GHG Protocol Corporate Standard
The 2004 revised edition, amended in 2013 for a seventh gas, NF3, and in 2015 by the Scope 2 Guidance; the Scope 3 Standard adds the value chain.
UK SRS S2 ¶29(a)(ii) names the 2004 Corporate Standard.Software · the standard mechanics, cited
GHG accounting software: the standard mechanics inside the tool
GHG accounting software implements the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and ISO 14064-1: a consolidation approach, scopes and source categories, versioned emission factors and a base year it can recalculate.
This page takes each mechanic to its provision and turns it into a test; buying, pricing and small-business questions are on carbon accounting software, and this site has tested no product.
What the software implements
Seven mechanics, each from a standard
GHG accounting software is the machinery that turns activity data into a greenhouse gas inventory to a published standard.
The standard is usually the GHG Protocol’s Corporate Standard, sometimes ISO 14064-1, and the two are now being consolidated.
Each mechanic beside this comes from a provision, and each is something a tool either stores or loses.
Which page answers which question
Choosing and buying a product — pricing, free tiers, spreadsheets, security, the vendor market — is on the carbon accounting software guide.
What a disclosure needs from a platform, line by line, is on GHG reporting software.
This page is the standard mechanics underneath both.
- 1
Consolidation
Equity share, financial control or operational control, stored per entity.
- 2
Source categories
Stationary and mobile combustion, process and fugitive emissions in Scope 1.
- 3
Biogenic CO2
Reported separately, outside the scopes.
- 4
Scope 2 methods
Location-based and market-based, from different data.
- 5
Scope 3 methods
Fifteen categories, a calculation method recorded for each.
- 6
Emission factors
Held by source and year, whether stored or called through an API.
- 7
Base year
A recalculation policy, with the original kept beside the restated figure.
Two standards, one inventory
The GHG Protocol and ISO 14064-1: what each gives a tool
A GHG accounting tool is built to a standard, and in practice that means the GHG Protocol, ISO 14064-1, or both.
The Corporate Standard is an amended instrument: the GHG Protocol’s own page says it covers seven gases including nitrogen trifluoride and was updated in 2015 with the Scope 2 Guidance.
It requires reporting a minimum of Scope 1 and Scope 2, and the Scope 3 Standard adds the fifteen value-chain categories.
ISO’s catalogue record shows ISO 14064-1:2018 as both confirmed in 2024 and at stage 90.92, “to be revised”, with a successor under development.
Read the detailed guidance and references
UK SRS S2 ¶29(a)(ii) asks for measurement in accordance with the 2004 Corporate Standard, unless a jurisdictional authority or an exchange requires a different method, and ¶C3 allows another method in the first year only.
ISO 14064-1 describes the ISO 14064 series as “GHG programme neutral”, so a tool built to it still has to carry the rules of whichever programme the inventory feeds.
Some verifiers work to ISO 14064-3 rather than, or as well as, the GHG Protocol; the verification side is on GHG verification standards.
The Protocol itself, chapter by chapter, is on the GHG Protocol.
| Mechanic | GHG Protocol | What the tool must store |
|---|---|---|
| Principles | Relevance, completeness, consistency, transparency, accuracy (Ch 1) | An audit trail and every year’s method, so last year reproduces |
| Boundary | Equity share or control; financial or operational control (Ch 3) | Ownership %, consolidation status and operator status per entity |
| Scopes | Scope 1 and 2 required; Scope 3 under the Scope 3 Standard | A scope and source category on every line |
| Gases | Seven, NF3 added by the 2013 amendment | Emissions by gas before conversion to CO2e |
| Base year | A recalculation policy and its threshold (Ch 5) | The original and the restated figure, side by side |
Organisation
inventory
inventory
ISO 14064-1:2018
Organisation-level quantification and reporting, GHG-programme-neutral: where a programme applies, its requirements are additional.
Confirmed in 2024 and at stage 90.92, “to be revised”.Consolidation approaches
Equity share, financial control, operational control: three inventories from one group
The consolidation approach decides which emissions are in the inventory at all, so it is the first setting a tool has to hold.
Chapter 3 of the Corporate Standard says companies “shall account for and report their consolidated GHG data according to either the equity share or control approach”, and under control “shall choose between either the operational control or financial control criteria”.
Under equity share a company counts its share of equity in each operation, which normally matches its ownership percentage.
