What is the direct greenhouse gas emission (scope 1)?

Scope 1: emissions from own sources, no procurement

Scope 1 is the direct emission of greenhouse gases from sources that the company itself owns or operates. Think of gas for heating, fuel for its own vehicles and its own production processes. The distinguishing criterion is control: if it is an installation or vehicle that the company itself manages, then it is scope 1. If the emission is released by another company — the energy supplier, a transporter, a supplier — then it does not fall under scope 1, even if the company pays for it.

This distinction is precisely the reason why customers ask about scope 1, 2 and 3 separately: it prevents double counting in the chain and makes clear who can influence what. Purchased electricity and heat belong to indirect emissions from purchased energy (scope 2), and emissions from suppliers or through use of the product by customers fall under emissions in the value chain (scope 3). A questionnaire that asks about scope 1 thus wants to know specifically what comes out of the company's own chimney, boiler or vehicle fleet — not what happens "behind the meter" of another company.

Where this distinction comes from: the GHG Protocol

The division into scope 1, 2 and 3 comes from the GHG Protocol, the international standard on which virtually all customer questionnaires about emissions are based. If the company does not have a scope 1 figure at hand, the answer to the questionnaire is usually simply "no" or "not known" for that item — not an estimate that is not substantiated. Often the same list also asks about total energy consumption per year and about a possible target to reduce emissions; those figures are related to scope 1 but are a separate answer with their own source.