What are scope 1 and scope 2
Scope 1 and scope 2 are two of the three categories into which greenhouse gas emissions are classified. Scope 1 concerns the direct emissions from your own business: the CO2 released from your own installations, company vehicles or machines that run on fossil fuels. Scope 2 concerns the indirect emissions that arise because you purchase energy, such as electricity, heat or cooling, whose emissions are generated at the source and not at your site.
This classification comes from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, an internationally used standard for mapping emissions. Customers who send a sustainability questionnaire often ask separately about scope 1 and scope 2, because these are the emissions that fall directly under your own control. Scope 3, the emissions elsewhere in the chain, is a separate and often more complex category; that is covered in another article on this site.
Why your customer wants to know this separately
Larger companies that fall under the CSRD or use a VSME questionnaire must report their own emissions, including the part that arises through suppliers. Your scope 1 and 2 count towards their scope 3. By asking for these figures separately, they can build a more complete picture of where the emissions in their chain come from.
For you as a supplier, this is often the clearest part to provide. It is about your own business operations, not about what your own suppliers or customers do. The data are usually already somewhere in your administration.
What scope 1 concretely includes
Scope 1 concerns emissions from sources that you own or operate. Think of natural gas consumption for heating, fuel for your own company vehicles or trucks, and emissions from your own production processes. The data you need for this are usually energy and fuel invoices and information about your vehicle fleet.
What scope 2 concretely includes
Scope 2 concerns the emissions that are released when generating energy that you purchase, such as electricity from the grid. A distinction is often made between a calculation based on the national energy mix (the average emissions per kilowatt-hour generated) and a calculation based on your own energy contract, for example when you purchase green electricity. Which method a customer expects is usually explained in the questionnaire itself.
Which supporting documents belong to this
For scope 1 and 2, the underlying documents are usually: energy invoices from the past year, fuel receipts or an overview of your vehicle fleet, and possibly a certificate from your energy supplier if you purchase green electricity. These documents, like other supporting documents, have a validity period and must be renewed periodically. How you keep this in order can be read in the knowledge bank with explanations by topic.
It is not required to know exactly how to convert your own emissions into tonnes of CO2 equivalent; many customers provide a calculation method or tool with their questionnaire. What does help is that the underlying figures, such as consumption in kilowatt-hours or litres of fuel, are current and in order.
Difference with scope 3, and why it matters
Whereas scope 1 and 2 are about your own business operations, scope 3 concerns the emissions that arise from your own suppliers, from transport by third parties, or from the use of your product by your customer. This makes scope 3 more difficult to determine than scope 1 and 2, because you depend on data from others for that. A questionnaire that asks about scope 3 often in practice asks precisely about your scope 1 and 2, because those count towards your customer's own scope 3.
Whether a questionnaire from your customer uses this classification and what exactly is asked differs per portal and per sector. You get a first impression of what will come your way with the recognition check of a few questions.
What this means in practice for filling in
Once the figures for scope 1 and 2 have been established, little often changes from year to year, except for consumption itself. Many entrepreneurs fill in the same kind of figures multiple times a year with different customers, each in a different format. A central file in which this data is recorded once and reused per questionnaire saves repeated research work. How this process looks and where the data used comes from is explained on the page on how it works.
Do you have questions about what does and does not need to be shared with a specific customer, or about the precise calculation method that a portal expects? Then look at the frequently asked questions or consult the portal's own official guidance.
Would you like to quickly see whether scope 1 and 2 are relevant for your company and what other topics may apply to you? Take the free quick-scan or browse through the topics in the knowledge base.