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Carbon accounting

The three types of carbon footprint: Scopes 1, 2 and 3

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol's three scopes, and the green, blue and black carbon colour spectrum.

Carbon · 5 min read

The GHG Protocol scopes

Since 2001 the Greenhouse Gas Protocol has split an organisation's footprint into three scopes:

Scope 1 — direct emissions from sources you own: boilers, vehicles, diesel generators, and for a dam operator, the reservoir's own methane.
Scope 2 — indirect emissions from electricity, steam or heat you buy. A KSEB customer's Scope 2 depends on the grid's emission factor.
Scope 3 — everything else in the value chain: suppliers, business travel, how customers use your products, and end-of-life. Usually 70–90% of a company's total.

The carbon colour spectrum

Green carbon — stored in forests and soils on land.
Blue carbon — stored by oceans and water ecosystems: mangroves, seagrass, salt marsh, and reservoir/wetland sediments.
Black and brown carbon — soot and fossil carbon from burning coal, diesel and biomass, which warms the climate.

Continue reading

How a reservoir worksStorage levels, FRL, MWL, dead storage and why a dam at 100% is not automatically dangerous.
Reading rainfall forecastsWhat 24 h and 72 h catchment totals mean, why forecast rain matters more than fallen rain, and forecast uncertainty.
Inflow, outflow and spillingCumecs explained, how shutter openings are reported, and how to read a rising or falling reservoir.