When you need custom emission factors
Measure assigns most emission factors automatically from recognized sources, including the US EPA, the US EIA, the UK government (DEFRA and DESNZ), Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Australia's DCCEEW, the Association of Issuing Bodies (AIB), the IEA and Green-e.
Supply your own factor when:
You have a supplier-specific factor, for example from your utility or a product supplier
Your activity is in a category that doesn't yet have automatic factors
You need to match a factor required by a specific reporting framework or auditor
A custom factor belongs to one activity and applies for a date range you set.
What a custom factor includes
Field | Description |
Activity | The activity the factor applies to |
Method |
|
Start and end date | The period the factor is valid for |
Source | Where the factor came from (optional, but recommended for audit purposes) |
One or more gas factors | Each gas factor has a gas, a resource and a rate |
Reporting methods
Each custom factor has a reporting method. Which one to use depends on the activity’s category:
Category | Method |
Scope 2 (s2.1, s2.2, s2.3) | Both |
s3.8 Upstream leased assets and s3.13 Downstream leased assets |
|
All other categories |
|
A default factor counts equally toward both the location-based and market-based emission totals in the platform. If your source gives only one value for a Scope 2 activity, enter it under both location-based and market-based.
Gas factors
Each gas factor has three parts:
Part | Description | Example |
Gas | The gas name. Use |
|
Resource | The resource the rate is expressed per. It should match the resource on the activity's consumptions. |
|
Factor | A number, a space, and a rate unit. The space is required, and the unit must be mass per unit of the resource. |
|
Which gases to include
If your source gives a single combined value, enter one gas factor with gas
CO2e.If your source gives a breakdown by gas, enter one gas factor per gas.
If your source names some gases and gives the rest as a combined CO2e remainder, enter each named gas plus a
CO2efactor for the remainder.
Example
A diesel factor broken down by gas (illustrative values). Each gas gets its own set of columns on the same row:
gas.name | gas.resource | gas.factor | gas.name | gas.resource | gas.factor | gas.name | gas.resource | gas.factor |
CO2 | volume_fuel_combusted | 2.68 kg/l | CH4 | volume_fuel_combusted | 0.0001 kg/l | N2O | volume_fuel_combusted | 0.0000221 kg/l |
Supported gases
Measure supports 160 greenhouse gases and refrigerants, with GWP values from each IPCC assessment report (SAR through AR6). If you can't find a gas you need, contact your Green Project team.
Uploading in bulk
To load custom emission factors from a spreadsheet, see Upload reference: Emission Factors tab.