GHG Protocol Corporate Carbon Accounting Training Course

Course overview

Corporate greenhouse-gas inventories are increasingly scrutinised by investors, customers, regulators, assurance providers and internal leadership. Sustainability professionals need more than an emissions total: they must establish defensible organisational and operational boundaries, select appropriate emissions factors, document calculation choices, manage incomplete supplier data and explain year-on-year changes. This course addresses the practical work of building a corporate inventory that follows the GHG Protocol and can withstand management review, external assurance preparation and disclosure requirements.

Participants apply the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, Scope 2 Guidance and Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard to realistic company data. They learn to define equity share and control consolidation approaches; identify Scope 1, Scope 2 and relevant Scope 3 sources; set a base year; calculate activity-data emissions; apply location-based and market-based Scope 2 methods; screen Scope 3 categories; and establish data-quality, uncertainty and recalculation procedures. The programme also covers inventory management plans, audit trails, internal controls and reporting-ready emissions narratives.

Delivery combines instructor-led method briefings with spreadsheet-based calculations, source-data review, boundary decisions and peer challenge sessions. Working through an integrated case company, participants create a GHG Protocol-aligned inventory workbook, emissions-source register, methodology log, Scope 3 screening matrix and improvement plan. They leave with reusable templates and a structured action plan for applying the method to their own organisation.

The course is designed for practitioners who already work with environmental, energy, procurement, finance or sustainability data and now need to own, review or improve an organisational carbon inventory. It is especially relevant where the organisation is moving from ad hoc carbon estimates to a controlled annual reporting process.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Define organisational boundaries using equity share, financial control and operational control approaches
• Classify emission sources into GHG Protocol Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 categories
• Calculate stationary combustion, mobile combustion and purchased-electricity emissions in an Excel inventory workbook
• Apply location-based and market-based Scope 2 accounting rules, including contractual instrument quality criteria
• Conduct a Scope 3 screening assessment using spend, activity and supplier-specific data approaches
• Set a base year and apply GHG Protocol recalculation rules for structural changes and methodology updates
• Build an inventory management plan with data owners, evidence requirements, controls and approval steps
• Prepare a reporting-ready methodology statement, emissions-source register and improvement roadmap

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Sustainability Managers — who are accountable for producing a credible annual corporate GHG inventory
• ESG Reporting Managers — who need auditable emissions data for sustainability reports and investor disclosures
• Environmental Managers — who manage operational environmental data and emissions-reduction programmes
• Energy and Carbon Analysts — who calculate utility, fuel and refrigerant emissions across sites
• Procurement and Supply Chain Managers — who need to obtain and assess supplier data for Scope 3 categories
• Internal Audit and Risk Professionals — who review carbon-data controls, evidence trails and reporting risks

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable working with business data in Microsoft Excel, including formulas, tables and basic data checks. Familiarity with their organisation’s energy bills, fuel records, travel data, purchasing data or environmental reporting process will help participants apply the exercises quickly. A basic awareness of climate change, carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) and the distinction between direct and indirect emissions is assumed, but detailed prior knowledge of the GHG Protocol is not required. No specialist carbon-accounting software, environmental science degree, life-cycle assessment experience or prior assurance experience is required.

Training methodology

The five days alternate focused instructor-led teaching with applied inventory-building work. Participants interpret GHG Protocol requirements, calculate emissions from utility, fuel, refrigerant, travel and purchasing datasets, and test decisions against a case company’s organisational structure. Small groups compare consolidation choices, assess contractual instruments for Scope 2, and challenge the completeness of a Scope 3 screen. The final sessions use an inventory-review simulation and application-planning workshop, enabling each participant to translate course templates, controls and priorities into a practical plan for their own reporting cycle.

Course outline

Day 1: GHG Protocol foundations and inventory boundaries

• Purpose and architecture of the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard
• Greenhouse gases, global warming potentials and CO2e conversion
• Organisational boundary setting through equity share and control approaches
• Operational boundary identification across Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3
• Direct emissions-source mapping for facilities, fleets and refrigerants
• Base-year selection and principles of relevance, completeness, consistency, transparency and accuracy
• Inventory management plan structure and annual reporting-cycle roles

Workshop: Participants map the legal entities, operations and emissions sources of a case company and produce a documented boundary decision.

Day 2: Scope 1 and Scope 2 calculation methods

• Activity data, emission factors and calculation hierarchies
• Stationary combustion calculations for natural gas and other fuels
• Mobile combustion calculations for owned and controlled vehicles
• Fugitive-emissions calculations for refrigerant leakage
• Purchased electricity, steam, heat and cooling boundary rules
• Location-based Scope 2 calculation using grid emission factors
• Market-based Scope 2 accounting and contractual instrument quality criteria

Workshop: Using source records and emissions factors, participants calculate a case company’s Scope 1 and dual-reported Scope 2 inventory in Excel.

Day 3: Scope 3 screening and value-chain data

• Scope 3 Standard principles and the fifteen Scope 3 categories
• Materiality screening using spend, activity and hybrid estimation methods
• Purchased goods and services calculation approaches
• Capital goods, fuel- and energy-related activities and upstream transportation methods
• Business travel, employee commuting and homeworking data choices
• Downstream categories, use-phase emissions and end-of-life treatment
• Supplier-specific data requests, allocation rules and data-quality scoring

Workshop: Participants build a Scope 3 category screen, select calculation methods and produce a supplier-data collection priority matrix.

Day 4: Data quality, controls and inventory assurance readiness

• Data-source registers, evidence retention and calculation audit trails
• Data-quality indicators for technological, temporal, geographical and completeness dimensions
• Uncertainty assessment and materiality thresholds for inventory review
• Control activities for data collection, calculation review and approval
• Base-year recalculation triggers for acquisitions, divestments and outsourcing changes
• Treatment of renewable electricity instruments and avoided-emissions claims
• Preparing inventory files for internal audit and limited assurance

Workshop: Participants review a flawed inventory pack, identify control gaps and produce a corrected evidence and quality-control checklist.

Day 5: Reporting, interpretation and implementation planning

• GHG Protocol reporting principles and required inventory disclosures
• Methodology statements, exclusions and assumptions documentation
• Emissions-intensity metrics and operational performance interpretation
• Separating real emissions changes from base-year and methodology effects
• Management dashboards for Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 decision-making
• Linking inventory results to reduction initiatives and target-setting inputs
• Ninety-day implementation planning for the next reporting cycle

Workshop: Participants present a reporting-ready inventory summary and produce a 90-day GHG Protocol implementation roadmap for their organisation.

Tools & standards covered

GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance, GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, Microsoft Excel

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions