A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard

Training Curriculum

A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard

Principles
2. GHG Accounting and Reporting Principles

Organizational
Boundaries
3. Setting Organizational Boundaries

Operational
Boundaries
4. Setting Operational Boundaries

5. Tracking Emissions Over Time

over time
Tracking
6. Identifying and Calculating Emissions

Calculating
Emissions
7. Reporting GHG Emissions

Reporting
8. Review

Review
A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
GHG Accounting and Reporting Principles

Lesson 2

A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard

Organizational
Boundaries
In this lesson, you will learn:

Operational
Boundaries
• The 5 principles that guide the Corporate Standard

• How the principles were developed

over time
Tracking
• How to apply the principles to your organization’s inventory

Calculating
Emissions
Reporting
Review
A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
 Introduction
Principles: Use and Development

Principles
Organizational
Boundaries
• Guide GHG accounting and reporting to ensure that inventory
represents a faithful, true and fair account of a company’s emissions

Operational
Boundaries
• Derived largely from financial accounting and reporting principles

over time
Tracking
Calculating
Emissions
• Developed through multi-stakeholder process

Reporting
Review
A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
 Organizational Operational Tracking Calculating
Introduction Principles Reporting Review
Boundaries Boundaries over time Emissions
TRANSPARENCY
COMPLETENESS
CONSISTENCY
RELEVANCE

ACCURACY
A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
5 Principles
 Introduction
1. Relevance

Principles
• GHG inventories must contain

Organizational
information that internal and

Boundaries
external users need for decision
making

Operational
Boundaries
• Inventory boundary should
consider:

over time
Tracking
– Company characteristics
– Stakeholder needs

Calculating
Emissions
– Organizational structures
– Business context and
relationships

Reporting
Review
A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
 Introduction
2. Completeness

Principles
• Make a good faith effort to

Organizational
Boundaries
provide a complete, accurate,
and consistent accounting of
emissions

Operational
Boundaries
• Account for all emissions within
inventory boundary

over time
Tracking
– If some emissions estimated
insufficiently, document and

Calculating
Emissions
justify
– Do not exclude emissions from
small sources (de minimis)

Reporting
Review
A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
 Introduction
Example: Maintaining completeness over time

Principles
Structure of emissions sources changed over time

Organizational
Boundaries
Volkswagen

Operational
Boundaries
over time
Tracking
2006 Production process emissions 2012
1996

Calculating
Emissions
Reporting
VW maintained COMPLETENESS over time
by regularly reassessing emission sources

Review
A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
 Introduction
3. Consistency

Principles
• Comparable data needed to

Organizational
Boundaries
track emissions over time

Operational
Boundaries
• Consistently apply:
– accounting approaches
– inventory boundaries

over time
Tracking
– calculation methodologies

Calculating
Emissions
• Document and justify any
changes to above

Reporting
Review
A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
 Introduction
4. Transparency

Principles
• Disclose emissions info clearly,

Organizational
Boundaries
factually and neutrally
• Maintain clear documentation and

Operational
Boundaries
archives (audit trail)
• Disclose and justify exclusions

over time
Tracking
• Provide references for
methodologies and data sources

Calculating
Emissions
• Independent external verification
can help ensure transparency

Reporting
Review
A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
 Introduction
5. Accuracy

Principles
• Data should be credible enough

Organizational
Boundaries
to use in decision making

Operational
Boundaries
• Calculations should be
systematically neither over nor

over time
Tracking
under actual values

Calculating
Emissions
• Uncertainties should be reduced
as far as practicable

Reporting
Review
A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
 Introduction
Example: Accuracy – Completeness Tradeoff

Principles
Organizational
Boundaries
Operational
Boundaries
Problem: Data on energy consumption for shops in shopping centers
Estimates inaccurate data

over time
Tracking
Exclusion b/c of inaccuracy incomplete data
Solution:

Calculating
Emissions
Stores directly monitored energy consumption OR
Used guidelines to estimate emissions with store size and equipment data

Reporting
The Body Shop improved ACCURACY and COMPLETENESS

Review
A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
 Introduction
Summary

Principles
To ensure that your inventory represents a faithful, true and fair account of
your company’s emissions, adhere to the GHG accounting and reporting

Organizational
Boundaries
principles:

1. R E L E VA N C E

Operational
Boundaries
2. COMPLETENESS

over time
Tracking
3. CONSISTENCY

Calculating
Emissions
4. T R A N S PA R E N C Y

Reporting
5. ACCURACY

Review
A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
 Introduction
Further Reading

Principles
Organizational
Boundaries
Operational
Boundaries
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol: A Corporate
Accounting & Reporting Standard

over time
Tracking
Chapter 1: GHG Accounting and Reporting Principles

Calculating
Emissions
Reporting
Review
A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard
 Introduction
Discussion

Principles
1. Has your organization implemented any measures to ensure the
above principles in its financial accounting or other record

Organizational
Boundaries
keeping/reporting?

Operational
Boundaries
2. Can you think of a possible scenario in which there may be a
tradeoff between two principles?

over time
Tracking
R E L E VA N C E
COMPLETENESS

Calculating
Emissions
CONSISTENCY
T R A N S PA R E N C Y

Reporting
ACCURACY

Review
A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard