3.1 Introduction
While an organizational boundary identifies the operations to
include in consolidated emission reporting, an operational boundary identifies the
activities that generate the GHG emissions included in such reporting. After a
company sets its organizational boundary, it sets an operational boundary to
identify the emissions associated with its operations and further classify them by
scope. An operational boundary defines the scope of direct and indirect emissions
for operations within a company’s organizational boundary.
As the Corporate Standard notes, the “established organizational and operational
boundaries together constitute a company’s inventory boundary.” Figure 2 of the
Corporate Standard, which is reproduced below, illustrates a parent company’s
organizational and operational boundaries.
Corporate Standard, Chapter 4, “Setting Operational
Boundaries,” Page 25
Figure 2 Organizational and Operational Boundaries of a
Company
As detailed in Section 3.2, an
operational boundary classifies GHG emissions within Scope 1, Scope 2, or Scope 3.
The Corporate Standard defines each scope differently to enable companies to
determine what to include within each reporting boundary.