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    All templatesESG/CSRD · 4 pages · Updated 20 October 2026

    GHG Inventory Workbook and Data Sheet

    PDF ExcelFree, no email

    A four-page printable data sheet and a working workbook for a corporate greenhouse gas inventory. The data sheet collects, on paper, the reporting period and boundary approach (equity share, financial control or operational control), Scope 1 sources, Scope 2 electricity and other purchased energy with the supplier-specific and residual mix information, the 15 Scope 3 categories with whether each is relevant and why, the emission factor source and year, data quality, exclusions, base year and recalculation, and sign-off. The workbook calculates Scope 1, Scope 2 (location-based and market-based side by side) and Scope 3 by category, with a summary, intensity per denominator you enter and checks. Neither file supplies an emission factor: you enter each factor with its source and year. It does not show conformity with the GHG Protocol or any law.

    What's inside

    This template has two files that work together: a printable 4-page data sheet (PDF) for collecting activity data on paper, and a working workbook (XLSX) that does the arithmetic. Neither supplies an emission factor.

    Data sheet, page 1: boundary and Scope 1

    1. Inventory details and organisational boundary: reporting entity, reporting period, who prepared it, the boundary approach (equity share, financial control or operational control), the entities and sites included, the reason for the approach, the GWP set used and the gases covered
    2. Scope 1: a row per source with type, site or asset, amount, unit, evidence, the factor's name, source and year, and a column for biogenic CO2

    Data sheet, page 2: Scope 2 and factors

    1. Scope 2: energy type, site, supplier and contract, consumption, unit and evidence; the location-based factor; whether the supplier discloses a supplier-specific emission rate; contractual instruments held and their details; the residual mix for your market; on-site generation and certificates sold
    2. Emission factor register: for each factor its name, unit, value, gases and boundary covered, publisher, document, year and the date you accessed it (all written by you)

    Data sheet, page 3: Scope 3 and data quality

    1. Scope 3: the 15 categories under the names the Scope 3 Standard lists, each with relevant or not and why, activity data, data source, factor source and year and a data quality note
    2. Data quality: the five indicators of the Scope 3 Standard per scope or category, the share from supplier or partner data, assumptions and uncertainty, and the scale you used

    Data sheet, page 4: exclusions, base year and sign-off

    1. Exclusions with a justification for each
    2. Base year and recalculation: base year and why, base year totals, where the recalculation policy is written, the significance threshold you apply, and the changes this year that may trigger a recalculation
    3. Reported outside the scopes, and intensity denominators: biogenic CO2, notes on offsets, certificates and removals, and the denominators you choose
    4. Open points and 11. Review and sign-off

    Workbook (XLSX, 10 sheets): About, Setup, Factors (empty, with source and year columns), Scope 1, Scope 2 (location-based and market-based side by side), Scope 3 lines, Scope 3 categories, Summary (results, intensity, base year comparison, checks), Example (every number and factor invented and labelled) and Lists. Each line is activity x factor / 1000 = tonnes CO2e, with drop-downs for choices and a status column that flags a row that cannot be calculated.

    The section titles, the tick options and the example rows are ours, to change.

    What requires or shapes this record

    No source opened for this page says that a law requires this data sheet or this workbook. The GHG Protocol standards are voluntary documents that companies and other organisations choose to follow; a customer, a lender, a reporting programme or a law may ask for an inventory, name a method or a factor set, or set its own boundary, and which of these applies to you depends on your country, your sector and your size. This page makes no statement about the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the ESRS or any other legal reporting duty, because those rules change: read the current text. What the GHG Protocol documents set out, as read on 20 October 2026, is below. The GHG Protocol is revising its corporate standards, and its Scope 2 Guidance page records a public consultation on the 2015 guidance from 20 October 2025 to 31 January 2026: check ghgprotocol.org for the version in force before you report. A completed sheet shows that data was collected and the choices were written down; it does not show that an inventory conforms to any standard or law. This page is general information, not legal advice.

    • GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, revised edition, chapters 3, 4, 5 and 9 (WRI and WBCSD, free PDF; read on 20 October 2026)

      Chapter 3: a company consolidates its data by the equity share approach or the control approach, where control is defined in financial or operational terms and the company chooses between the financial control and operational control criteria; once chosen, the policy is applied to all levels of the organisation. Chapter 4: scopes 1 and 2 are accounted for and reported separately at a minimum; scope 3 is described as optional in this standard; direct CO2 from burning biomass is not included in scope 1 but reported separately. Chapter 5: a base year with verifiable data is chosen and reported with the reasons, a recalculation policy is developed, and any significance threshold is stated and set by the company. Chapter 9: a public report includes the organisational and operational boundaries, the reporting period, emissions by scope, each of the six gases in tonnes and in CO2e, the base year, methodologies, any specific exclusions, a list of facilities and information on inventory quality. The GHG Protocol page for this standard lists seven gases, including nitrogen trifluoride; the PDF text lists six.

    • GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance (free PDF), chapters 1, 6 and 7 (read on 20 October 2026)

      Companies with operations in markets that provide contractual instruments or supplier-specific data shall report scope 2 two ways, a location-based result and a market-based result, each labelled; the two results shall not be added or netted. Operations in places without market data are calculated with the location-based method, and where no market-based data is available the location-based data is used in the market-based total. Contractual instruments must meet Scope 2 Quality Criteria, and the reporter discloses the categories of instruments used and, if no residual mix exists, says so. Recommended disclosure includes total consumption of electricity, steam, heat and cooling, reported separately from the scope totals. The same page and PDF cover steam, heat and cooling as well as electricity.

    • GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard, Tables 5.3, 6.1 and 7.1, Box 7.2 and chapter 11 (free PDF; read on 20 October 2026)

      Table 5.3 lists the 15 scope 3 categories, upstream 1 to 8 and downstream 9 to 15, under the names used on the data sheet. A reporter accounts for all scope 3 emissions and discloses and justifies any exclusion. Table 6.1 lists criteria for identifying relevant activities (size, influence, risk, stakeholders, outsourcing, sector guidance, others). Table 7.1 gives calculation as activity data x emission factor x GWP. GWP values are IPCC 100-year values, with the same set used across scopes and its source disclosed. Table 7.6 lists five data quality indicators and Box 7.2 gives an example rating scale. Chapter 11 lists what a public scope 3 report includes: totals by category, included and excluded categories with justification, base year information, a description of data types and sources, methods and assumptions, and the share of emissions calculated from supplier or partner data. Biogenic CO2 is reported separately from the scopes.

    • Where emission factors are published (GOV.UK, US EPA; pages read on 20 October 2026; no value is copied)

      The GOV.UK collection of UK government conversion factors for company reporting is published by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (with the former business department named on the page) each year; the page was last updated on 11 June 2026 and lists the 2026 factors. It says the factors suit UK-based organisations and international organisations reporting on their UK operations, so a UK factor is not a factor for a site elsewhere. The US EPA publishes a GHG Emission Factors Hub of default factors for organisational reporting (page updated 12 January 2026), and its page on global warming potentials shows that GWP values depend on which IPCC assessment report is used. These pages say where factors are found; whether a given factor suits your inventory is your decision.

    Each source checked on 20 October 2026. Not legal advice; check the text in force for your site.

    Field by field

    The data sheet has 11 sections, printed over four pages, and every labelled part below is on it. It collects data and choices; it calculates nothing and gives no emission factor, limit or threshold. Where a factor, a significance threshold or a quality scale is needed, you write it with its source. The workbook then does the arithmetic from what you wrote.

