Integrating Corporate GHG Protocols Scope 1, 2, and 3 into Product Life Cycle Assessments

There is a growing trend of policies being developed to encourage companies to decarbonize. While some policies focus on corporate sector analysis, others focus on product level analysis using life cycle assessment. Corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting follows the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standards. Use of the GHG Protocol has been primarily voluntary for US companies. However, current proposed regulations could require corporate GHG accounting for federal contractors as well as publicly traded companies. In addition, for construction products, green public procurement policies are being introduced that require cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment information reported through Environmental Product Declarations following ISO standards. The GHG Protocol classifies and reports GHG emissions into three scopes, distinguishing direct emissions from indirect: Scope 1 are the direct emissions from an organization’s facilities; Scope 2 are the indirect emissions from purchased electricity, steam, heating or cooling; and Scope 3 are the indirect emissions related to upstream and downstream activities. Environmental Product Declarations for construction materials typically report the cradle-to-gate (A1–A3) production stage GHG emissions, which are further separated into (A1) extraction, (A2) transportation, and (A3) manufacturing modules. This paper seeks to map these two reporting mechanisms for various business structures common to infrastructure construction.