Stationary combustion, fleet fuel and refrigerant leaks for one portfolio company, with the factor errors that move the total most.
Scope 1 emissions are activity data times an emission factor for every fuel the company burns, plus refrigerant leaked times its global warming potential. An illustrative manufacturer burning 4,500,000 kWh of gas, 120,000 litres of diesel and 18,000 litres of LPG, and topping up 45 kg of R-410A, emits 1,256.9 tonnes of CO2e of Scope 1, 1,257 rounded. Gas is 65.5 per cent of it; the refrigerant, which is often left out, is 6.9 per cent.
Worked in full in The ESG Manager in Private Equity by Julian R. Sterling, with every figure reproduced in a free workbook.See the book on Amazon →
Scope 1 under the GHG Protocol is direct emissions from sources the company owns or controls. For most portfolio companies that means four buckets: stationary combustion (boilers, ovens, generators), mobile combustion (owned or leased vehicles the company controls), fugitive emissions (refrigerant leaking from chillers, air conditioning and cold rooms) and, for some industries, process emissions from chemistry rather than combustion. Purchased electricity is Scope 2, worked in how to calculate Scope 2 emissions.
Combustion: tCO2e = activity (kWh, litres, tonnes) × factor (kgCO2e per unit) / 1,000
Refrigerants: tCO2e = kg leaked × GWP / 1,000, where kg leaked is usually taken as the kg added to top up the systems
Excel: =SUMPRODUCT(Activity,Factor)/1000+RefrigerantKg*GWP/1000
A fictional food manufacturer held by a buyout fund, with €85m of revenue. The factors are illustrative values of the right order for these fuels; in practice they come from the official set the company reports against, for the reporting year, and include CH4 and N2O as CO2e, not CO2 alone. The GWP is a 100-year value from the IPCC's fifth assessment (AR5), used here for illustration; use the set your reporting framework requires. Under the sixth assessment (AR6) values, R-410A, a 50/50 blend of R-32 and R-125, has a GWP of about 2,256, and the same 45 kg would be 101.5 tonnes, so state which assessment report the GWPs come from and keep it constant across years.
| Source | Activity | Unit | Factor, kgCO2e per unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Natural gas, boilers and ovens | 4,500,000 | kWh, gross CV | 0.1829 |
| Diesel, delivery fleet | 120,000 | litres | 2.66 |
| LPG, forklifts | 18,000 | litres | 1.56 |
| R-410A topped up | 45 | kg | GWP 1,924 |
Step 1, stationary combustion. 4,500,000 × 0.1829 / 1,000 = 823.0 tonnes.
Step 2, mobile combustion. Diesel: 120,000 × 2.66 / 1,000 = 319.2 tonnes. LPG: 18,000 × 1.56 / 1,000 = 28.1 tonnes.
Step 3, fugitive emissions. 45 × 1,924 / 1,000 = 86.6 tonnes. Forty-five kilograms of gas count for more than three times the whole forklift fleet.
| Source | tCO2e | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Natural gas | 823.0 | 65.5% |
| Diesel fleet | 319.2 | 25.4% |
| LPG forklifts | 28.1 | 2.2% |
| Refrigerant | 86.6 | 6.9% |
| Scope 1 | 1,256.9 | 100% |
The company reports 1,257 tonnes of Scope 1, an intensity of 14.8 tonnes per €m of revenue. At fund level that figure is attributed by ownership share, as in how to calculate financed emissions for a private equity fund. Two thirds of it sits in one meter, the gas supply, which is where the reduction plan starts.
The quality of the number depends on the activity data more than on the factors. Gas and fleet fuel come from invoices and fuel-card statements, which are complete and auditable; refrigerant comes from the maintenance contractor's service records, which are often kept by site and by technician and need chasing. Where a month is missing, estimate it from the same month of the previous year, flag it as an estimate in the validation log, and replace it when the invoice arrives.
| Change | Reduction | Scope 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Base case | 0.0 | 1,256.9 |
| Cut gas use by 10% (heat recovery, controls) | 82.3 | 1,174.6 |
| Halve refrigerant leakage | 43.3 | 1,213.6 |
| Replace R-410A with R-32 (GWP 677), same leak | 56.1 | 1,200.8 |
| Electric forklifts | 28.1 | 1,228.8 |
| Gas cut, R-32 and electric forklifts together | 166.5 | 1,090.4 |
The three measures together cut Scope 1 by 13.2 per cent. A refrigerant swap at the next chiller replacement removes two thirds as much as a 10 per cent gas saving, for the cost of specifying a different gas. Electrifying the forklifts removes their 28.1 tonnes from Scope 1 but adds their electricity to Scope 2, so report the net effect, not the Scope 1 line alone. Whether each measure is worth its cost is a separate step, set out in how to calculate abatement cost per tonne.
The data dictionary and validation log for collecting these inputs across a portfolio are among the printable working documents with the free workbook for this book.
Yes. Refrigerant escaping from equipment the company owns or controls is a fugitive Scope 1 emission, measured as kilograms leaked, usually the kilograms added to top up, times the gas's global warming potential. In the worked case 45 kg of R-410A at a GWP of 1,924 is 86.6 tonnes, 6.9 per cent of Scope 1 and three times the forklift fleet.
Fuel burned in vehicles the company owns or controls, including leased vans it operates under operational control, is Scope 1; a third-party carrier's trucks are Scope 3. In the illustrative manufacturer the delivery fleet's 120,000 litres of diesel at 2.66 kg per litre add 319.2 tonnes, 25.4 per cent of Scope 1.
Gas is usually invoiced in kWh on a gross calorific value basis, and factors are published on either basis. Using a net-basis factor on gross kWh overstates emissions by the ratio between them, about 10.9 per cent in this illustration: the manufacturer's 823.0 tonnes of gas would be reported as 912.8.
This article is one calculation from The ESG Manager in Private Equity. The book takes the same case from first principles to the decision, chapter by chapter, and every figure it prints is a live formula in the free companion workbooks.
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