The Greenhouse Gas Protocol

Before a business can begin tackling its greenhouse gas emissions, it must know what its contribution to global warming actually is. Yet no agreed process has traditionally been available for greenhouse gas accounting.

An attempt to create such a framework was launched in October 2001 by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the World Resources Institute (WRI). The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG) offers for the first time a set of calculation tools for quantifying corporate greenhouse gas emissions.

As well as providing a baseline against which to assess future reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the GHG Protocol allows businesses to compare the effectiveness of different mitigation strategies.

It consists of three modules:

1. Corporate GHG accounting and reporting;
2. GHG accounting along the value chain (including upstream and downstream processes);
3. Accounting for GHG reduction projects.

'In the future, greenhouse gases will need to be accounted for on a company's balance sheet in the same way as other assets and liabilities,' predicts Jonathan Lash, WRI president.

The GHG Protocol has been 'road tested' by more than 30 companies in nine countries, including Ford, General Motors, IBM, Shell and Norsk Hydro.

Plans for the future development of the GHG Protocol include a module designed to account for so-called carbon offset programmes such as tree-planting schemes.

Click here to find out more about the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.