GHG Protocol Corporate Emissions Accounting Training Course

Course overview

Corporate greenhouse-gas inventories are increasingly used in annual reports, customer questionnaires, procurement decisions, lending reviews and climate target setting. Yet many organisations still rely on scattered utility bills, finance extracts and supplier estimates that cannot be traced, reconciled or defended. This course addresses the practical work of building a credible corporate inventory under the GHG Protocol: setting organisational and operational boundaries, selecting emission factors, managing data quality and documenting decisions so results can withstand internal review, external assurance and stakeholder scrutiny.

Participants work through the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, Scope 2 Guidance and Scope 3 Standard as applied to a realistic multi-site organisation. They learn to apply equity share, financial control and operational control consolidation approaches; distinguish Scope 1, 2 and 3 sources; calculate emissions from activity data; apply location-based and market-based Scope 2 methods; screen and prioritise Scope 3 categories; and establish a base year, recalculation policy and inventory management plan. The course also covers evidence trails, uncertainty, data-quality scoring, emission-factor selection and reporting disclosures.

Teaching combines instructor-led explanation with calculation workshops, boundary-setting case studies, peer review of inventory decisions and spreadsheet-based exercises. Each participant develops a corporate GHG inventory workbook and documentation pack containing a boundary statement, source map, calculation log, data-quality assessment, Scope 2 treatment, Scope 3 screening and improvement plan. This makes the course suitable for professionals who need to produce, review or commission an emissions inventory rather than simply interpret a sustainability report.

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 relevant Scope 3 categories
• Build a traceable emissions calculation workbook from activity data, conversion factors and global warming potentials
• Calculate location-based and market-based Scope 2 emissions and document contractual instrument evidence
• Conduct a Scope 3 screening assessment using spend, activity and supplier data
• Establish a base year, set a recalculation policy and identify triggering structural changes
• Assess inventory data quality using completeness, accuracy, consistency, transparency and relevance criteria
• Produce a corporate GHG inventory management plan with controls, responsibilities and an assurance-ready audit trail

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Sustainability Managers — who are accountable for producing a defensible corporate GHG inventory and disclosure inputs
• Environmental Managers — who must integrate energy, fuel, waste and operational data into environmental reporting
• ESG Reporting Specialists — who prepare emissions disclosures for annual reports, ratings and investor requests
• Energy and Facilities Managers — who own utility, refrigerant and site-energy data used in Scope 1 and 2 calculations
• Procurement and Supply Chain Managers — who need to assess supplier data and prioritise Scope 3 interventions
• Internal Auditors and Risk Managers — who review emissions controls, evidence trails and reporting risks

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should understand basic organisational operations, such as energy use, fleet fuel, purchased goods, waste or business travel, and be comfortable working with spreadsheets. Familiarity with units such as kWh, litres, tonnes, kilometres and currency is useful, as is the ability to interpret invoices, utility data or supplier information. Prior exposure to sustainability reporting is helpful but not essential. Participants do not need prior GHG Protocol certification, advanced mathematics, life-cycle assessment expertise, carbon-offset knowledge or specialist emissions-accounting software. A laptop with Microsoft Excel or equivalent spreadsheet access is strongly recommended for calculation exercises.

Training methodology

The five-day programme uses short instructor-led briefings to introduce each GHG Protocol requirement, followed by structured workbook exercises using realistic utility, fuel, procurement, travel and refrigerant data. Participants make boundary and classification decisions for a multi-site corporate case, calculate emissions in Excel, compare data-quality options and review each other’s supporting evidence. Group discussions focus on judgement calls that commonly create reporting risk, including leased assets, renewable electricity claims and supplier estimates. The final day converts the case work into an application plan for the participant’s own organisation.

Course outline

Day 1: GHG Protocol foundations and inventory boundaries

• Purpose and architecture of the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard
• GHG gases, global warming potentials and tCO2e conversion
• Organisational boundary concepts and consolidation approaches
• Equity share consolidation method
• Financial control and operational control methods
• Operational boundary mapping for Scope 1, 2 and 3
• Inventory principles: relevance, completeness, consistency, transparency and accuracy

Workshop: Participants create a boundary decision memo and emissions-source map for a multi-site corporate case with owned, leased and joint-venture assets.

Day 2: Scope 1 and Scope 2 calculation methods

• Stationary combustion data and fuel-based calculations
• Mobile combustion calculations for owned and controlled vehicles
• Fugitive emissions from refrigeration and air-conditioning systems
• Process emissions and source-specific calculation considerations
• Activity data hierarchy, unit conversion and emission-factor selection
• Location-based Scope 2 calculation method
• Market-based Scope 2 method and contractual instrument quality criteria

Workshop: Participants calculate Scope 1 and dual Scope 2 results in a spreadsheet, including a documented treatment of renewable electricity instruments.

Day 3: Scope 3 screening and value-chain data

• Scope 3 Standard categories and reporting boundaries
• Upstream and downstream value-chain source mapping
• Scope 3 screening methods and materiality prioritisation
• Spend-based estimation using environmentally extended input-output factors
• Activity-based and supplier-specific calculation approaches
• Supplier data requests, allocation rules and double-counting considerations
• Data-quality indicators and uncertainty assessment for Scope 3 estimates

Workshop: Participants complete a Scope 3 category screen, select methods for priority categories and produce a supplier-data request brief.

Day 4: Inventory governance, base years and reporting evidence

• Base-year selection and inventory recalculation policy
• Structural changes, acquisitions, divestments and outsourcing treatment
• Significance thresholds for recalculating historical emissions
• Inventory management plan roles, calendars and control points
• Evidence registers, calculation logs and version control
• Internal review and limited-assurance readiness
• GHG Protocol reporting disclosures and methodological narratives

Workshop: Participants draft an inventory management plan section covering annual controls, evidence retention, base-year recalculation triggers and reviewer responsibilities.

Day 5: From inventory to management decisions

• Emissions hotspot analysis and management reporting
• Intensity metrics and operational performance indicators
• Interpreting year-on-year variance and methodological changes
• Using inventory results to support reduction initiatives
• Relationship between corporate inventories and science-based target baselines
• Common inventory errors and assurance findings
• Implementation roadmap for the next reporting cycle

Workshop: Participants assemble and present a corporate inventory workbook pack with key disclosures, hotspot findings and a 90-day data-improvement action plan.

Tools & standards covered

GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting 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