Climate management

ISO 14064-1 –
GHG inventories
We explain the standard.
 ISO 14064-1 – GHG inventories

Management Summary
This White Paper provides information on GHG inventories in accordance
with the ISO 14064-1 specification. This specification covers the prin-
ciples, guidelines, and requirements for planning, developing, manag-
ing, and reporting GHG inventories. In this White Paper, we introduce
the international standard ISO 14064-1, describe the steps leading
up to a GHG inventory, and explain the most important terms from
the standard in a glossary.

Contents
3 Greenhouse gas emissions – quantify, report, verify
4 ISO 14064-1 – Clarified
5 Clause 4: Principles of the standard
Clause 5: GHG inventory boundaries
6 Clause 6: Quantification of GHG emissions and removals
7 Clause 7: Initiatives for GHG reduction and removal
8 Clause 8: Quality management of GHG inventories
9 Clause 9: GHG Reporting
10 Clause 10: Verification of GHG inventories
11 Conclusion
13 Glossary

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ISO 14064-1 – GHG inventories

ISO 14064-1
Greenhouse gas emissions - quantify, report, verify
Greenhouse gases (GHG) are the largest anthropogenic climate killer. Global warming is increas-
ing at a pace that requires organizations in all industries to take immediate action to reduce their
GHG emissions, especially CO2. A prerequisite for this is the quantification of GHG emissions and the
establishment of a GHG inventory. A more far-reaching and confidence-building measure, especially
with regard to the public and other interested parties, is the verification of the GHG inventory and the
validation of forecasts, e.g. for future CO2 emissions. The ISO 14064-1 specification describes what
organizations must do to achieve this. It provides the appropriate framework for GHG accounting and
its verification – and at the same time the basis for reliable reporting.

Basis of the standard: The Greenhouse Gas
Protocol
ISO 14064-1 is based on the freely available
Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol). This
standard was published in 1998 already by the
World Business Council for Sustainable Develop-
ment (WBCSD) and the World Resources Insti-
tute (WRI) to standardize carbon accounting, in
collaboration with numerous non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and private companies.
The ISO 14064 series of standards
The standard ISO 14064-1 was republished in
2018 after extensive revision. In addition to
editorial changes, the standard contains new
requirements and guidelines for the classification
of indirect GHG emissions in five categories.
ISO 14064-1 is part of a three-part series of
standards. ISO 14064-2 is aimed at GHG projects,
and ISO 14064-3 specifies requirements for the
verification and validation of a GHG inventory.

The ISO 14064 series of standards

ISO 14064-1:2018 – Part 1: Greenhouse gases —Specification with guidance at the organization level for quantification and reporting
of greenhouse gas emissions and removals
ISO 14064-2:2019 – Part 2: Greenhouse gases — Specification with guidance at the project level for quantification, monitoring and
reporting of greenhouse gas emission reductions or removal enhancements
ISO 14064-3:2019 – Part 3: Greenhouse gases — Specification with guidance for the verification and validation of greenhouse gas
statements

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 ISO 14064-1 – GHG inventories

ISO 14064-1 – Clarified

The ISO 14064 specification helps organizations
design and develop GHG inventories, verify or
validate the resulting projections, and report on
them transparently. ISO 14064-1 provides prin-
ciples, guidelines and requirements for the plan-
ning, development, management and reporting
of GHG inventories. Among other things, the
focus is on establishing organizational boundar-
ies that relate to the following:

GHG emissions and GHG removal

Quantitative determination of GHG emissions
and GHG removal

Identification of initiatives to improve GHG
management
The specification also includes requirements
to document, explain, or justify the use of
certain approaches or the making of decisions
(Clause 0.3).
1. Document
Recording and storage of relevant information
2. Explain (in addition to item 1)
 Answer to the question: how were the chosen
approaches applied or the decisions made?
 Descriptive answer to the question: why were
these approaches applied or these decisions
made?

Other requirements relate to the quality 3. Justify (in addition to items 1 and 2)
management of  Descriptive answer to the question: why were

GHG inventory alternative approaches not chosen?

