GHG Inventory Verification
What is GHG Inventory Verification?
The UK government has committed to reaching net-zero by 2050, and many businesses are beginning to calculate, report, and declare their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in an effort to play their part.
Simply put, Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory Verification helps to ensure that an organisation’s carbon footprint calculation is accurate, thorough and developed in accordance with ISO 14064-1.
The growth in organisations needing to determine and report GHG inventories is driven by a combination of legislative, tender and customer requirements. This also supports companies in their risk management, cost analysis, and organisation reputation management.
NQA provides 3rd party verification in accordance with ISO 14064-1 to ensure your GHG Inventory (carbon footprint) is credible. This is a specification for the quantifying of emissions and removals. Additional approaches may be adopted to support your compliance, including:
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GHG Protocol
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DEFRA Environmental Reporting Guidelines
GHG Inventory verification will comprise of the following key stages:
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Setting the scope or boundaries of what is being measured
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Quantifying your emissions and removals
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Reporting
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Independent verification
Helps you with
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Satisfy statutory requirements for mandatory reporting
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Demonstrate best practice and meet customer, stakeholder, industry, and legal expectations
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Voluntarily prepare for potential future legislation
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Supports developing PPN06/21 carbon reduction plans for major UK government contracts
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Have transparency with their quantified GHG inventory
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Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve overall performance including cost efficiency
Verified GHG Inventory Journey
Prepare
You’ll need to understand the requirements of a GHG Inventory, and the requirements of ISO 14064-1.
You will need to determine the boundaries of the entity being verified. Typically, you should consider whether you have operational, financial or equity control over an organisation and its activities which generate emissions.
You will also need to collate relevant data sources, and consider your scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions to an extent relevant to your set boundary.
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Scope 1 - direct emissions from owned or controlled sources
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Scope 2 - indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating, and cooling
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Scope 3 - all other indirect emissions that occur in a company’s value chain (waste treatment, purchasing of goods, employee travel etc.
Determine
Your GHG inventory is determined using information gathered from your organisation and your upstream and downstream stakeholders. This information forms the basis of the calculations of your greenhouse gas emissions. Typically business activity is translated to GHG emissions using conversion factors.
Report
Reporting of GHG inventories must be complete, consistent, accurate and transparent. You will need to create a report which details how you have approached developing your GHG inventory as well as emissions data.
Verify
NQA will conduct an independent 3rd party verification on your GHG Inventory to ensure this is accurate, reliable, and robust.
This enables you to communicate and make decisions with confidence that your GHG inventory will stand up to scrutiny.
Why Achieve 3rd Party Verification?
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A verified GHG Inventory verification with NQA will stand up to scrutiny and give robust assurance. This protects your organisation against claims of greenwashing
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Provides a high degree of confidence in the GHG Inventory from which decision making and investment in carbon management can take place
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Reduces risk of operational or reputational damage caused by a potential error or misstatement
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You can promote your independent verification and utilise the relevant NQA logos / promotional materials
NQA Verification Process
NQA will conduct the 3rd party verification in accordance with ISO 14064-3.
Stage 1 (Pre-Verification)
The Pre-Verification determines the client’s readiness for a full verification. It additionally is used to understand the entity’s characteristics, activities, and processes which drive GHG emissions. Enabling the development of a risk-based verification plan to be implemented at Stage 2.
Stage 2 (Verification)
The purpose of this assessment is to carry out the full review on your GHG Inventory in accordance with ISO 14064-1. This will include an assessment of your methods for data capture, analysis, conversion and reporting. Typically, the Stage 2 will involve NQA visiting your location(s) for site visits
Independent review (Post-Verification)
The purpose of this assessment is to do a secondary review on the workings from all parties at the verification stage, and to provide further assurance and integrity. This is informative only and no client presence required.
To discuss your verification requirements with a member of our team please get in contact here.
GHG Inventory Toolkit
What's next
Get in touch today to begin your journey to a greener, more sustainable business and a member of our team will be in touch to discuss your requirements:
