Scope 2 emissions

Scope 2 is the second of the three scopes in the GHG Protocol. The emissions happen at the power station, not on your premises, but they count towards your footprint because your electricity use causes them.

What it means for a small business

For most small businesses, Scope 2 simply means purchased electricity: lights, computers, kitchen equipment, machinery, and charging electric company vehicles. A few businesses on heat networks also buy heat, which counts here too.

Scope 2 is usually the easiest part of a footprint to calculate, because the activity data is on your electricity bill in kWh. It is also one of the easiest to reduce, through efficiency or switching tariffs.

There are two ways to report it. The location-based method uses the average UK grid factor. The market-based method reflects the tariff you actually buy, so a genuine renewable tariff backed by REGOs can count as zero. Our entry on location-based vs market-based emissions explains the difference.

An example

A 6-person agency uses 9,000 kWh of electricity a year. Using the 2026 UK government grid factor of about 0.13 kg CO2e per kWh, its location-based Scope 2 is roughly 1.2 tCO2e. If it is on a REGO-backed renewable tariff, its market-based Scope 2 is zero, and it should report both figures.

The grid factor changes every year as the UK’s electricity mix changes. The 2025 set used about 0.177 kg per kWh, so the same use would have shown about 1.6 tonnes.

How ESG Now handles it

The ESG Now questionnaire asks for your electricity use in kWh, or estimates it from floor area or your share of a co-working space. It includes EV charging, asks whether you are on a renewable tariff and reports Scope 2 both location-based and market-based, using UK government factors matched to your reporting period. See the methodology for details.