What is the indirect emission from purchased energy (scope 2)?

Scope 2 is the emissions behind your purchased electricity, heat or cooling

Scope 2 is the indirect emissions released when generating the electricity, heat, steam or cooling that the company purchases and consumes itself. The emissions themselves occur at the energy supplier — at the power plant that generates the electricity — but are attributed to the consumer, because that consumer creates the demand for that energy. That is precisely what distinguishes scope 2 from scope 1: with scope 1, emissions are released within the company's own installations, such as a gas boiler or a company vehicle, and that difference is exactly the question behind it What is the direct greenhouse gas emission (scope 1)?.

In practice, scope 2 comes down to the CO2 per purchased kWh, multiplied by total consumption. There are two common calculation methods: the location-based method, which is based on the average emission figure for the national grid, and the market-based method, which takes into account the type of contract — for example, a contract for 100% green electricity with guarantees of origin. Customers sometimes ask for one or the other, sometimes for both. If you don't have your own CO2 figure, the answer can usually be inferred from total energy consumption and the share of green electricity, questions that often already appear in the same questionnaire as What is the total energy consumption per year? and What proportion of energy consumption comes from renewable sources?. Without your own calculation, "not yet calculated" is a valid answer; making up a figure that is not in the supply chain file is not.

Where that appears in the GHG Protocol

This division into scope 1, 2 and 3 comes from the GHG Protocol, the international standard on which virtually all sustainability questionnaires base their emissions questions. Scope 2 is separate from scope 1, because the source of the emissions does not lie at the company's own location, and separate from scope 3, which covers emissions in the rest of the value chain — a topic that is addressed in What is the emission in the value chain (scope 3)?.