    Reporting period
    Why: A GHG figure means nothing without the dates it covers, and the Corporate Standard lists the reporting period among the information a public report includes. Write the dates the activity data covers, not the date you collected it.
    Common mistake: Mixing periods: electricity bills for 12 months ending in March with fuel for the calendar year, so the totals do not describe one period.
    Organisational boundary approach
    Why: The Corporate Standard has the reporter consolidate by the equity share approach or the control approach, where control is financial or operational, and apply the one policy to all levels of the organisation. The choice decides which operations are in and which emissions are direct.
    Common mistake: Using control for the Scope 1 and 2 sheet and equity share for a joint venture someone added later, or changing the approach from year to year without recalculating.
    Entities, sites and facilities included
    Why: The inventory boundary is the list of what is counted. The Corporate Standard asks for a list of facilities, and a reader must see whether a site or subsidiary is missing.
    Common mistake: Naming the legal entity only, so a leased office or a site opened mid-year is silently left out.
    GWP set used
    Why: CO2e figures depend on which IPCC assessment report's 100-year values convert each gas. The Scope 3 Standard asks you to disclose the source of GWP values and to keep the same set across scopes and years.
    Common mistake: Taking refrigerant values from one report and the combustion factors from a set that used another, and not saying so.
    Scope 1 source
    Why: One row per direct source (stationary combustion, mobile combustion, process, fugitive) with the amount in the unit of the factor you will use, so the workbook line multiplies without a conversion in between.
    Common mistake: Writing litres on the sheet and picking a factor per kilogram or per kWh, then converting in your head.
    Scope 2 energy type
    Why: Scope 2 covers purchased or acquired electricity, steam, heat and cooling. A separate row for each type and site gives the consumption that both Scope 2 methods multiply by different factors.
    Common mistake: Entering one figure for the whole group and losing the sites where contracts, suppliers or grids differ.
    Supplier-specific emission rate
    Why: The market-based method uses what you purposefully bought. A rate disclosed by the supplier or utility is one kind of that information, so record whether it exists and where it is published.
    Common mistake: Assuming the supplier's 'green' marketing is a disclosed emission rate, with no document and no year behind it.
    Contractual instruments held
    Why: Certificates, power purchase contracts and similar instruments feed the market-based result. The Scope 2 Guidance sets quality criteria for them, so the sheet asks for quantity, generation year, retirement or evidence and the sites covered.
    Common mistake: Counting a certificate that was sold on or that covers a different year, or counting one certificate against two sites.
    Residual mix
    Why: Where no instrument covers a quantity, the market-based method looks for a residual mix factor, and where there is none the location-based figure is used for that site. Recording whether one exists lets the workbook show which Scope 2 rows used which basis.
    Common mistake: Entering zero for the market-based factor of a site that has no instruments, which understates the result.
    Emission factor register
    Why: The form supplies no factor. Every factor you use is written down with its value, unit, gases and boundary covered, publisher, document, year and the date you accessed it, so a number can be traced and replaced when the publisher issues a new set.
    Common mistake: Copying a factor from an old report or a spreadsheet with no source and no year, or using a factor for one country's grid at another country's site.
    Scope 3 category
    Why: The 15 categories are printed under the names the Scope 3 Standard lists (Table 5.3), upstream 1 to 8 and downstream 9 to 15. Assess all of them, so an omission is a decision and not an oversight.
    Common mistake: Using a shortened or invented list of categories, or assessing only the ones for which data happens to exist.
    Relevant? Why
    Why: The Scope 3 Standard asks you to account for all Scope 3 emissions and to disclose and justify any exclusion, and lists criteria for relevance (size, influence, risk, stakeholders, outsourcing, sector guidance, your own). Write the criterion and the reason, not only Y or N.
    Common mistake: Marking a category not relevant because there is no data, and not saying so.
    Data quality
    Why: The Scope 3 Standard lists five indicators (technological, temporal and geographical representativeness, completeness, reliability) and asks for a description of the data quality of reported data. The scale is yours; the standard's Box 7.2 gives an example.
    Common mistake: Scoring every line 'good' with no criteria written down, so the score cannot be repeated next year.
    Exclusion
    Why: The Corporate Standard asks for any specific exclusions to be stated and the Scope 3 Standard asks for exclusions to be disclosed and justified. A list of what is out and why is part of the inventory.
    Common mistake: Leaving a source out and not listing it, so the totals look complete.
    Base year
    Why: The Corporate Standard has the reporter choose and report a base year for which verifiable data is available, with the reasons, and recalculate it when significant changes occur. The year and its totals are the datum for every later comparison.
    Common mistake: Choosing the year with the most favourable numbers, or one for which the data cannot be checked.
    Base year recalculation policy
    Why: The Corporate Standard asks for a recalculation policy and, if one is applied, the significance threshold, set and disclosed by the company. The form gives no threshold: write yours and where the policy is kept.
    Common mistake: Writing a percentage nobody agreed, or recalculating for emission increases but not for decreases.
    Review and sign-off
    Why: A second person checks the figures against the evidence before they go into the workbook, and the record shows where the evidence is kept and for how long.
    Common mistake: The person who collected the data also being the only person who checked it.

