Standards & schemes

GHG Protocol Corporate Standards

WRI / WBCSD

Standard
Issuer / operator
WRI / WBCSD
Geography
Global
Sectors
All sectors
Scope unit
Company
Current edition
Corporate Standard (rev. 2004); Scope 2 Guidance (2015); Scope 3 Standard (2011); Product Standard (2011); Land Sector & Removals Standard (2026-01-30)
Edition status
Published
Next edition review
Not yet reviewed. Help review this fact
Access to standard text
Free
Binding status
Voluntary, referenced by law
Binding in
Not yet reviewed. Help review this fact
Materiality lens
Not applicable
Reporting / measurement unit
Company
Assurance expectation
Optional
Interoperability
Not yet reviewed. Help review this fact
Instrument kind
Measurement

In brief

What this profile covers

The GHG Protocol, a partnership of the World Resources Institute and WBCSD, is the foundational accounting framework for corporate greenhouse gas inventories and the origin of the Scope 1, 2 and 3 taxonomy. Its corporate suite comprises the Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (revised edition 2004), Scope 2 Guidance (2015), the Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard (2011) with calculation guidance (2013), plus the Land Sector and Removals Standard. The suite is under revision, and since 2025 GHG Protocol and ISO have a strategic partnership to co-develop harmonised corporate GHG standards bridging the Scope framework with ISO 14064. Most other instruments in this library — SBTi, CDP, ESRS, IFRS S2 — build on its accounting rules. The framework structures measurement and reporting; it is not a certification and verifies nothing by itself. The standards are free to use, and their decision rules — organisational boundaries, base years, market- versus location-based Scope 2 — define the questions every corporate inventory must answer. Deviation from those rules is the first thing an assurance provider or regulator checks. Using this framework does not by itself verify data accuracy, legal compliance or sustainability performance.

Conditional relationships

Claims it may support

A relationship does not mean that the standard proves or validates every use of a claim.

Carbon neutral productProvides evidence relevant to · Disclosure against this standard provides evidence relevant to the claim; the standard does not certify performance.
Evidence and conditions
Edition reviewed
Corporate Standard (rev. 2004); Scope 2 Guidance (2015); Scope 3 Standard (2011); Product Standard (2011); Land Sector & Removals Standard (2026-01-30)
Covered scope
Company / product
Market
Global
Evidence normally needed
Published disclosure/report prepared in accordance with the standard; separate assurance statement where the claim implies independent verification
Assurance
ISO 14064-3 / ISAE 3410 verification
Chain of custody
Not applicable — the scheme defines no chain-of-custody model
Relationship source ↗
Carbon neutral companyProvides evidence relevant to · Disclosure against this standard provides evidence relevant to the claim; the standard does not certify performance.
Evidence and conditions
Edition reviewed
Corporate Standard (rev. 2004); Scope 2 Guidance (2015); Scope 3 Standard (2011); Product Standard (2011); Land Sector & Removals Standard (2026-01-30)
Covered scope
Company / product
Market
Global
Evidence normally needed
Published disclosure/report prepared in accordance with the standard; separate assurance statement where the claim implies independent verification
Assurance
ISO 14064-3 / ISAE 3410 verification
Chain of custody
Not applicable — the scheme defines no chain-of-custody model
Relationship source ↗
“Carbon insetting” (value-chain offsets)Provides evidence relevant to · Disclosure against this standard provides evidence relevant to the claim; the standard does not certify performance.
Evidence and conditions
Edition reviewed
Corporate Standard (rev. 2004); Scope 2 Guidance (2015); Scope 3 Standard (2011); Product Standard (2011); Land Sector & Removals Standard (2026-01-30)
Covered scope
Company / product
Market
Global
Evidence normally needed
Published disclosure/report prepared in accordance with the standard; separate assurance statement where the claim implies independent verification
Assurance
ISO 14064-3 / ISAE 3410 verification
Chain of custody
Not applicable — the scheme defines no chain-of-custody model
Relationship source ↗
100% renewable energyProvides evidence relevant to · Disclosure against this standard provides evidence relevant to the claim; the standard does not certify performance.
Evidence and conditions
Edition reviewed
Corporate Standard (rev. 2004); Scope 2 Guidance (2015); Scope 3 Standard (2011); Product Standard (2011); Land Sector & Removals Standard (2026-01-30)
Covered scope
Company / product
Market
Global
Evidence normally needed
Published disclosure/report prepared in accordance with the standard; separate assurance statement where the claim implies independent verification
Assurance
ISO 14064-3 / ISAE 3410 verification
Chain of custody
Not applicable — the scheme defines no chain-of-custody model
Relationship source ↗
Halve our emissions by 2030, net zero by 2050Provides evidence relevant to · Disclosure against this standard provides evidence relevant to the claim; the standard does not certify performance.
Evidence and conditions
Edition reviewed
Corporate Standard (rev. 2004); Scope 2 Guidance (2015); Scope 3 Standard (2011); Product Standard (2011); Land Sector & Removals Standard (2026-01-30)
Covered scope
Company / product
Market
Global
Evidence normally needed
Published disclosure/report prepared in accordance with the standard; separate assurance statement where the claim implies independent verification
Assurance
ISO 14064-3 / ISAE 3410 verification
Chain of custody
Not applicable — the scheme defines no chain-of-custody model
Relationship source ↗
We've cut net GHG emissions 24.5% vs our 2018 baselineProvides evidence relevant to · Disclosure against this standard provides evidence relevant to the claim; the standard does not certify performance.
Evidence and conditions
Edition reviewed
Corporate Standard (rev. 2004); Scope 2 Guidance (2015); Scope 3 Standard (2011); Product Standard (2011); Land Sector & Removals Standard (2026-01-30)
Covered scope
Company / product
Market
Global
Evidence normally needed
Published disclosure/report prepared in accordance with the standard; separate assurance statement where the claim implies independent verification
Assurance
ISO 14064-3 / ISAE 3410 verification
Chain of custody
Not applicable — the scheme defines no chain-of-custody model
Relationship source ↗

Recognition & legal context

Laws referencing it

No reviewed law references are published.

Provenance5 profile updates
Profile update 5
Imported source-linked claim and dictionary relationship reviews. Public profile remains Founding edition · public beta.
Profile update 4
Added source-linked instrument, organisation and conformity classifications. Public profile remains Founding edition · public beta.
Profile update 3
Applied the owner/editor-approved Review 01 source and edition corrections. Public profile remains Founding edition · public beta.
Profile update 2
Initial profile published after recorded site-owner/editor review of the complete standards batch.
Profile update 1
Initial private editorial draft imported from the reviewed standards handover.

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