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Before you measure anything, you decide who and what is in scope. That decision is your organisational boundary: the line that says “this footprint covers these entities, sites, and operations.” It is the most consequential choice in an assessment and the one most often left unstated. Two companies of identical size can report very different numbers purely because they drew this line differently, and neither is wrong.

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What a boundary defines

  • Which entities are included: legal entities, business units, brands
  • Which sites are included: offices, warehouses, venues, facilities
  • Which operations you are responsible for: owned, leased, operated
The boundary sits above scopes. It decides who is in; scopes classify emissions within it. You set it once, then build inside it.

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The three approaches

The GHG Protocol defines three consolidation approaches. You choose one and apply it consistently across the whole inventory.

Operational control

Account for 100% of emissions from operations where you have full authority to introduce and implement operating policies. The most common choice and the usual default.

Financial control

Account for 100% of emissions from operations where you direct the financial and operating policies with a view to economic benefit. Often aligns with your financial consolidation.

Equity share

Account for emissions in proportion to your ownership interest in each operation. Used where ownership rather than control is the meaningful lens, such as investment-heavy groups.

Which to pick

Operational control for most organisations. Financial control where you want the boundary to mirror your accounts. Equity share where joint ventures and part-owned assets dominate.
The three genuinely differ. A 40%-owned joint venture that you operate is fully in under operational control, fully out under financial control if you do not direct its policies, and 40% in under equity share. Whichever you choose, state it: a reader cannot interpret your number without knowing which rule produced it.
If you have no external reporting obligation yet, do not overcomplicate this. Start with the entities and sites you clearly control day to day, write down which approach that represents, and refine later.

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What to include

Work through three layers. Legal entities. List what is in, for example Example Pty Ltd Australia and Example NZ Limited. You might start with one core entity, or include a cluster operated as a single group. Sites and operations. Within those entities, the major sites: offices, warehouses, factories, retail stores, venues, and any third-party facility you effectively control. Special cases. Anything needing an explicit decision: joint ventures, franchised locations, long-term leased assets, shared facilities with complicated landlord arrangements. Record how you treated each one.

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Modelling boundaries in Salvidia

Each organisation assessment links to your workspace’s company profile. Within an assessment, you can represent multiple entities and sites using tags, custom fields, or separate tables. A typical pattern is to name the assessment Example Group AU and NZ FY2025, then tag entries with Entity: AU or Site: Sydney HQ. You get one group total, and you can still slice by entity or site when someone asks.

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Multi-entity groups

One assessment covering all included entities.Good for groups that operate as a unit, and for board or parent-company reporting. Use tags for sub-entities, and name the assessment so the boundary is obvious at a glance.
There is no single correct structure. Clarity and consistency matter more than the shape you pick.

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Organisational vs operational boundary

Two related decisions that are easy to conflate:
  • Organisational boundary: which entities and sites are yours
  • Operational boundary: which emissions and scopes you include for them
Operational choices include whether all Scope 1 and 2 are in, which Scope 3 categories are in or out for now, and how you treat employee commuting or home working. Document both together so a reader sees the full picture. See Scopes 1, 2, and 3 explained.

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A worked example

This footprint covers Example Pty Ltd and all operations under its control in Australia for FY2025. It includes owned and leased offices, warehouses, and company vehicles.
  • Organisational boundary: Example Pty Ltd Australia, operational control
  • Operational boundary: all Scope 1 and 2, plus selected Scope 3 categories
In Salvidia that is one assessment, named so the boundary is legible without opening it. For a group spanning Australia and New Zealand, you could run one assessment tagged by entity, or two assessments combined in your reporting. Both work. What matters is that the assessment name and methodology make the boundary obvious.

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Write the boundary down

When you create an organisation assessment, record a short boundary statement in your notes or methodology:
  • Which entities and sites are included
  • What is excluded, and why
  • Which approach you used, operational control or equity share
  • Any special treatment for joint ventures, franchises, or shared sites
This is what lets you reproduce the footprint next year, explain a difference between periods, and answer an auditor without reconstructing your reasoning from memory.

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Before you start entering data

You should be able to answer all five:
  • Which entities are included in this assessment?
  • Which sites and operations are in scope?
  • Are we using operational control or equity share?
  • How are we treating joint ventures, franchises, or shared sites?
  • Have we written this down somewhere the next person can find it?

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Where to go next