Financial control exists where the company “has the ability to direct the financial and operating policies” of the operation “with a view to gaining economic benefits from its activities”.
Operational control exists where the company or a subsidiary “has the full authority to introduce and implement its operating policies at the operation”.
Read the detailed guidance and references
The Standard ties financial control to the financial accounts: an operation is financially controlled if it is “fully consolidated in financial accounts”.
Under the financial control criterion, joint ventures where partners have joint financial control are accounted for on the equity share approach.
The Standard notes that the choice of criterion rarely changes the answer, with the oil and gas industry as the notable exception because of its ownership and operatorship structures.
For software the consequence is a data model: each entity needs its ownership percentage, its consolidation status in the group accounts and whether the group operates it, so the inventory can be produced on any approach and an approach change is a recalculation rather than a rebuild.
The checker beside this works through what a disclosure must say about the boundary you choose.
| Approach | What is counted | Data the tool needs per entity |
|---|---|---|
| Equity share | The company’s share of equity in each operation | Ownership or economic-interest percentage |
| Financial control | 100% of operations it financially controls; joint financial control at equity share | Consolidation status in the financial accounts |
| Operational control | 100% of operations where it has full authority over operating policies | Operator status or operating licence |
Boundary checker · Chapter 3 and ¶29(a)(iv)
Scope 1 source categories
Four source categories, and where refrigerants go
Scope 1 is the emissions from sources a company owns or controls, and the Corporate Standard sorts those sources into four categories.
Chapter 6 of the Corporate Standard names them as stationary combustion, mobile combustion, process emissions and fugitive emissions, and says its calculation tools are organised the same way.
Fugitive emissions are “intentional and unintentional releases such as equipment leaks from joints, seals, packing, gaskets”, and refrigerant leaks from cooling equipment belong here.
Refrigerant data usually sits in maintenance records rather than an energy bill, so a tool needs an input route for it, not only an energy feed.
Read the detailed guidance and references
The Standard lets companies subdivide scope data by source type, business unit, facility or country “where this aids transparency”, so a tool that tags each line by category can produce those views without rework.
The DESNZ 2026 conversion factors carry factors for fuels, refrigerants and process gases, and transport, which map onto the four categories for UK activity.
Gases outside the Kyoto basket, such as CFCs, “shall not be included in scope 1 but may be reported separately”, which is a second line a tool needs outside the scopes.
Who controls a source — a landlord or a tenant, a parent or a joint venture — follows from the consolidation approach above.
Stationary combustion
Boilers, furnaces, turbinesFuels burnt in fixed equipmentMobile combustion
Vehicles, trains, shipsFuels burnt in owned or controlled transportProcess emissions
Physical or chemical processesCalcination in cement, catalytic cracking, aluminium smeltingFugitive emissions
Leaks and releasesEquipment leaks, refrigerants, wastewater treatmentBiogenic CO2
Biomass CO2 is reported, but not in Scope 1
Carbon dioxide from burning biomass or biofuel is a separate line in a GHG inventory, outside Scope 1.
Chapter 4 of the Corporate Standard says “direct CO2 emissions from the combustion of biomass shall not be included in scope 1 but reported separately”.
Chapter 9 then lists, among the required information in a public report, “emissions data for direct CO2 emissions from biologically sequestered carbon (e.g., CO2 from burning biomass/biofuels), reported separately from the scopes”.
A tool therefore needs a place for that figure that is reported but never added into the scope totals.
Read the detailed guidance and references
The DESNZ 2026 methodology paper lists an “outside of scopes” group among the factors it held constant from the 2025 set, so the UK factor set itself keeps such figures apart from the scopes.
The demonstration test is simple: enter a quantity of a biofuel blend and see whether the biogenic CO2 lands outside the Scope 1 total, then ask where the tool puts the methane and nitrous oxide, since the Standard’s exclusion names only the CO2.
Biomass combustionExplore
Module 02 / 04
Only the CO2
The exclusion names direct CO2 from biomass combustion, not the other gases.
Module 04 / 04
Factor set
The DESNZ factors include an “outside of scopes” group.
Scope 2 methods
Location-based and market-based: two numbers from different data
Scope 2 has two calculation methods, and a GHG accounting tool has to hold both because UK duties and the GHG Protocol ask for different things.
The location-based method applies a grid-average factor for where the electricity was used; the market-based method applies the factor carried by the company’s contracts and certificates.
