What are scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions?

Understanding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions begins with the GHG Protocol, which classifies emissions into three scopes. This framework helps companies identify where emissions occur in their operations and supply chains, making it easier to measure and reduce their climate impact.

  • Scope 1 refers to direct emissions from activities owned or controlled by your company, such as fuel use on-site. Biomass combustion is excluded and reported separately. 
  • Scope 2 refers to indirect emissions from purchased electricity or energy used within your operations. These occur at the energy provider but are accounted for by the user. 
  • Scope 3 refers to all other indirect emissions across your value chain, including purchased goods, transport, and product end-of-life. Scope 3 is divided into upstream and downstream categories. Upstream refers to all emissions that occur before production, including Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Downstream refers to all emissions that occur after the product leaves your company's gates.

Why is scope 3 important?

Scope 3 is the largest scope and the most difficult to influence since it encompasses indirect emissions from sources that are not owned or controlled by you. These include all the aggregated emissions from the production of purchased goods or services, the transportation of products, employee commuting, and many other sources.   

How Holmen calculates emissions

Holmen calculates greenhouse gas emissions using a cradle-to-gate approach, covering all known emissions from raw material sourcing to the point the product leaves the mill. This includes Scope 1, Scope 2, and selected Scope 3 emissions. The reporting follows the industry-established process by CEPI and is carried out by AFRY.

Reporting environmental declarations

Holmen provides Environmental Declarations for all products, reporting both carbon footprint and paper profile data on environmental performance. The declaration includes direct emissions (scope 1), energy use, and impact on air and water per tonne of product, among other things. The document also contains site emissions per mill following the GHG Protocol. Since Holmen purchases fossil-free electricity under an emissions guarantee, scope 2 emissions are very low. Energy use is also shown separately in kWh/tonne, supporting more detailed comparisons.

All Environmental Declarations are available for download and updated annually.

Including upstream scope 3

While many models focus only on Scope 1 and 2, Holmen includes upstream Scope 3 emissions such as fibre sourcing and transport in product carbon footprint calculations. This approach avoids generic estimates and reflects Holmen’s high level of control over its supply chain, resulting in more knowledge about what's behind the emissions and how they can be affected.

Tools for climate footprint calculations

There are several frameworks to use for making climate calculations, and most of them are based on, or aligned with, the GHG Protocol. Here are some examples of tools that use GHG-Protocol-based calculation models, that can help you compare data from different suppliers.

ClimateCalc

Developed by the graphical industry associations in Europe and based on ISO standards and the GHG Protocol, ClimateCalc is a tool for calculating cradle-to-gate emissions across Scope 1, 2 and selected Scope 3 categories. It is widely used in the graphic industry to support product-level footprint comparisons and carbon offsetting decisions.

ClimatePartner

The German initiative ClimatePartner offers a hybrid model that combines a database containing emission values for hundreds of different papers and a more detailed climate calculation for printing firm’s businesses and their products. Like  many other companies they also offer the option of carbon offsetting for printed products via various climate projects.

Fisher Solve

The Fisher Solve database from ResourceWise provides mill-level data, enabling CO₂ benchmarking across paper and board suppliers. It uses input data from official sources and a calculation model where standardised boundaries can be set. Holmen’s mills rank among the lowest in the world for CO₂ emissions per tonne of product, calculated cradle to gate. Cradle to gate means all known emissions from the origin and processing of raw materials, transportation, and manufacturing, up until the product leave the company gates. Benchmark data from FisherSolve helps customers compare mills and choose climate-smart suppliers.

Where do I start?

Now that you understand how to calculate and report GHG emissions across Scope 1, 2 and 3, what is the next step? You don't have to address the scopes in order, there are some easy wins in all three scopes that you can look into straight away. Like using fossil-free fuels in the onsite vehicles, switching to green electricity for your production, or reviewing the emissions of your most used input materials and considering alternatives.