Scope 1, 2 & 3 Emissions Explained (With an Indian Example)

Scope 1, 2, and 3 sound technical but the idea is simple: whose smokestack, whose electricity bill, and whose supply chain. Here's what each means, with real Indian numbers.

TL;DR

Scope 1, 2, and 3 are just a way of sorting a company's greenhouse gas emissions by whose smokestack they come from. Scope 1 is your own fuel-burning. Scope 2 is the electricity you buy. Scope 3 is everything else in your value chain — your suppliers, your customers, your business travel. For most Indian companies, Scope 2 (grid electricity) is bigger than Scope 1, and Scope 3 is bigger than both put together.

Who this is for

Anyone who's been asked for "Scope 1 and 2 data" or "Scope 3 emissions" — by BRSR, a customer questionnaire, or CDP — and needs the plain-English version before they can even start collecting numbers.

Plain explanation

Think of it as three concentric circles, based on who controls the emission source:

Scope 1 — direct emissions. Anything you burn yourself: diesel in a backup generator, fuel in company vehicles, gas in a boiler or furnace. If it happens inside your fence line and you're the one lighting the fire, it's Scope 1.
Scope 2 — indirect emissions from purchased energy. The electricity you buy from the grid. You don't burn anything on-site, but somewhere upstream, a power plant burned coal or gas to generate that electricity — and that emission gets counted against you because you're the one who used it.
Scope 3 — everything else in the value chain. Emissions from your suppliers making the raw materials you buy (upstream), and from customers using or disposing of what you sell (downstream). Also business travel, employee commuting, and waste. This is usually the largest category by far, and the hardest to measure, because it depends on data from other companies.

India specifics

BRSR Core requires Scope 1 and Scope 2 data — both absolute (total tonnes of CO2-equivalent) and intensity (emissions per unit of revenue or output). Scope 3 is not yet a mandatory BRSR Core requirement for most companies, but it's increasingly requested informally by customers who need it for their own value-chain disclosures (see our BRSR guide).

Calculating Scope 2 in India requires an emission factor — a number that converts electricity units (kWh) into emissions. The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) publishes an official grid emission factor each year in its CO2 Baseline Database. The most recent provisional figure, for FY 2024–25, is 0.710 tonnes of CO2 per MWh — down from 0.727 the year before, reflecting India's growing renewable energy share. Always use the current year's published CEA factor, not an old one, since it's revised annually.

Worked example

A mid-sized auto-parts manufacturer near Chennai wants to calculate its Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions for the year:

Scope 1: The factory runs a diesel generator for backup power, using about 5,000 litres of diesel over the year. Using a standard diesel emission factor of roughly 2.68 kg CO2 per litre:

5,000 litres × 2.68 kg CO2/litre = 13,400 kg CO2 ≈ 13.4 tonnes CO2 (Scope 1)

Scope 2: The factory draws 500,000 kWh (500 MWh) from the grid over the year. Using the CEA's FY 2024–25 grid emission factor of 0.710 tCO2/MWh:

500 MWh × 0.710 tCO2/MWh = 355 tonnes CO2 (Scope 2)

Notice that Scope 2 (355 tonnes) is more than 25 times larger than Scope 1 (13.4 tonnes) here — a common pattern for Indian manufacturers who rely more on the grid than on-site fuel. Scope 3 — the steel and aluminum this factory buys, plus outbound shipping and how its parts are eventually used — would very likely dwarf both, but requires supplier-level data or industry-average estimates to calculate, which is why most companies tackle Scope 3 in stages rather than all at once.

Checklist

Confirm which scopes you're actually being asked for — BRSR Core wants Scope 1 and 2; a customer questionnaire may also ask for Scope 3.
For Scope 1: list every on-site fuel source (generators, boilers, company vehicles) and gather annual fuel consumption.
For Scope 2: pull your annual electricity consumption (kWh) from your bills and multiply by the current year's CEA grid emission factor.
For Scope 3: start with your one or two biggest categories (usually raw materials or business travel) rather than trying to measure everything at once.
Record which emission factor and version you used — factors are revised yearly, and an assessor will want to know your source.

What to do next

If BRSR Core is what's driving this request, it's worth understanding exactly what it requires before you start collecting data.

See what BRSR Core actually requires you to report

Current as of: 22 July 2026. The CEA grid emission factor is a provisional figure for FY 2024–25 and is revised annually — always check for the latest CEA CO2 Baseline Database version before calculating Scope 2 emissions.

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