UK SRS S2 requires location-based Scope 2 at ¶29(a)(v) and ¶B30, and treats market-based as something an entity “might” disclose at ¶B31.
The GHG Protocol’s Scope 2 Guidance requires both where a company has operations in markets with contractual instruments, and Great Britain is one, through REGO certificates.
Read the detailed guidance and references
The Scope 2 Guidance says the two totals “should not be viewed as ‘gross/net’”, so a tool that labels them that way has the method wrong.
The market-based method is not a renewables method: it “should also include other contractual instruments representing fossil fuel or mixed-resource emission factors as well”.
Where no supplier-specific factor exists, the market-based figure falls back on a residual mix, and the AIB’s 2025 final results give Great Britain 280.64 gCO2 per kWh, with the AIB’s own note that official residual mixes are in principle published by national authorities.
The UK location-based factor for 2026 activity is the DESNZ generated figure, 0.13096 kgCO2e per kWh, from Table 9 of the 2026 methodology paper.
The subject in full is on Scope 2 emissions.
Scope 2 checker · Guidance §1.5.1
Scope 3 categories and methods
Fifteen categories, a method recorded for each
Scope 3 is fifteen categories, and the mechanic a tool must implement is a calculation method per category, not one method for the whole value chain.
The Scope 3 Standard says at §6.2 that companies “shall account for all scope 3 emissions” and disclose and justify any exclusions, so no category is optional.
The GHG Protocol’s technical guidance ranks the methods for purchased goods from supplier-specific to spend-based, and adds that companies “need not always use the most specific method as a first preference”.
UK SRS S2 asks an entity to consider all fifteen categories and disclose which it includes, to prioritise primary data “with all else being equal”, and presumes Scope 3 can be estimated from secondary data and industry averages (¶B57).
Read the detailed guidance and references
The technical guidance is guidance: it supplies methods, and says to refer to the Scope 3 Standard for requirements.
Chapter 11 of the Scope 3 Standard asks, for each category, for the types and sources of data and a description of data quality, and UK SRS S2 ¶B56 asks how much is measured from specific activities and how much from verified inputs.
Only a tool that stores the method per category can answer either.
Scope 3 as a subject is on Scope 3 emissions.
| Category | Method families in the GHG Protocol guidance |
|---|---|
| 1. Purchased goods and services | Supplier-specific · hybrid · average-data · spend-based |
| 2. Capital goods | Supplier-specific · hybrid · average-data · spend-based |
| 3. Fuel- and energy-related activities | Supplier-specific · average-data |
| 4. Upstream transportation and distribution | Fuel-, distance- or spend-based (transport); site-specific or average-data (distribution) |
| 5. Waste generated in operations | Supplier-specific · waste-type-specific · average-data |
| 6. Business travel | Fuel-based · distance-based · spend-based |
| 7. Employee commuting | Fuel-based · distance-based · average-data |
| 8. Upstream leased assets | Asset-specific · lessor-specific · average-data |
| 9. Downstream transportation and distribution | Fuel-, distance- or spend-based (transport); site-specific or average-data (distribution) |
| 10. Processing of sold products | Site-specific · average-data |
| 11. Use of sold products | Direct and indirect use-phase methods |
| 12. End-of-life treatment of sold products | Waste-type-specific |
| 13. Downstream leased assets | As for upstream leased assets |
| 14. Franchises | Franchise-specific · average-data |
| 15. Investments | Investment-specific · project-specific · average-data |
- 1
Supplier-specific
Product-level cradle-to-gate data from the supplier itself.
- 2
Hybrid
Supplier activity data where available, secondary data for the gaps.
- 3
Average-data
Physical quantities, such as mass, times an industry-average factor.
- 4
Spend-based
Money spent times an emissions-per-unit-of-spend factor.
Emission factors
Factors are versioned data, matched to the activity year
An emission factor is data with a source and a year, and a tool that keeps only the answer cannot reproduce last year’s inventory.
DESNZ says at ¶1.10 of its 2026 methodology paper that the 2026 factors are “for use with activity data that falls entirely or mostly within 2026”.
In that set UK electricity generated is 0.13096 kgCO2e per kWh, transmission and distribution losses 0.01299, and electricity consumed, including losses, 0.14396.
The fall in the electricity factor from 2025 is 26%, mostly grid decarbonisation according to DESNZ’s major changes report, with 6 to 7 percentage points from methodology changes.
