Scope 5 GHG Protocol Resource Library - General Notes

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Scope 5’s GHG Protocol Resource Library includes emission factors published by The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (resulting from a partnership of WRI and WBCSD). In the words of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, their numbers are the “most widely used international accounting tool for government and business leaders to understand, quantify, and manage greenhouse gas emissions”. As such, GHG Protocol conversion factors are broadly recognized and the library is general enough to support most Greenhouse Gas emissions reporting protocols.

The GHG Protocol offers conversion factors for many activity sectors (including such specialized sectors as Lime and Cement). Scope 5’s GHG Protocol library includes the following subsets that we consider generally useful:

  • Mobile Combustion
  • Stationary Combustion

If there are specialized sectors that your organization would like to see added to the Scope 5 GHG Protocol library, please contact us to discuss them.

Where the Numbers Come From

The GHG Protocol sources many of their numbers from other authorities, such as the International Panel on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency. Scope 5’s GHG Protocol library is based largely on the Emissions Factors from Cross-Sector Tools publication and also pulls in numbers from the GHG Emissions from Stationary Combustion (English) and GHG Emissions from Transport or Mobile Sources tools.

What's Included

Mobile Combustion

A Note on Air Travel Distance Categories 

The GHG Protocol provides emissions factors for three distance categories:

  1. Domestic (< 463 km)
  2. Short Haul (≥ 463 <1108 km)
  3. Long Haul (≥ 1108 km).

These thresholds come from the bottom of the 'Activity Data' tab of the GHG Protocol's Transport Tool:

Stationary Combustion

A Note on Heating Values and energy factors

For all stationary combustion resources expressed in units of energy - for which the denominator is in mmBtu (or any energy unit) - Scope 5 has chosen to use the Higher Heat Value (HHV), as opposed to the Low Heating Value (LHV), to calculate the emissions factor, beginning with the 2017 update. In GHG reporting the HHV is the more conservative value as it is always slightly higher or equivalent to the LHV, resulting in a slightly higher (or equivalent) emissions factor than would be calculated by using the LHV. The initial factors set uses LHV.

Additionally, beginning with the 2017 update, energy conversion factors for stationary combustion resources with non-energy-type units assume Higher Heat Values (HHV).

Global Warming Potentials (GWPs)

Following the Greenhouse Gas Protocol recommendation, all Scope 5 standard resource libraries use global warming potentials from the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) as of February 13, 2017.

Updates

Scope 5’s conversion factors are current through the GHG Protocol's Emissions Factors from Cross-Sector Tools March 2017 publication and the GHG Emissions from Stationary Combustion (English) and GHG Emissions from Transport or Mobile Sources May 2015 tools.

Disclaimer

Scope 5 cannot guarantee that by using the Scope 5 GHG Protocol Resource Library users will produce a report that is fully compliant with their verification agency. We recommend working with your verifier and/or with a sustainability consultant well versed in GHG emissions reporting to be sure that your report will be fully compliant with the protocol under which you are reporting. Scope 5 can provide customized resource libraries on a case-by-case basis.

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