Reporting Provision of required data and analyses

Internal audits

Corporate responsibility with regard to
verifying and validating

Tip: Steps for preparing a GHG inventory clause by clause

The requirements section of the standard is divided into Clauses 4 to 10. Clause 5 and 6 of the stan-
dard, however, are not intended as comprehensive instructions for the preparation of a GHG inven-
tory. Instead, they should be understood as individual, successive steps, for which detailed explana-
tions and instructions with examples are provided in the Annexes A to H. A comprehensive glossary
in Clause 3 explains the essential terms relating to the subject. For additional support, the standard
recommends the instructions from the guideline “Greenhouse gases – Quantification and reporting of
greenhouse gas emissions for organizations” (ISO/TR 14069:2013).

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ISO 14064-1 – GHG inventories

Clause 4: Principles of the standard

The requirements of ISO 14064-1 are based on five principles, the application of which is intended to
ensure, that „greenhouse gas-related information is considered in a manner that reflects actual condi-
tions“.

1. Relevance 2. Completeness 3. Consistency 4. Correctness 5. Transparency

The selection of All GHG emissions Comparability of Discrepancies and GHG-related
GHG data, informa- and removals are GHG-related infor- uncertainties are information is
tion and method- included. mation is enabled. avoided. disclosed so that
ologies is aimed at the „intended user“
the needs of the can make decisions
„intended user“. with confidence.

Clause 5: GHG inventory boundaries

An essential prerequisite for a formally correct
quantification of GHG emissions or GHG remov-
als is the definition of organizational boundaries
(Clause 5.1). The quantification is carried out on
a facility level, i.e. those GHG sources and sinks
that are located within the organization, but also
outside in financially or operationally controlled
organizations or in shareholdings of the account-
ing organization. This results in two different
approaches to the aggregation of GHG data.
Other approaches are possible if required or in
view of the different needs of intended users.
Annex A of the specification provides guidance
on the data consolidation process.
Defining Reporting Boundaries
Clause 5.2 refers to the definition of an orga-
nization‘s reporting boundaries. This includes
identifying all direct, indirect, and removed GHG
emissions. Direct GHG emissions must be quanti-
fied separately in CO2 equivalent (CO2e) for each
relevant GHG.
To determine indirect GHG emissions, the orga-
nization must establish, apply, and document a
process that considers the intended use of the
inventory and its own significance criteria. Any
exclusion of essential indirect GHG emissions
must be justified. Annex H of the standard pro-
vides guidance on assessing significance.
Categories of GHG emissions
In Clause 5.2.4, the specification requires the
classification of GHG emissions into categories
for the GHG inventory. In addition to the cat-
egory „direct GHG emissions and GHG removals“,
this includes the following indirect GHG emis-
sions, namely from:
 
Imported energy
 
Transportation
 
Third-party products used by the organization
 
The use of the organization‘s products by others
 
Miscellaneous sources.
GHG emissions from each category must be
distinguished by type (biogenic, anthropogenic,
etc.). Guidance on this can be found in Annex D
of the document. The categories also need to be
further broken down into subcategories, more
on this in Annex B.

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 ISO 14064-1 – GHG inventories
Clause 6: Quantification of GHG emissions and removals
This clause provides requirements for quantifying GHG emissions and GHG removals. The quanti-
fication requires the identification and documentation of relevant GHG sources and sinks and their
categorization (Clause 5.2). Any exclusion of GHG sources must be justified.
Application of a quantification approach
For quantification, the organization must apply
an appropriate approach to collect primary and
secondary data and to determine GHG emissions
from a source or GHG removals from a sink. This
process must be explained and documented.
Guidance on data selection and data collection
for GHG quantification (Clause 6.2.2) can be
found in Appendix C.
Except for measuring GHG emissions or GHG
removals, Clause 6.2.3 requires the development
and application of a GHG quantification model
for converting data on GHG sources or sinks into
emission values. The organization must, as the
document states, „explain and document the jus-
tification for the selection or development of the
model [...].“ This means: the rationale must be
explained, taking into account the criteria men-
tioned, such as suitability, accuracy, appropriate-
ness, etc. A commonly used method is the use of
substance- or process-specific GHG emission fac-
tors (including a time component, if applicable)
multiplied by activity data (e.g., amount of fuel
consumed).
Calculation of GHG emissions and
GHG removals
Clause 6.3 contains requirements for the calcula-
tion of GHG emissions and GHG removals, using
the previously selected quantification approach.
The following criteria apply:

