Scope 2 emissions are indirect greenhouse gas emissions from the generation of electricity, heat, steam, or cooling that a company purchases and consumes. The combustion happens at the power station or heat plant — not on your premises — but the GHG Protocol attributes the resulting emissions to whoever is using the energy.
Why it matters
For most office-based, retail, and service businesses, Scope 2 is the largest reportable source after Scope 3. It is also one of the most sensitive to procurement decisions: switching to a verified renewable electricity tariff, installing on-site solar, or improving energy efficiency all reduce Scope 2 directly.
Scope 2 must be reported using two methods where applicable: the location-based method (using the average grid emission factor for the country in which consumption occurs) and the market-based method (reflecting contractual instruments such as REGO certificates).
A practical example
An office consuming 80,000 kWh of grid electricity per year would have a location-based Scope 2 footprint of roughly 16 tCO₂e using a typical UK grid factor. If that office switches to a REGO-backed renewable tariff, the market-based figure could fall close to zero — but the location-based figure stays the same, because the physical grid mix has not changed.
See how we calculate and report both methods on the methodology page.