    Worked example

    IllustrativeA data sheet for an invented company (invented names, amounts and factors; the factors belong to made-up demo units and are not real)

    SectionEntry
    1 Details and boundaryInvented company Example Works Ltd, one invented year, operational control, one plant and one office. GWP set: one IPCC report, stated. The approach is applied to both sites.
    2 Scope 1 (invented factors)Heating boiler: 12,000 demo unit A x invented factor 2.5 kg CO2e per unit / 1000 = 30.0 t CO2e. Fleet: 8,000 demo unit B x invented factor 0.4 / 1000 = 3.2 t CO2e. Scope 1 total 33.2 t CO2e.
    3 Scope 2 (invented factors)Site 1: 50,000 demo energy units. Location-based, invented factor 0.3: 15.0 t. Market-based, invented supplier rate 0.1: 5.0 t. Site 2: 20,000 units, no market data, so 6.0 t in both results. Totals: location-based 21.0 t, market-based 11.0 t, shown side by side and not added.
    4 Factor registerThe invented factors are written down as invented, with no publisher and no year. In a real inventory every row names the publisher, the document and the year.
    5 Scope 3 (two of 15 assessed)Category 6, Business travel, relevant by size: 40,000 demo distance units x invented 0.2 / 1000 = 8.0 t. Category 1, Purchased goods and services, spend-based: 60,000 demo currency units x invented 0.5 / 1000 = 30.0 t. Scope 3 so far 38.0 t.
    6 Data qualityCategory 1 scored fair on the company's own four-step scale (spend-based, no supplier data); Scope 1 scored good. The scale and its criteria are written on the sheet.
    7 ExclusionsCategory 7, Employee commuting, left out for now: reason written, how its size was judged written, to be revisited next year.
    8 Base yearAn invented earlier year chosen with the reason that verifiable data exists. The company's own recalculation policy and threshold are written on the sheet. No trigger this year.
    Results and intensityScope 1 + 2 location-based 54.2 t; market-based 44.2 t. With the two Scope 3 categories: 92.2 t and 82.2 t. Intensity with an invented denominator of 40 staff: 54.2 / 40 = 1.355 t per staff member.

    Every number and factor here is invented to show the arithmetic: tonnes = amount x factor / 1000, with factors in kg CO2e per unit. None of it describes a real organisation, fuel, grid or supplier. The workbook's Example sheet carries the same figures with live formulas.

    When a spreadsheet stops being enough

    A paper sheet and a workbook work for one organisation with a few sites, one person who owns the inventory and suppliers who answer a short request. They stop working when many sites and many people send data in different units, when factor sets change every year and old calculations must be kept and re-run, when Scope 3 needs data from hundreds of suppliers, and when an auditor asks who changed which number and when.

    A software system can hold a factor library with source and year for each factor, convert units, keep the Scope 2 location-based and market-based results side by side with the instruments behind them, send and track supplier data requests, keep an audit trail of changes and recalculate a base year under a written policy. Ask how it stores the source and year of each factor, whether it shows both Scope 2 results, and what happens to earlier years when a factor set is replaced. The products listed below match the workflow rule of the site's carbon accounting guide; nothing in that list shows that a product holds a particular feature, so test it with a sample of your own data.

    Same rule for every product: tagged “Carbon Accounting”, “Carbon Management”, “Scope 3 Emissions”, “Scope 3” or “Emissions Reporting”, with a sourced carbon inventory or GHG calculation capability in its record, or one the vendor stated to us, labelled as vendor-stated. Documented and conditional capabilities qualify; check the linked scope before treating a module as included.

    Tekmon pays for a sponsored placement (above); its place in this list follows the same rule as every entry. How lists are ordered

    All 18 matching profiles are shown. Documentation review, not hands-on testing or a claim of compliance.