Read the detailed guidance and references
UK SRS S2 prescribes no factors (¶B29), but asks an entity to prioritise factors that relate to the jurisdiction where the activity took place (¶B51).
The DESNZ factors use IPCC AR5 global warming potentials for methane (28) and nitrous oxide (265); for some refrigerants without an AR5 value, DESNZ used AR6.
A tool should therefore store emissions by gas and the GWP set used, not only the CO2e result.
How the sets work year by year is on GHG conversion factors.
Same kWh, two factor sets
2025 factor set · 0.17700 kgCO2e/kWh17.7 tCO2e
2026 factor set · 0.13096 kgCO2e/kWh13.1 tCO2e
A company that changed nothing sees 26.0% less on this line because the factor moved.
DESNZ attributes most of the fall to grid decarbonisation and 6 to 7 percentage points to methodology.
Factors: DESNZ 2026 methodology paper, Table 9 · 2026 major changes report.
Generated electricity is Scope 2; transmission and distribution losses are Scope 3. With losses selected, the illustration uses the printed consumed total in DESNZ Table 9, spanning both scopes. It is not your SECR figure; nothing is stored or sent.
Emission-factor APIs
When the factor library lives somewhere else
An emission-factor API returns a factor, or a calculated result, for an activity sent to it, so the tool calling it no longer holds the library itself.
In this site’s registry, 3 vendors are filed as offering an API on their own pages: Climatiq, IBM Envizi ESG Suite and SimaPro.
The government’s own machine-readable set is the DESNZ flat file, labelled “for automatic processing only”.
In July 2026 DESNZ republished that flat file because some values “were incorrectly reported as 0 rather than left blank where no data were available”; the full-set workbook had them blank and was not revised.
Read the detailed guidance and references
The July correction is the API test in miniature: ask what the service returns where no factor exists, and check that a blank never arrives as a zero.
Ask too which factor year a call uses by default, because the DESNZ rule ties the factor to the activity year, not to the date of the call.
An API moves the versioning problem rather than removing it: if the provider updates a factor, a figure that stored only the result cannot be explained.
What each API vendor says about itself is on its profile, read on its own site on 11 October 2026 and 30 September–1 October 2026.
- 1
Activity in
Quantity, unit, activity type, country and the activity period.
- 2
Factor chosen
Source, dataset version and factor year, returned with the result.
- 3
Result out
Emissions by gas and in CO2e, with the GWP set named.
- 4
Record kept
The tool stores the factor metadata, so the figure reproduces if the service changes.
Base year and recalculation
A recalculation policy, with your own threshold
A base year is what makes a trend mean something, and the Corporate Standard requires a policy for recalculating it.
Chapter 5 of the Corporate Standard says companies “shall develop a base year emissions recalculation policy” and makes it “the responsibility of the company to determine the ‘significance threshold’ … and to disclose it”.
The GHG Protocol’s 2019 guidance handbook lists the triggers as significant structural changes, significant methodology changes and significant errors, including smaller ones that are collectively significant.
Base-year emissions are “not recalculated for organic growth or decline”, so a tool has to tell an acquisition from a new factory.
Read the detailed guidance and references
The handbook gives 2 percent only as an example; the GHG Protocol’s technical assistance says the 5% figure is the SBTi’s, for recalculating targets.
The Standard adds that it is “the responsibility of the verifier to confirm the company’s adherence to its threshold policy”, so the threshold has to be recorded where a verifier can find it.
UK SRS S2 ¶B34 is a different rule: after a significant event an entity reassesses which Scope 3 categories and entities to include, which is not a base-year recalculation.
The checker beside this works through a structural change against the 2019 guidance.
Restatement checker · 2019 Guidance and Chapter 9
Base-year recalculationExplore
Module 01 / 04
Policy
A written recalculation policy and its significance threshold, disclosed.
Module 02 / 04
Triggers
Structural changes, method changes and significant errors.
Module 04 / 04
Record
The original figure beside the restated one, with the reason.
The standard is changing
GHG Protocol and ISO 14064-1: one co-branded standard on the way
The GHG Protocol and ISO are developing a single co-branded corporate standard, and a GHG accounting tool bought now will probably still be running when it lands.
The GHG Protocol’s Standard Development Plan v2.0 of 29 July 2026 brings its Scope 1, Scope 2, Scope 3 and Actions and Market Instruments work together with ISO 14064-1.
