GHG Inventory Boundary for Finance & Insurance
A practical guide to help your company determine minimum inventory scope per GHG Protocol
Scope 1 (Direct Emissions)
- Branch/office heating
- Fleet (if applicable)
- Generator
Scope 2 (Indirect Energy Emissions)
- Branch/office electricity
- Data center/cloud
Dual Reporting: Location-based uses regional grid emission factors; market-based uses contractual factors (I-RECs, PPAs). Both approaches must be reported.
Scope 3 (Value Chain Emissions)
- 1Skipping or postponing Cat15 (investments/loans)
- 2Incorrectly applying PCAF methodology
- 3Double counting investee data
- 4Randomly selecting proxy without documentation
- 5Not doing branch energy allocation
- 6Not tracking cloud/data center consumption
- 7Not counting travel/commuting
- 8Skipping CapEx
- 9Making Scope2 market-based claim without documentation
- 10Putting leasing in wrong category instead of Cat13
Priority Categories
8 categoriesCorporate loan portfolio
Relevant: Cat15
Data: amount + sector
Approach: hybrid
double counting
Investment fund
Relevant: Cat15
Data: AUM + holdings
Approach: proxy→investee
data gaps
Wide branch network
Relevant: Scope2
Data: kWh + m2
Approach: allocation
climate difference
Cloud-intensive fintech
Relevant: cloud
Data: billing
Approach: supplier-specific
boundary
Leasing
Relevant: Cat13/Cat15
Data: asset type
Approach: scenario
scope separation
This content is for informational purposes. Your company's reporting scope may expand based on operational reality, reporting standards, assurance requirements, stakeholder expectations, and regulations.