Specification of the time period for which the
calculation is made

Conversion of the quantities of the different
GHGs into tons of CO2e

Application of the current GHG potential
(calculated over 100 years) according to IPCC
(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)
Quantification of biogenic GHG emissions or
GHG removals according to Annex D
6

Quantification of GHG emissions or removals
from imported electricity, electricity consumed
by the organization, electricity produced by
the organization, and electricity exported by
the organization, according to Annex E

Quantification of GHG emissions or removals
from agriculture, according to Annex G
Selection of the historical base-year
Clause 6.4.1 provides requirements for the
necessary definition of a historical “base-year”
to which the GHG inventory refers. This includes
the quantitative determination of GHG emissions
or removals for the base-year. The data must
be representative and verifiable relative to the
current reporting limit, and the selection of the
base-year must also be explained. Finally, a GHG
inventory must be prepared for the base-year
in accordance with the standard requirements.
According to Clause 6.4.2, to ensure that it is
representative, the GHG inventory that refers to
the base-year must be verified and a recalcula-
tion must be performed and documented. The
following must be taken into account:
Possible changes in organization or reporting
boundaries, e.g. due to merger
Possible changes in calculation methods and/
or emission factors
Detection of possible errors
Recalculation to reflect changes in the produc-
tion level of the facility (e.g. closures) is not
possible
Documentation of the recalculation related to
the base-year in subsequent GHG inventories
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ISO 14064-1 – GHG inventories

Clause 7: Initiatives for GHG reduction and removal

In Clause 7.1, the document sets out require-
ments for when an organization plans or imple-
ments initiatives to reduce GHG emissions and
improve GHG removals. In the case of imple-
mentation, resulting differences may already be
included in the GHG inventory.
If initiatives result in differences in GHG emis-
sions or removals outside the organization‘s
boundaries, this must be documented separately
in the quantification and reporting, including the
following information
A description of the GHG reduction initiatives
The spatial and temporal boundaries of the
initiatives
The quantification approach used
The identification and classification of
Differences attributable to the initiatives
If carbon credits acquired or developed are
reported, they must be listed separately from
GHG reduction initiatives (Clause 7.2).
If the organization sets and reports on targets
for reducing GHG emissions and improving GHG
removals, it must also report on the nature of the
targets in terms of time and quantity, as well as
identify the emission categories relevant to the
target (Clause 7.3). In the course of goal setting,
scientific criteria, GHG reduction potential, and
context (national, international, by sector, etc.)
should be taken into account.

Advantages of GHG accounting in accordance with ISO 14064-1

Use of the specification results in a number of advantages, both in terms of ecological aspects and public
perception:
Increased ecological effectiveness and integrity of GHG quantification
Increased credibility, consistency, and transparency of GHG quantification and monitoring, reporting
and verification/validation
Facilitates GHG management in developing and achieving GHG strategies
Facilitates the development and implementation of measures to reduce GHG emissions or increase
GHG removals
Facilitates the evaluation of performance and progress with respect to reducing GHG emissions or
increasing GHG removals

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 ISO 14064-1 – GHG inventories

Clause 8: Quality management of GHG inventories

Clause 8.1 contains requirements for GHG information management. Thus, for the purpose of
information management, the organization needs to implement procedures that meet the following
requirements:


Conformity with the five principles of the Procedures must be established and maintained
standard for document retention and records mainte-

Consistency with the intended use of the nance (Clause 8.2). This requirement relates to
GHG inventory documentation that, in relation to a verifying,

Reviews of the GHG inventory for accuracy demonstrates the planning, preparation, and
and completeness maintenance of the GHG inventory.

