> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.salvidia.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # GHG Protocol alignment > Everything the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard requires of a compliant inventory, what Salvidia handles automatically, and the decisions that remain yours to make and document. There is no such thing as a GHG Protocol certificate. The Corporate Standard sets out requirements a report must meet to be prepared **in accordance with** it, and conformance is a property of your inventory and its documentation, not a badge anyone issues. This page lists those requirements in full. For each one, it says what Salvidia does for you and what you still have to decide. The second column matters: a platform can apply the right factors and structure, but it cannot choose your boundary or write your assumptions down for you. ## 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. | Principle | What it asks of you | | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Relevance** | The inventory reflects the emissions of the company and serves the decisions of its users | | **Completeness** | All sources within the chosen boundary are accounted for, and any exclusion is disclosed and justified | | **Consistency** | Methods allow meaningful comparison over time; changes are documented | | **Transparency** | Assumptions, methods, and data sources are disclosed clearly enough to be reviewed | | **Accuracy** | Uncertainty is reduced as far as practicable, and the result is not systematically over- or understated | ## 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 Operational control is the most common choice and the usual default. It is also what most Australian reporting is built around. See [Organisational boundaries](/guides/organisational-boundaries) for how to decide and how to model it. ## 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](/guides/scopes-1-2-and-3-explained) 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. They answer different questions and both belong in the report. A company on 100% GreenPower has a market-based Scope 2 near zero and a location-based Scope 2 that is unchanged from its neighbours. Salvidia calculates both, applying grid factors by state for location-based and reflecting GreenPower and renewable contracts in market-based. ## 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 You do **not** recalculate for organic growth or decline. A company that grew and emitted more should show exactly that. Set a significance threshold in advance and write it down. Deciding after the fact whether a change was material is exactly the judgement an auditor will question. Salvidia lets you designate a base year and compare subsequent assessments against it. The recalculation policy itself is yours to set. ## 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 Salvidia produces the emissions figures, the scope and category structure, and the traceable factor references. The narrative disclosures, meaning your boundary statement, exclusions, and recalculation policy, are written by you and belong alongside the numbers. ## Verification and assurance The Corporate Standard does not require third-party assurance, but frameworks built on it increasingly do, and AASB S2 phases in assurance requirements over time. What makes an inventory assurable is not a feature. It is the ability to take any figure in the report and walk it back to a source document. Because every line in Salvidia retains its input, unit, factor, and factor source, an assurer can sample any total and trace it down. See [How emissions are calculated](/methodology/how-emissions-are-calculated). The gaps that cause assurance findings are almost always the same three: undocumented estimates, a boundary that was never written down, and inconsistent treatment between years. ## The division of labour | Requirement | Salvidia | You | | ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | | All seven gases in CO₂e | Built into factors | - | | Scope classification | Automatic by category | Confirm categorisation | | Location- and market-based Scope 2 | Both calculated | Supply contract and GreenPower details | | Scope 3 categories | Structured tables and factors | Decide which are in scope | | Emission factor selection | Matched by category, unit, location, period | - | | Line-level traceability | Retained automatically | - | | Base year | Designate and compare | Set the recalculation policy | | Consolidation approach | - | Choose it, justify it, and record it in your methodology | | Exclusions and assumptions | - | Document them | | Boundary statement | - | Write it | ## Where to go next * [AASB S2 reporting](/methodology/aasb-s2-reporting) * [What good data looks like](/collecting-data/what-good-data-looks-like) * [Organisational boundaries](/guides/organisational-boundaries) * [Scopes 1, 2, and 3 explained](/guides/scopes-1-2-and-3-explained)