Calculating Scope 1 and 2 in your company: documents, method and a complete example
To calculate Scope 1 and 2, the documents every company already has are enough: bills, fuel invoices and maintenance contractor reports. Who asks for it, what you need, the formulas and a complete example with emissions intensity.
To calculate your company's Scope 1 and 2, gather twelve months of consumption from the documents you already have: gas and electricity bills, fuel invoices and maintenance contractor reports. Multiply each consumption figure by its emission factor, add up the direct sources in Scope 1 and purchased energy in Scope 2, with the location-based and market-based methods. The result, in tCO₂e, is the basis of your emissions inventory.
Why companies calculate Scope 1 and 2
For most Italian companies, no law requires them to publish their emissions. Yet the figure is requested more and more often, from three directions.
- Banks. In ESG questionnaires for financing, Scope 1 and 2 emissions are among the first items, because banks have to measure the emissions of their own portfolios.
- Clients and lead companies in the supply chain. Large companies that report Scope 3 ask their suppliers for their emissions: your Scope 1 and 2 goes into their inventory.
- Tenders, calls for funding and certifications. Environmental criteria, ESG ratings and the ISO 14064-1 standard all start from a documented emissions inventory.
What Scope 1 and Scope 2 include
| Scope | What it includes | Examples | Documents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope 1 | Direct emissions from sources you own or control | Boilers, furnaces, generators, company fleet, refrigerant gases | Gas bills, fuel invoices, maintenance contractor reports |
| Scope 2 | Indirect emissions from the energy you buy | Electricity, heat and steam from district heating | Electricity bills, contracts, guarantees of origin |
Everything else, from purchases and suppliers' transport to waste, is Scope 3. You will find the differences explained with examples in the article on Scope 1, 2 and 3.
The documents to gather
| Document | Figure to read | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Gas bills | Smc consumed, from actual readings | Scope 1 |
| Fuel invoices and fuel card statements | Litres of diesel, petrol and LPG | Scope 1 |
| Maintenance contractor reports and F-gas declaration | kg of refrigerant topped up and type of gas | Scope 1 |
| Electricity bills | kWh consumed for each POD | Scope 2 |
| Supply contracts and guarantees of origin | Share of certified renewable energy | Scope 2 |
| District heating invoices | Thermal energy purchased, in kWh or MWh | Scope 2 |
Gather twelve months of the last full year for each site. Always start from the quantities shown in the documents, not from the amounts in euros: the price changes every month, consumption does not.
The formulas in two lines
Scope 1 = Σ (fuel consumption × emission factor) + Σ (kg of refrigerant topped up × GWP)
Scope 2 = kWh purchased × emission factor, calculated twice: with the grid average factor (location-based) and with the factors from your contracts or the residual mix (market-based). The GHG Protocol asks you to report both.
The detail of each formula, with more examples, is in the articles on how to calculate Scope 1 and on the Scope 2 methods.
A complete example, from the bill to the total
Take a company with a plant and an office, six vans and an air conditioning system. The factors are indicative, rounded values, useful only to show the method: in your calculation, use up-to-date official factors and state the source and year.
| Source | Annual consumption | Indicative factor | Emissions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Natural gas at the plant | 40,000 Smc | about 2 kgCO₂e/Smc | 80 tCO₂e |
| Diesel for the six vans | 25,000 litres | about 2.6 kgCO₂e/litre | 65 tCO₂e |
| Air conditioner top-up (R-410A) | 3 kg | GWP about 2,000 | 6 tCO₂e |
| Total Scope 1 | 151 tCO₂e | ||
| Electricity, location-based | 300,000 kWh | about 0.25 kgCO₂e/kWh | 75 tCO₂e |
| Electricity, market-based without GOs | 300,000 kWh | residual mix about 0.45 kgCO₂e/kWh | 135 tCO₂e |
Scope 1 comes to 151 tCO₂e; Scope 2 comes to 75 tCO₂e with the location-based method and 135 tCO₂e with the market-based one. Total Scope 1 and 2 therefore ranges from 226 to 286 tCO₂e depending on the method, which is why both must be reported, with the assumptions explained. If the company covered half of its electricity consumption with guarantees of origin, market-based Scope 2 would fall to about 68 tCO₂e.
The example also shows where to start reducing: gas at the plant and diesel for the fleet are worth almost twice as much as electricity calculated with the location-based method.
From the total to emissions intensity
Banks and clients also look at the ratio between emissions and company size. In disclosure B3, the VSME standard asks for emissions intensity per unit of revenue: with a turnover of 12 million euros, the example company has an intensity of about 18.8 tCO₂e per million euros (Scope 1 and location-based Scope 2). Compared year on year, it shows whether the company is really reducing its emissions even as it grows.
The mistakes that make the figure open to challenge
- Estimated readings treated as actual. Many bills show estimated consumption followed by adjustments: use the actual readings.
- Amounts spent instead of quantities. Calculating emissions from spending introduces errors linked to the price: start from Smc, litres and kWh.
- Forgotten refrigerants. The data sits in the maintenance contractor's reports, far from the accounts office, and a few kg are worth tonnes of CO₂e.
- A single method for Scope 2. Reporting only market-based, or only location-based, makes the figure incomplete under the GHG Protocol.
- Factors without a source. Without the source and year of the emission factor, the calculation cannot be verified or compared with the following year.
Scope 1 and 2 are calculated from the documents every company already has: bills, fuel invoices and maintenance contractor reports. You need twelve months of quantities, official factors with source and year, and Scope 2 with both methods. It is the first step of the GHG inventory and the figure banks and clients ask for first.
Request the free Scope 1 and 2 calculation
If you would rather not do it by hand, you can use the Envify platform for free: upload your bills and invoices as they are and get your company's Scope 1 and Scope 2, with documented factors and a breakdown by source and by site. Request free access now.
