The GHG Protocol and the three scopes

Published on 10/08/2026

The GHG Protocol (Greenhouse Gas Protocol) is the international reference standard for accounting for an organisation's greenhouse gas emissions. It classifies all emissions into three scopes, according to how much control the company has over the source. Putting your emissions in the right scope is the basis of an inventory that is readable, credible and comparable from one year to the next.

Scope 1: direct emissions

The emissions from sources the company owns or directly controls:

• on-site combustion: boilers, heat treatment furnaces, gas burners;
• the company vehicle fleet (cars, service vans);
• industrial processes that emit directly (certain surface treatments);
• refrigerant leaks from cooling and air conditioning systems.

For a watchmaking workshop, Scope 1 is often modest, unless there is large gas equipment or a sizeable fleet.

Scope 2: purchased energy

The emissions linked to producing the energy you buy and consume:

• grid electricity;
• heat, steam or cooling supplied by a third party.

The factor depends heavily on the energy mix of the location: Swiss electricity (hydro and nuclear) is far less carbon-intensive than the European or Asian average. Where you consume therefore matters as much as how much.

Scope 3: the value chain

All other indirect emissions, upstream and downstream of your activity:

• upstream: purchases of goods and services (metals, sapphire, leather, components), inbound freight, capital goods, waste, travel;
• downstream: distribution, use and end of life of the products sold.

For a watchmaking supplier, Scope 3 is almost always the dominant share of the inventory (often more than 80%): most of the footprint lies in the materials purchased (gold, steel, sapphire) and their processing, well ahead of your own workshop's energy. That is why the platform breaks Scope 3 down into 15 categories (see the dedicated page).

What CadranZero does

Every emission you enter carries its scope. The dashboard then aggregates:

• the total per scope (the "layers" 1, 2 and 3), expandable item by item;
• the Scope 3 breakdown by subcategory, with several infographics (donut, radial bars, histogram, composition).

An emission whose scope you are not yet sure of can be classified provisionally, then corrected: the inventory recalculates on its own.

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