Operational Boundaries of GHG Emissions

Emissions result from a variety of activities, like heating and cooling buildings, traveling to meetings, or shipping products to consumers. Direct (scope 1) emissions are emissions within a company’s organizational boundary from sources that the company owns or controls, like business travel in a company car or the combustion of fuel in the company’s boilers and furnaces. Indirect (scope 2 and 3) emissions result from a company’s activities but from sources owned or controlled by another company. See Table 1 in WRI's publication Hot Climate, Cool Commerce for more details and examples.