adoption of the standard can be attributed to the inclusion of many stakeholders in its development and to the fact that it is robust, practical, and builds on the experience and expertise of numerous experts and practitioners.

This revised edition of the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard is the culmination of a two-year multi-stakeholder dialogue, designed to build on experience gained from using the first edition. It includes additional guidance, case studies, appendices, and a new chapter on setting a GHG target. For the most part, however, the first edition of the Corporate Standard has stood the test of time, and the changes in this revised edition will not affect the results of most GHG inventories.

This GHG Protocol Corporate Standard provides standards and guidance for companies and other types oforganizations2 preparing a GHG emissions inventory. It covers the accounting and reporting of the six greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol—carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O),hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6). The standard and guidance were designed with the following objectives in mind:

• To help companies prepare a GHG inventory that represents a true and fair account of their emissions, through the use of standardized approaches and principles
• To simplify and reduce the costs of compiling a GHG inventory
• To provide business with information that can be used to build an effective strategy to manage and reduce GHG emissions
• To provide information that facilitates participation in voluntary and mandatory GHG programs
• To increase consistency and transparency in GHG accounting and reporting among various companies and GHG programs.

Both business and other stakeholders benefit from converging on a common standard. For business, it reduces costs if their GHG inventory is capable of meeting different internal and external information requirements. For others, it improves the consistency, transparency, and understandability of reported information, making it easier to track and compare progress over time.