- 9 September 202501
Partnership announced
GHG Protocol and ISO announce a strategic partnership on corporate GHG accounting standards. - Q1 202602
ISO experts join the working groups
Members of ISO WG4 join the Corporate Standard, Scope 2, Scope 3 and Actions and Market Instruments working groups. - 29 July 202603
Consolidation confirmed
A single co-branded corporate standard, delivered in parts, with guidance to follow publication. - Estimated Q2 202704
- Estimated Q4 202805
Revised standard published
The standard itself; the guidance documents are expected after it.
Read the detailed guidance and references
The plan describes Part 1 as General Requirements and Physical GHG Inventory and Part 2 as Actions and Market Instruments, and says the part structure is subject to change.
Its title is, in the plan’s words, draft and to be determined with ISO.
The partnership FAQ says the two bodies “remain fully independent in their decision-making and governance”.
Nothing changes today: UK SRS S2 still points at the 2004 Corporate Standard, and ISO 14064-1:2018 remains current while under revision.
For a buyer the practical test is restatement: a method change of this size is the case the base-year policy above exists for.
What UK reporting takes from the inventory
UK SRS S2 points at the standard, with UK choices on top
In the UK the standard mechanics meet UK SRS S2, which names the GHG Protocol and then makes its own choices.
The Department for Business and Trade published UK SRS S1 and S2 on 25 February 2026 for voluntary use.
Listed companies in UKLR 6, 14, 15, 16 and 22 report against UK SRS on a comply-or-explain basis for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027 under the FCA’s PS26/19; for everyone else UK SRS remains voluntary.
Read the detailed guidance and references
UK SRS S2 ¶29(a)(iii) asks for any changes to the measurement approach, inputs and assumptions during the period and the reasons, which a tool can only answer from its change history.
¶B33 requires the categories included to be disclosed “regardless of the method” used.
The standard paragraph by paragraph is on UK SRS S2.
UK SRS S2 on GHG accountingExplore
Module 03 / 04
Scope 3
Consider all fifteen categories; disclose those included.
The demonstration tests
Eight tests, each from a provision
Each mechanic on this page becomes a question a vendor can answer on a demonstration with your own data.
Tick the ones your inventory needs and copy the list; each carries the provision it comes from and what a passing answer looks like.
A blank answer in writing is not a yes, and a demonstration dataset is built to look finished where yours is not.
The wider buying sequence — requirements, pricing, exit terms — is on carbon reporting software and the carbon accounting guide linked above.
Demo questions · tick the ones you need
The pass tests are our reading of the cited provisions.
Nothing you tick is stored or sent.
The vendors
61 vendors, in their own words
Every vendor this site files under carbon accounting or as offering an API, alphabetically, which ranks nothing.
The registry holds 73 vendors across all categories; the filter narrows this list.
61 vendors · carbon accounting, api
“Altruistiq helps companies with complex value chains go faster and further on sustainability”
“Intelligent AI that measures, reduces, and reports Scope 1–3 and LCA emissions in line with CDP, SBTi, CSRD, and CBAM requirements”
“Benchmark Gensuite is a unified EHS management software platform built on a single architecture—connecting safety, environmental compliance, and operational risk across every site”
“Our software provides companies and financial institutions with precise accounting of the emissions caused by making, shipping and using critical commodities and products around the globe”
“Climatiq delivers the reliable data, easy-to-use tools, and deep integrations businesses need to understand their carbon impact”
“Measure, reduce, and report your Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions”
“The professional benchmarking and reporting platform built for sustainability consultants, SMEs, and the platforms that serve them”
“Coolset gives supply chain and ESG teams the structure, automation and guidance to meet complex compliance requirements like EUDR, PPWR and CSRD, and manage Scope 1-3 emissions”
“One AI-enabled EHS software platform to drive performance across employee health, safety, quality, environmental, and sustainability”
“Cozero helps enterprises steer decarbonization with the same rigor as financial performance, from data collection to investment decisions and regulatory disclosure”
“Dcycle is an ESG software platform founded in 2020 that helps companies collect, manage, and govern sustainability and non-financial data”
Diginex describes carbon accounting, sustainability reporting, supply chain, human rights monitoring and ESG investor intelligence for asset managers, banks and companies.
Diligent’s carbon accounting page describes a solution that “automatically collates your data and produces up to 80 different pre-configured audit-ready reports”.
Ecologi describes itself as a B Corp-certified climate action platform.
EcoOnline sells software to manage EHS and compliance.
