Our Carbon Footprint
The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard classifies a company’s greenhouse gas emissions into three ‘scopes’:
- Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from owned or controlled sources, such as gas and fugitive emissions.
- Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy, i.e. our electricity consumption. Scope 2 can be reported as location-based or market-based. A location-based method reflects the average emissions intensity of the grid whereas a market-based method reflects emissions from electricity purchased from a supplier, allowing zero emissions to be reported for contracts on a renewable energy tariff. Workspace procures 100% renewable electricity.
- Scope 3 emissions are all indirect emissions (not included in Scope 2) that occur in the value chain, including both upstream and downstream emissions. The majority of our Scope 3 emissions are from the embodied carbon associated with our refurbishment and redevelopment activities.
Our Scope 1 and 2 emissions make up only 17% of our total emissions, and are the operational emissions that we have control over and therefore take full responsibility for. The majority of our Scope 3 emissions are associated with our refurbishment and redevelopment activities.