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When people talk about carbon footprints, you’ll almost always hear Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3. They’re simply a way of grouping emissions based on how directly they’re linked to your organisation, event, or product. At a high level:
  • Scope 1 – direct emissions from sources you own or control
  • Scope 2 – indirect emissions from purchased energy
  • Scope 3 – all other indirect emissions in your value chain
Salvidia uses these scopes to organise your results, so it’s worth understanding the basics.

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Why scopes exist

Scopes come from the GHG Protocol, which is the most widely used standard for greenhouse gas accounting. They help you:
  • Avoid double counting between different organisations
  • Understand how direct or indirect emissions are
  • Communicate clearly with stakeholders (“this is Scope 1, that is Scope 3”)
You don’t need to memorise every category — but you should know what roughly belongs where.

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Scope 1 – Direct emissions

Emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by your organisation.
Common examples:
  • Fuel burned in company-owned vehicles
  • Gas used in onsite boilers or heaters
  • Diesel generators you operate
  • Refrigerant leaks from chillers, fridges, or air conditioning units
  • Onsite industrial processes (if relevant)
If you directly control the equipment that’s burning fuel or leaking refrigerant, it’s usually Scope 1.

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Scope 2 – Purchased electricity and energy

Emissions from the generation of purchased energy that you use, mainly electricity.
Common examples:
  • Electricity used in offices, warehouses, venues, factories
  • Sometimes purchased steam, heat, or cooling from external providers
You don’t own the power plant, but your demand for electricity drives emissions at the plant’s end. That’s why Scope 2 is indirect, but still separated from Scope 3.
Many organisations start with Scope 1 and 2 because the data is easier to access and they’re often required in reporting frameworks.

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Scope 3 – Other indirect emissions

All other indirect emissions that happen because of your activities, but occur outside your own direct operations.
This is where most organisations’ emissions usually sit. Typical categories include things like:
  • Purchased goods and services (what you buy)
  • Capital goods (buildings, machinery, equipment)
  • Fuel- and energy-related activities (upstream energy emissions not in Scope 1 or 2)
  • Upstream transport and distribution
  • Waste generated in operations
  • Business travel (flights, hotels, taxis, rideshare)
  • Employee commuting
  • Downstream transport, use, and end-of-life of your products
In events and products, Scope 3 is often where most of the footprint shows up.

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How scopes look in Salvidia

When you run an assessment in Salvidia, your results are organised by:
  • Scope (1, 2, 3)
  • Category (energy, travel, waste, etc.)
  • Assessment type (organisation, event, product)
That means you can:
  • See your total Scope 1, 2, and 3
  • Drill down into which categories are driving each scope
  • Compare year-on-year or assessment-to-assessment
You’ll typically see:
  • Scope 1: fuels, onsite energy, refrigerants
  • Scope 2: electricity and purchased energy
  • Scope 3: purchases, travel, waste, freight, etc.

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Common questions

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Are Scope 3 emissions “less important”?

No. Scope 3 is often where the majority of impact is, especially for:
  • Service businesses
  • Product companies with complex supply chains
  • Events with lots of travel and suppliers
Scopes are about classification, not importance. Many net-zero strategies now expect organisations to address material Scope 3 emissions, not just Scope 1 and 2.

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Do I have to measure all Scope 3 categories on day one?

No. A pragmatic approach is:
  1. Start with Scope 1 and 2 plus a few key Scope 3 categories where you know impact is high (e.g. travel, major spend categories, or key suppliers).
  2. Each year, improve coverage and data quality.
What matters is being transparent about what you included and how the footprint was built. For more detail, see Data quality and evidence (if you’ve set that page up).

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Is double counting a problem?

It can be if you’re not careful, which is why scopes exist. Example:
  • A supplier’s Scope 1 (fuel in their vehicles) can be your Scope 3 (purchased services).
  • That’s okay — it’s by design. Different organisations report the same physical emissions in different scopes.
Inside one assessment, what you want to avoid is counting the same activity twice (e.g. recording the same spend and the same activity with two separate factors). Salvidia’s structured tables help reduce this by giving you clear places to put each type of data.

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How to think about scopes in your work

If you remember nothing else:
  • Scopes are just a classification system.
  • Most organisations’ impact is heavily Scope 3-heavy.
  • Salvidia handles the sorting into scopes for you, as long as you put data in the right tables.

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Where to go next