How do the scopes look for Indian businesses?

The two examples below show typical patterns. They are not measured data for any real company.

An IT services company

• Scope 1: small. Diesel for backup generators, refrigerant leaks from office air conditioning, any company-owned vehicles.
• Scope 2: often the largest item under its direct control: electricity for offices and any owned data centres. Rooftop solar or renewable contracts change the market-based figure.
• Scope 3: purchased cloud and other services (Category 1), laptops and servers (2), business travel (6) and employee commuting (7). For a firm with a very large workforce, travel and commuting can be big numbers.

An auto-component maker

• Scope 1: fuel for furnaces, heat treatment, boilers, paint-shop ovens, forklifts and DG sets.
• Scope 2: grid electricity for machining, presses and compressors, usually a large share of the emissions it controls directly.
• Scope 3: purchased steel, aluminium, castings and plastics (Category 1) are often the heaviest item, followed by inbound and outbound freight (4 and 9). Parts that are further worked on by a vehicle maker fall under processing of sold products (10).

The lesson: the same 15 categories apply to everyone, but which ones matter depends on the business. A sensible approach is to screen all 15, then measure the biggest ones carefully.