Emission Factors
Emission factors are the conversion rates that turn your activity data (e.g., kWh of electricity, litres of fuel) into greenhouse gas emissions (kg CO₂e). scoped maintains a curated database of factors from trusted, official sources and automatically selects the best match for each activity.
What Are Emission Factors?
An emission factor expresses the amount of greenhouse gas emitted per unit of activity. For example:
- Electricity: 0.233 kg CO₂e per kWh (Austria, location-based)
- Natural gas: 2.02 kg CO₂e per m³
- Diesel: 2.68 kg CO₂e per litre (combustion only)
When you enter an activity (e.g., "10,000 kWh of electricity"), scoped multiplies the amount by the appropriate emission factor to calculate total emissions.
Supported Factor Sources
scoped includes emission factors from the following official sources:
| Source | Organization | Coverage | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| DEFRA | UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs | UK and international | 2023+ |
| UBA REP-0989 | Umweltbundesamt Austria | Austrian energy carriers | 2025 |
| UBA Smart ABC | Umweltbundesamt Austria | Austrian transport | 2020 |
| UBA REP-0572 | Umweltbundesamt Austria | Austrian energy supply | 2016 |
| UBA REP-0440 | Umweltbundesamt Austria | Alternative vehicle drives | 2014 |
| UBA REP-0493 | Umweltbundesamt Austria | Biomass CHP | 2013 |
| UBA REP-0303 | Umweltbundesamt Austria | General emission factors & GWP | 2010 |
| UNFCCC | United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change | National grid factors (global) | 2022 |
| IPCC | Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change | Default factors (global) | 2006 |
| US EPA | US Environmental Protection Agency | EEIO supply chain factors (NAICS) | 2022 |
| IEA | International Energy Agency | Grid emission factors (global) | 2022 |
The factor database is regularly updated as new official publications become available. Each factor includes its source, version, and year so you can trace every calculation.
Factor Credibility
Each factor source is classified by credibility level:
| Level | Description |
|---|---|
| Official | Published by a government body or international authority (e.g., DEFRA, UBA, UNFCCC) |
| Verified | Published by a recognized research body with peer review (e.g., IPCC, IEA) |
| Estimated | Derived from economic models or extrapolated (e.g., EPA EEIO factors) |
Higher credibility factors contribute to better data quality scores for your activities.
How Factor Resolution Works
When you save an activity, scoped automatically finds the best emission factor. The resolution follows a region fallback strategy:
- Country-specific — scoped first looks for a factor that matches your organization's country (e.g., Austria)
- Grid region — If no country match, it tries your grid region (e.g., AT for Austria's electricity grid)
- EU average — If no regional match, it falls back to an EU average
- Global average — If no EU factor exists, it uses a global average
- UK (DEFRA) — As a last resort, DEFRA factors are used as a comprehensive fallback
This ensures that every activity always gets a factor, using the most specific one available.
The factor selected for each activity is shown in the activity detail view. You can see the source, region, year, and value used in the calculation.
Organization Factor Overrides
If your organization has specific emission factors — for example, a verified factor from your electricity supplier or a custom factor from an environmental consultant — you can create factor overrides.
An override replaces the default factor for a specific activity type within your organization:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Factor | The default factor being overridden |
| Override value | Your custom emission factor value |
| Override unit | The unit for the custom factor |
| Effective year | The year from which this override applies |
| Reason | Why this override is needed |
| Source | Where the custom factor comes from |
Overrides are tracked in the audit trail and are clearly marked in reports to maintain transparency.
GWP Sets
Different greenhouse gases have different global warming effects. Global Warming Potential (GWP) values express these as CO₂ equivalents over a 100-year period.
scoped supports three GWP sets:
| GWP Set | IPCC Report | Example: CH₄ GWP |
|---|---|---|
| AR4 | Fourth Assessment (2007) | 25 |
| AR5 | Fifth Assessment (2014) | 28 |
| AR6 | Sixth Assessment (2021) | 27.9 |
Your organization's GWP set policy (configured in Settings) determines which set of values is used across all calculations. This ensures consistency — all gases are converted to CO₂e using the same assessment report.
Changing your GWP set policy affects all emission calculations. Make sure this aligns with the requirements of your reporting standard (e.g., ESRS E1 recommends AR5 or AR6).
Gas Breakdown
For activity-based entries, scoped calculates emissions for each individual greenhouse gas and then sums them to CO₂e:
| Gas | Description |
|---|---|
| CO₂ | Carbon dioxide — the primary greenhouse gas |
| CH₄ | Methane — significant for natural gas and waste |
| N₂O | Nitrous oxide — significant for transport and agriculture |
| HFCs | Hydrofluorocarbons — used in refrigeration and air conditioning |
| PFCs | Perfluorocarbons — industrial processes |
| SF₆ | Sulphur hexafluoride — electrical equipment |
| NF₃ | Nitrogen trifluoride — electronics manufacturing |
Biogenic CO₂
CO₂ from biogenic sources (e.g., biomass combustion, biofuels) is tracked and reported separately from fossil CO₂. This is required by most reporting standards, as biogenic CO₂ is considered part of the natural carbon cycle.
Special Calculations
scoped applies specialized calculation logic for certain activity types:
| Activity | Special Logic |
|---|---|
| Flights | Cabin class multiplier (economy, premium economy, business, first) and radiative forcing index |
| Fuels | Includes well-to-tank (WTT) upstream emissions alongside combustion emissions |
| BEV vehicles | Uses grid emission factor for your region |
| PHEV vehicles | Splits between electric (Scope 2) and combustion (Scope 1) modes |
| HGV transport | Accounts for laden percentage (loaded vs. empty weight) |
| District cooling | Applies coefficient of performance (COP) factor to grid emissions |
| Refrigerants | Uses gas-specific GWP (can be hundreds to thousands of times CO₂) |
Next Steps
- Data Entry — Learn how to enter data for each category
- Core Concepts — Understand data quality scoring and uncertainty
- Reporting & Exports — See how factors appear in your reports