“The Emitwise platform is now part of Green Project, where the team continues to build and deliver end-to-end decarbonization solutions”
“Enablon is Wolters Kluwer’s integrated software platform for environment, health and safety, PSM, and enterprise oversight, with ESG capabilities embedded as part of a broader risk approach”
“Collect, analyze, and report sustainability, financial, and risk KPIs with 10+ software modules – individually or in line with official standards”
“Manage safety, compliance, ESG, sustainability and operational risk from a platform built to keep programs reliable across sites, teams and operational change”
“The climate management platform built on AI, backed by dedicated sustainability experts”
“Measure, report, and reduce your company's emissions on one audit-ready sustainability management platform”
IBM describes Envizi as a “compliance ready solution for ESG data”.
“Ideagen Carbon Accounting is an AI-powered solution designed to address complex multi-region ESG reporting challenges in carbon accounting”
“Bring safety, environment, and quality workflows into one connected platform”
IsoMetrix sells software to “manage their environmental, health, safety, sustainability, and social risks”.
“Makersite’s Product Lifecycle Intelligence software brings together your cost, environment, compliance, and risk data in one place”
“Manglai is a platform to manage all of your environmental impact”
“Measurabl makes subjective sustainability data objective”
Microsoft Sustainability Manager
“Track and reduce your environmental impact using data and AI”
A carbon management platform that, in Novisto’s words, “simplifies the collection, calculation, and reporting of corporate carbon footprints”.
“Net Zero Now exists to provide a simple, credible and affordable route to Net Zero for SMEs and to celebrate and promote those that achieve this vitally important goal”
“Normative is a carbon accounting platform that helps companies calculate, report, and reduce Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions using 349,000 verified emission factors”
“Novata is a sustainability data management platform built for private market investors, deal teams, banks, and companies that need a scalable way to collect, manage, and act on sustainability data”
“One digital solution for sustainability planning, data management, reporting, analysis and action - built for enterprise”
“Our platform empowers organizations to accurately measure and manage scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions with direct and actionable information”
Oracle Fusion Cloud Sustainability
“Oracle Fusion Cloud Sustainability is a new offering to capture environmental, social, and governance data for any kind of activity that has a sustainability impact”
“osapiens is the AI platform for compliance and supplier intelligence to help companies manage risk and become more resilient”
Persefoni describes software and AI tools to manage an organisation’s “sustainability data, disclosures, and performance”.
“Your certified software for reliable emissions intelligence to measure, report and reduce your carbon footprint”
“We guide businesses in understanding their emissions, empower them to develop carbon reduction plans, and supporting them on their journey to net zero”
Position Green describes “a sustainability reporting and management platform that combines powerful software with expert advisory services”.
“Pulsora is an AI-powered sustainability and carbon management platform that automates data collection, measurement, and reporting workflows for sustainability teams”
“Digitally handle occupational safety, quality, sustainability, and environmental management”
“It leverages the full power of the Salesforce ecosystem by pulling an organization’s sustainability data into one place and creating actionable insights to guide strategic decisions”
“Measure your full carbon footprint, build your net zero strategy and develop in-house expertise with a single partner”
SAP Sustainability Footprint Management
“Decarbonize your value chain and calculate your corporate and product carbon footprint at scale with ERP-centric, AI-enabled carbon management”
“Seedling is an all-in-one carbon accounting and Net Zero planning platform for businesses of up to 2000 FTEs”
ServiceNow Operational Sustainability Management
“ServiceNow Operational Sustainability Management helps organizations manage, visualize, and report on sustainability efforts and risks across environmental, social, and governance (ESG) programs”
“SimaPro is life cycle assessment software that helps organizations measure, analyze, and reduce environmental impacts using robust datasets, scientific methods, and transparent modeling”
SINAI describes “audit-grade Scope 1–3 accounting, automated compliance reporting, complete supply chain visibility” and decarbonisation planning for global enterprises.
