Concepts
Scopes 1, 2 and 3
Every figure Slate calculates is filed under a GHG Protocol scope, or deliberately outside all three. Which one decides whether a number can be added to another.
On this page you'll learn
- What each scope contains, with Slate's categories in each
- Why some rows are reported outside the scopes
- How one activity can produce rows in two scopes
- Standard
- GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, with the Scope 2 Guidance
- Where it's stored
- Each record's category, and a scope on every calculated row
- Rule
- A row's scope is never inferred from its total
The three scopes
| Scope | What it covers | In Slate |
|---|---|---|
| Scope 1 | Direct emissions from sources you own or control | Fuel burned on site and in vehicles, refrigerant leaks, industrial process emissions, livestock and soils, peat extraction, a landfill or incinerator you operate |
| Scope 2 | Purchased electricity, heat, steam and cooling | Grid electricity (location-based and market-based), purchased steam, hot water, chilled water and CHP output |
| Scope 3 | Everything else in your value chain | Business travel, freight, hotel stays, homeworking, purchased materials, waste you send away, and the upstream and grid-loss share of your fuel and electricity |
Outside the scopes
Some figures are real but must not be added into Scope 1, 2 or 3. Slate gives them the scope outside_scopes and keeps them out of every scope total.
Biogenic CO₂ from burning biomass
The carbon was recently in the atmosphere. The GHG Protocol asks for it to be reported, but separately. The CH₄ and N₂O from the same burning stay in Scope 1.
Land carbon removals
Soil carbon, forest growth, land conversion and harvested wood products can be removals: negative numbers. Inside Scope 1 they would quietly net against fuel burned. See Land and forests.
The biogenic half of incinerated waste
Food, paper and wood carbon burned in an incinerator. Only the fossil half is a Scope 1 emission.
Why this matters
A sink inside Scope 1 is invisible. A site that planted grassland and burned diesel would report a smaller Scope 1 figure with no line saying why, and no way to recover either number from the total. That's why the calculator, not the user, sets the scope on these rows.
One activity, several scopes
A litre of diesel burned in a generator is Scope 1. Extracting, refining and delivering that litre is Scope 3. Slate writes these as separate rows, each with its own scope, linked to the direct row as its parent. Because each row carries its own scope, an upstream figure can never be added into Scope 1 by accident.
| Row | Scope | Example (UK electricity, DEFRA 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Generation | 2 | 0.13096 kg CO₂e/kWh |
| Transmission and distribution losses | 3 | 0.01299 kg CO₂e/kWh |
| Well-to-tank of generation | 3 | 0.03682 kg CO₂e/kWh |
| Well-to-tank of losses | 3 | 0.00359 kg CO₂e/kWh |
Scope 2 is reported two ways
The GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance asks for both a location-based figure (the average intensity of the grid you draw from) and a market-based figure (what your contracts, certificates and supplier say). Slate reports both side by side and never picks one for you. See Scope 2 electricity.