Identification and handling of errors

Documentation and archiving of records Requirements for the assessment of uncertainty
with regard to quantification approaches and
Procedures must also allow for specific actions their determination at the GHG inventory cat-
with respect to the following: egory level are described in Clause 8.3 (see also
Identify accountability for the GHG inventory Annex C7).
Implement training for inventory preparation
Identify / review organizational boundaries
Identify / review GHG sources and sinks
Select / review quantification approaches
Review application of quantification
approaches

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ISO 14064-1 – GHG inventories

Clause 9: GHG Reporting

The standard recommends that organizations prepare a GHG report focused on the use of the GHG
inventory. This is also a prerequisite for verifying of the GHG inventory, for making a public GHG state-
ment of compliance with ISO 14064-1, and for participation in certain GHG programs, if applicable. The
basic requirements for GHG reports correspond to the five principles in Clause 4.

Planning the GHG report Requirements for optional information

Planning the GHG report (Clause 9.2) requires
that certain aspects be explained and docu-
mented. Among others:
Purpose and objective of the report in terms
of the organization‘s GHG-related regulations,
policies, and programs, as well as GHG pro-
grams
intended users of the GHG inventory
Responsibilities for preparation and produc-
tion of the GHG report
Frequency of issuance
Report structure and format
Data and information
Arrangements for availability or procedures
for dissemination
If confidential information is not to be included
in a GHG report, appropriate justification is
required.
Contents of the GHG report
The requirements for the contents (Clause 9.3)
of a GHG report specify which information is
mandatory, which is recommended, and which is
optional. The standard provides guidance on this
in Annex F.
In addition to required and recommended
information, optional information may also be
provided - separated by type and in the following
manner:

Results of contracted means for GHG attri-
butes expressed in GHG emissions (CO2e) and
in the unit of transfer (e.g., kWh)

Amount purchased compared to amount
consumed.

Offsets or other emission credits
If offsets or other emission credits are reported,
the following applies:
Indication of the underlying climate protec-
tion program
Possibility of adding offsets or other types of
emission credits from the same climate pro-
tection program
No possibility to add or subtract offsets or
other emission credits from their balance of
direct or indirect emissions

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 ISO 14064-1 – GHG inventories

Clause 10: Verification of GHG inventories

An organization may have its GHG emissions
and removals information (i.e., GHG inventory)
verified by an independent, accredited body such
as DQS. This verification is performed accord-
ing to the needs of the intended users along
the ISO 14064-1, and according to the principles
and requirements for the verification of a GHG
inventory according to ISO 14064-3. The verifica-
tion statement must be made available to the
intended users.

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ISO 14064-1 – GHG inventories

Conclusion
ISO 14064-1 is a specification providing guidance on the quantitative determination and reporting of
GHG emissions and removals at the corporate level. The standard may be used as a basis for verifica-
tion of a GHG inventory, which requires the preparation of a GHG report. The requirements section is
divided into Clauses 4 to 10, followed by Annexes A to H with extensive explanations.

Clause 4 lists five principles of the standard that must also be used as a basis for GHG reporting. The
requirements in Clauses 5 and 6 - together with the explanations in the Annexes - may be regarded as
practical steps for the preparation of a GHG inventory. Clause 7 deals with initiatives to reduce GHGs
and to improve the GHG removal and what impact these may have on the GHG inventory. Clause 8
provides requirements for the quality management of the GHG inventory. Clause 9 sets requirements
for the content of a GHG report and specifies which disclosures are mandatory, which are recom-
mended, and which are optional. Finally, Clause 10 briefly discusses the requirements for verification
of the GHG inventory.

About the author

Altan Dayankac is product manager for „Sustainability and Occupa-

tional Safety“ as well as DQS auditor for numerous sustainability stan-
dards. He also contributes his expertise as an author, moderator and
expert in environmental and occupational health and safety committees
and numerous specialist events.

