The five accounting principles
Every requirement below serves one of these. When a judgement call is genuinely ambiguous, resolve it by asking which principle is at stake.The seven greenhouse gases
A compliant inventory covers all seven gases in the Kyoto basket, not carbon dioxide alone: carbon dioxide · methane · nitrous oxide · hydrofluorocarbons · perfluorocarbons · sulphur hexafluoride · nitrogen trifluoride Each is converted to CO₂-equivalent using published global warming potentials. Salvidia’s factors already incorporate this, so the gases arrive in your result without separate entry.The one that catches people out is refrigerants. HFC leakage from air conditioning and refrigeration is Scope 1 and is often material for retail, hospitality, and cold chain. It is invisible in your ledger because you are billed for a service call, not for the gas. Ask your maintenance contractor for the top-up quantities.
Setting your organisational boundary
You must choose a consolidation approach and apply it consistently. The Corporate Standard defines three, not two:- Equity share: account for emissions in proportion to your ownership interest in each operation
- Financial control: account for 100% of emissions from operations where you direct financial and operating policies with a view to economic benefit
- Operational control: account for 100% of emissions from operations where you have full authority to introduce and implement operating policies
Setting your operational boundary
Scope 1 and Scope 2 are both mandatory for a compliant inventory. Scope 3 is optional under the Corporate Standard itself, though it is required by most frameworks that sit on top of it, including AASB S2. Where you include Scope 3, the Corporate Value Chain Standard for Scope 3 defines fifteen categories. You do not need all fifteen, but you do need to state which you included, which you excluded, and why. Salvidia has dedicated support for the upstream categories most organisations find material: purchased goods and services, capital goods, upstream transport, waste, business travel, and employee commuting. The downstream categories, along with leased assets, franchises, and investments, are recorded outside the platform and brought into your disclosure alongside it. If one of those is material to your business, tell us, because that ranking drives what we build next.Dual reporting for Scope 2
This is the requirement most inventories get wrong. The Scope 2 Guidance requires you to report both methods where you operate in a market that offers contractual instruments:- Location-based uses the average emissions intensity of the grid you draw from. It reflects the physical reality of the electricity system.
- Market-based reflects the contracts you hold: GreenPower, renewable energy certificates, or a supplier-specific factor.
Base year and recalculation
A compliant inventory needs a designated base year, the reference point every subsequent year is measured against, and a documented recalculation policy stating when you will restate it. You must recalculate the base year for structural changes that would otherwise make your trend meaningless:- Acquisitions, divestments, and mergers
- Outsourcing or insourcing of an emitting activity
- Changes in calculation methodology or improvements in data accuracy that are significant
- Discovery of a material error
What must appear in a compliant report
A public inventory report prepared in accordance with the Corporate Standard discloses:- The reporting entity and the consolidation approach used
- The reporting period covered
- Scope 1 emissions, reported separately
- Scope 2 emissions, both location-based and market-based
- Any Scope 3 categories included, with the categories and activities they cover
- Exclusions, with justification
- The base year, the recalculation policy, and any restatement made
- Emissions in tonnes CO₂e, with the global warming potential source used
- The methodologies and emission factor sources applied
- Any assumptions or estimates material to the result