“Small99 Hero creates a pathway to net zero for you based on your industry, outlining how long your Net Zero journey will take and how much it will cost”
“Sphera unifies risk, safety and sustainability into a single enterprise-wide view — connecting intelligence across operations, products and supply chains”
“Sweep's AI turns sustainability data into measurable business performance”
“Manage sustainability metrics intelligently in medium-sized businesses - through automated processes, AI-powered carbon accounting, and audit-proof ESG reports”
“Terrascope is an enterprise carbon management and decarbonisation platform for companies with complex supply chains”
“Trace combines AI-powered software with expert advisory support to help organisations meet their mandatory climate and sustainability reporting obligations, efficiently and with confidence”
“Unravel Carbon is the climate platform helping companies with global supply chains make data-driven decisions”
“Carbon accounting is often the first step companies take toward climate disclosure, compliance, and action—and with Watershed, it’s part of your complete enterprise sustainability platform”
Workday (supplier sustainability)
“Turn sustainable sourcing into a competitive advantage with Workday supplier sustainability solutions”
“Workiva Carbon is an end-to-end carbon accounting software solution that enables organizations to measure, manage, collaborate on, and report emissions data”
“Carbon management software with experts built in, so you can move from measurement to action without spreadsheets or one-off consulting projects”
Alphabetical, which ranks nothing. Each description is the vendor’s own words from its own site, read 11 October 2026 and 30 September–1 October 2026; prices appear only where the vendor publishes one. No product here has been tested by this site.
Of these, 7 publish a price on their own pages and 3 publish a free tier or plan; the rest are recorded as Enterprise level · TBD.
Inclusion is not an endorsement, and a claim in a vendor’s own words is not a finding that its product implements any mechanic on this page.
The words buyers use
GHG software, greenhouse gas management, and what each name implies
The names overlap, and the mechanics underneath are the same.
| Name | What it usually emphasises | Where this site covers it |
|---|---|---|
| GHG accounting software | The standard’s own mechanics: boundary, scopes, factors, base year | This page |
| Greenhouse gas protocol software | A claim to follow the GHG Protocol; test the claim against the mechanics | This page |
| GHG management software | Accounting plus targets, reduction projects and supplier engagement | This page, then the buying guide |
| Carbon accounting software | The same products described for buyers: price, size, data feeds | The buying guide |
| GHG reporting software | The disclosure each regime needs from the inventory | GHG reporting software |
The discipline itself — scopes, boundaries and the UK anchors — is set out in carbon accounting.
Frequently asked
GHG accounting software, answered
What is GHG accounting software?
Software that implements the greenhouse gas accounting standards: it sets an organisational boundary under a consolidation approach, sorts emission sources into Scope 1, 2 and 3, applies versioned emission factors, keeps a base year it can recalculate, and keeps the working behind each figure.
The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and ISO 14064-1 are the two standards underneath.
Is GHG accounting software the same as carbon accounting tools?
Usually the same products under a different name.
“GHG” is the standard’s own term, so the useful test is whether a vendor can answer questions about consolidation approaches, Scope 2 methods and base-year recalculation in the standard’s language.
This site’s carbon accounting guide covers buying, pricing and small-business needs; this page covers the standard mechanics.
What is greenhouse gas protocol software?
The phrase describes a product that says it follows the GHG Protocol.
Read the claim against the mechanics: the consolidation approach, the four Scope 1 source categories, location- and market-based Scope 2, the fifteen Scope 3 categories with a method each, and a base-year recalculation policy.
What is the best GHG accounting software?
This site has tested no product and names no best.
The tests that matter come from the standard and your own duties: a stored consolidation approach, location-based Scope 2 for UK SRS S2, a Scope 3 method recorded per category, emission factors kept by activity year, and a restatement that keeps the original.
Run them on your own data.
What is GHG management software?
Vendors use the term for accounting plus the reduction work around it: targets, projects and supplier engagement.
The accounting underneath is the same, so the same tests apply before any target is set against it.
Which consolidation approach should the software use?
The GHG Protocol requires equity share or control, and under control a choice between financial and operational control.
A tool should store the choice and the facts behind it per entity — ownership percentage, consolidation status in the financial accounts, operator status — so a change of approach is a recalculation, not a rebuild.
Does UK SRS S2 require market-based Scope 2?
No. UK SRS S2 requires location-based Scope 2 (¶29(a)(v) and ¶B30) and treats market-based as optional (¶B31).
The GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance asks for both where a company operates in markets with contractual instruments, which includes the UK.
Where does biogenic CO2 go in a GHG inventory?
Outside the scopes.
The Corporate Standard says direct CO2 from the combustion of biomass shall not be included in Scope 1 but reported separately, and Chapter 9 lists it as required information in a public report.
Which Scope 3 calculation method should a tool use?
The one recorded for each category.
The GHG Protocol’s technical guidance ranks methods from supplier-specific through hybrid and average-data to spend-based, but says companies need not always use the most specific method first.
