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How To Understand the GHG Protocol Historical Report

View and understand a historical report using the GHG Protocol methodology.

Included in Footprinting and above, with the GHG add-on

Open Performance > Historical reports in the left rail.

If you click on Historical Reports, you will be redirected to the list of all existing historical reports. If you already have some reports, you can view them by clicking on 'View' for the relevant report.

Historical data report list with the View option.

When opening a given report, the PEF tab is selected by default, but you can click the GHG tab under the report's title to view the historical report using GHG Protocol methodology. This section focuses on the latter. The header above the tabs is the same on every view; see The report header.

The GHG tab opens with a one-sentence summary of the gross emissions and the share of Scope 3, then summarises the key takeaways of the report:

The GHG tab of a historical report: the summary band, the scope breakdown and By product category.
  • Total emissions estimated (scope 1, 2 and 3).
  • Summary of the number of units produced and the reference year.
  • Scope 1 / 2 / 3 breakdown in kg CO2e and %.
  • GHG Protocol graph showing the contribution across all scope categories.
    • This can be changed to a table view where biogenic emissions are reported separately, detailed explanations of what is in vs out of scope are presented, and optional reporting categories such as individual emissions are included.
    • Data on this table can be exported as a CSV file for further analysis. Simply click on the 'Export as csv' button in the right hand corner of the table.
  • By product category: the emissions by product category group and category. See Product categories.

It is important to remember that this report covers product-related emissions only and is not intended as a full scope 1, 2 and 3 assessment. Scope 1 and 2 calculations rely mostly on secondary data and as such should be used as reference only.

The full GHG historical report, opened from See full report, on its Results tab.

From the header, click See full report to get to the detailed GHG Historical report.

This report follows the same structure as the GHG Protocol Baseline Report, including the Results sections for market- and location-based Scope 2, the land sector (FLAG), the Land Sector and Removals Standard, WRAP Table 8 data quality, and Disclosure exports, where Download climate pack (XLSX) produces the climate disclosure pack for this report's period. See How to understand the GHG Protocol baseline report for what each section shows.

Downloading a PDF

Download PDF, in the report header, saves the tab you are on as a PDF: PEF, GHG, Risk or Data quality. A cover page names the report, the view and the workspace, and on the overviews the period. All sections are opened out in the PDF. If your company has a logo, choose With [company]'s logo or Sustained only when you download. See How do I download a volume report as a PDF?

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