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 ISO 14064-1 – GHG inventories

Our tip
Visit our workshops on the
subject of Climate Management

Reasons
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ISO 14064-1 – GHG inventories
Glossary
Greenhouse gases (GHG)
When gases are in the atmosphere, if they have
the property of absorbing and re-emitting ther-
mal radiation, they become greenhouse gases.
They can be of natural or man-made (anthropo-
genic) origin and have the property of mixing
in the atmosphere, which is important for their
effect. Without GHGs, some of the heat radiation
would escape unhindered into space. Four green-
house gases in particular play a role in climate
warming: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4),
nitrous oxide (N2O) and fluorine gases. They
differ primarily in terms of their absorption and
emission of thermal radiation, their residence
time or lifetime in the atmosphere, and their
origin.
GHG inventory
List of all GHG sources and GHG sinks with quan-
tified GHG emissions or GHG removals.
GHG report
Document in which an organization provides
GHG-related information to its intended user,
e.g., in the form of or including a GHG statement.
GHG emission
The 2019 edition of ISO 14064-1 defines a GHG
emission as the „release of a GHG into the atmo-
sphere”
Direct GHG emission
Emission by a GHG source that is either owned or
controlled by an organization ( organizational
boundary). The definition of the organizational
boundary, which includes aspects such as capital
shares and capital control, plays an important
role. Direct GHG emission occurs e.g. in the
course of product manufacturing. Explanations
can be found in Annex A of the standard.
Indirect GHG emissions
Emission from a GHG source that is neither
owned nor controlled by the organization.
Indirect GHG sources occur, for example, when
employees commute (upstream) or when prod-
ucts sold are used (downstream). Requirements
on indirect GHG emissions are new in the stan-
dard, explanations can be found in Annex H,
among others.
GHG removal
Removal of a GHG from the atmosphere by GHG
sinks.
GHG statement
Objective basis for verification of determined
data and information or validation of statements
of future activity.
GHG management
The interaction of planning, climate goals, pro-
cesses, metrics, and their monitoring to achieve
set targets.
GHG sink
This technical term refers to the opposite
process, the removal of GHGs from the atmo-
sphere. This is the case, for example, when CO2
is removed from the atmosphere in the course
of natural CO2 cycles through oceans, forests or
peatlands, etc. An artificial sink is e.g. the injec-
tion of CO2 into depleted natural gas reservoirs.
GHG source
This does not refer to a physical location, but to
a process, such as a manufacturing process, that
releases (emits) GHG into the atmosphere.
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 ISO 14064-1 – GHG inventories

Organizational boundaries Intended use of the GHG inventory

According to the standard, a „grouping of
activities or facilities in which an organization
exercises operational or financial control or
has an equity share.“ Essentially, GHG emission
or reduction must be considered beyond the
narrow boundaries, if any, of the accounting
organization. The organizational boundary may
therefore include, for example, facilities of finan-
cially controlled subsidiaries or (only) those of
equity investments. This results in two alternative
approaches to the consolidation of GHG emis-
sions or sinks (Annex A of the standard „Process
to consolidate data“).
Reporting boundary
All direct or indirect GHG emissions or removals
reported within the organizational boundary that
are associated with the organization‘s operations.
The primary purpose of quantifying GHG emis-
sions or removals that the reporting organiza-
tion has in mind with respect to the needs of the
intended user.
Verification
Assessment of whether the statement of GHG
data collected and GHG information from the
past are accurate and meet established criteria.
Validation
Assessing whether assumptions, constraints, and
methodologies are appropriate to inform the
outcome of future activity.

Intended user
An interested party identified as a user by the
reporting person or organization that requires
information from the report for its decision-
making.

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ISO 14064-1 – GHG inventories

DQS: Simply leveraging Quality.

In everything we do, we set the highest standards for quality and competence in every
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own guiding principle, which we renew every day.

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Our core competencies lie in the performance of certification audits and

assessments. This makes us one of the leading providers worldwide with the
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We have been setting the highest standards of expertise, experience and

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Issued: June 2022

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Simply
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