Double counting in carbon accounting refers to a situation in which the same emissions are counted multiple times, either within a company, or across different companies. The question around double counting of emissions is common for companies starting out on their carbon journey. In this article, we will focus on possible risks of double counting within a company’s inventory.

According to the GHG Protocol, Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions are distinct categories in a company's inventory, ensuring no overlap or double counting of emissions.

Accordingly, there should not be double counting within a single company if it follows the GHG protocol. However, it can inadvertently happen due to accounting mistakes or inconsistent application of boundaries since the categories can overlap in practice.

The most important step to avoid double counting within a company is to have clear organizational boundaries, i.e. determining which locations should be included in the emissions analysis, and responsibilities for the data collection process. Because of that, we advise for the ‘Operational Control Approach’.

Beyond that are a few cases of which companies should be aware, to avoid errors:

If a company has already provided their heating and fuel consumption in the Heating and Fuel emission source, influencing Scope 1 and Scope 3.3, purchases of fuel and heating should not be entered again via a spend-based calculation, which influences Scope 3.3 or 3.1. To help you avoid double counting, the tool excludes spend-based data collection for fuel and heating by default.

Similarly to heating and fuel, electricity purchased that has been entered in the electricity emission source, influencing Scope 2 and Scope 3.3, should not be collected again via spend-based calculations, which influence Scope 2 and 3.3.

To help you avoid double counting, the tool excludes spend-based data collection for electricity by default.

The fuel consumption of company vehicles used by employees is considered under Scope 1. Business travel in vehicles not owned by the company would be considered under Scope 3. However, sometimes companies struggle to categorize a particular trip.

To avoid double counting, collect all necessary data to be able to categorize each trip. This includes the

One can try to generalize the points on heating & fuels and electricity to the case of purchased goods, for example, office supplies such as paper. If a company has information on both the physical quantity as well as the amount spent on a said paper, only one piece of information should be used in order to estimate the emissions of it.