UK SRS S2 asks an entity to prioritise primary data “with all else being equal” and presumes Scope 3 can be estimated from secondary data.
What is an emission-factor API?
A service that returns an emission factor, or a calculated result, for an activity sent to it.
It moves the factor library out of the tool, so the tests move with it: the factor’s source, its year, its version and what it returns where no factor exists.
Does the GHG Protocol set a base-year recalculation threshold?
No. The Corporate Standard requires a recalculation policy and makes the company responsible for setting and disclosing its own significance threshold.
The 2019 guidance handbook gives 2 percent only as an example; the 5% figure is the SBTi’s, for recalculating targets.
Is the GHG Protocol merging with ISO 14064-1?
The two are developing a single co-branded corporate standard.
The GHG Protocol’s development plan of 29 July 2026 estimates a draft for consultation in Q2 2027 and publication in Q4 2028, subject to change.
Both bodies remain independent in decision-making and governance, and the existing standards stay in use meanwhile.
Has this site tested any GHG accounting software?
No. The page is built from the GHG Protocol, ISO 14064-1, UK SRS S2, DESNZ and FCA texts, each cited to its provision, and the vendor directory quotes only what each vendor publishes about itself.
Sources
Primary sources
Every mechanic on this page traces to the provision listed here.
Vendor descriptions and prices are cited on each vendor’s profile to the vendor’s own page.
Checked against 18 sources fromGHG Protocol (WRI, WBCSD)GHG ProtocolGHG Protocol technical assistanceGHG Protocol and ISOISODepartment for Energy Security and Net Zero
- GHG Protocol (WRI, WBCSD)A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, Revised Edition — Chapters 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9
Principles, consolidation approaches and control definitions, the scopes, biogenic CO2, base-year recalculation and source categories.
- GHG ProtocolCorporate Standard landing page
The standard as amended: seven gases including NF3, updated in 2015 with the Scope 2 Guidance.
- GHG ProtocolCorporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard (2011), §6.2 and Table 5.4
The fifteen categories; account for all, disclose and justify exclusions.
- GHG ProtocolTechnical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions
Calculation methods by category, ranked from most to least specific; guidance, not requirements.
- GHG ProtocolScope 2 Guidance (2015), Tables 1.1 and 7.1, §7.4
Location-based and market-based methods; dual reporting where contractual instruments exist.
- GHG ProtocolScope 1 & 2 GHG Inventory Guidance handbook (2019)
Recalculation triggers; the company sets its own significance threshold.
- GHG Protocol technical assistanceIn what scenarios would I need to recalculate base year emissions?
No GHG Protocol figure for “significant”; the SBTi’s 5% applies to targets.
- GHG ProtocolConsolidated Corporate Standard — Standard Development Plan v2.0 (29 July 2026), §§2, 6, 8 and 9
Consultation estimated Q2 2027; publication estimated Q4 2028; parts and guidance.
- GHG ProtocolGHG Protocol announces key standard development updates (29 July 2026)
The single co-branded corporate standard with ISO 14064-1.
- GHG Protocol and ISOISO–GHG Protocol partnership: frequently asked questions
Both bodies remain independent in decision-making and governance.
- ISOISO 14064-1:2018 catalogue record
GHG-programme-neutral; confirmed in 2024 and at stage 90.92, “to be revised”.
- Department for Energy Security and Net ZeroGreenhouse gas reporting: conversion factors 2026
Full set and flat file; the July 2026 flat-file correction.
- Department for Energy Security and Net Zero2026 GHG conversion factors methodology paper, ¶¶1.9–1.10, ¶3.8 and Table 9
The activity-year rule, GWPs and the UK electricity factors.
- Department for Energy Security and Net Zero2026 conversion factors: major changes
The −26% electricity change and its split between grid mix and method.
- Department for Business and TradeUK SRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures, ¶29(a), ¶¶B29–B57, ¶C3
Location-based Scope 2, the Scope 3 measurement framework and the emission-factor rule.
- Department for Business and TradeUK Sustainability Reporting Standards S1 and S2
Published 25 February 2026 for voluntary use.
- Financial Conduct AuthorityPS26/19 — UK SRS reporting by listed companies
Comply or explain for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027.
- Association of Issuing BodiesEuropean Residual Mixes 2025 — Final Results, Table 2
The residual mix a market-based figure falls back on where no supplier factor exists.
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