Carbon Footprint Assessment: a measured, boundary-defined inventory of your greenhouse gas emissions.

Scope 1 is direct emissions from sources the company owns or controls: fuel combustion, process emissions, refrigerant leakage, owned vehicles. Scope 2 is indirect emissions from purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling. Scope 3 is everything else in the value chain across fifteen defined categories: purchased goods and services, transport, business travel, use of sold products, and so on. For most manufacturers Scope 3 is the largest and the hardest.

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard is the default and underpins almost every other framework, including BRSR, CDP and SBTi submissions. ISO 14064-1 is used where the organisation wants a certifiable inventory with a formal validation and verification route. They are compatible; the choice is driven by whether you need a certificate or a credible number.

Location-based uses the average emission intensity of the grid the site draws from. Market-based reflects the electricity a company has contractually purchased: renewable power purchase agreements, open access, green tariffs or certificates. Both should be reported. A company that has procured renewable energy sees the benefit only in the market-based figure, which is why the distinction is worth understanding before making a claim.

For grid electricity, the CO2 baseline database for the Indian power sector published by the Central Electricity Authority is the appropriate source. For fuels and process emissions, IPCC default factors are widely used, with national or measured values where available. What matters as much as the choice is that each factor is documented with its source and vintage, because that is the first thing a verifier will test.

For some entities, in effect. The BRSR requires listed entities within its scope to disclose Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and encourages Scope 3. Separately, obligated entities under the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme established under the amended Energy Conservation Act face compliance obligations tied to greenhouse gas intensity. Beyond those, it is driven by customers, lenders and investors rather than by statute.

The base year is the reference against which reductions are measured. It must be a year with reliable data, and it needs a recalculation policy so that acquisitions, divestments and methodology changes do not make an apparent reduction that reflects a change in the boundary rather than a change in emissions. Targets set without a fixed base year and recalculation rule are not verifiable.

Not always, but it depends on the use. Verification is required for SBTi validation in practice, expected for high CDP scores, and required for assurance where the figure enters an assured disclosure such as BRSR Core. Even where not required, a verified inventory is far harder to challenge, and the discipline of preparing for verification usually improves the number itself.