Core Concept
GHG Protocol: How Quantified Emissions Tokens Map to Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3
The GHG Protocol is the de facto global accounting standard for corporate greenhouse gas reporting — referenced by CSRD, SBTi, CDP, SB 253, ISSB, TCR, and most voluntary frameworks. Greentruth's Quantified Emissions Tokens (QETs) are designed to feed that accounting cleanly, with sharper inputs and a defensible audit trail. This page maps QETs to each scope, calls out exactly what QETs are not, and notes where the Protocol itself is changing.
QETs under the GHG Protocol — in one paragraph. A QET is a fuel- or electricity-attribute certificate, ISO 14064-3 reasonable-assurance verified, retired on the EarnDLT registry to anchor a specific claim. QETs strengthen Scope 1 (fuel substitution and primary-data CI), Scope 2 (market-based method via the QET-ELEC extension), and Scope 3 — especially Category 3 (Fuel- and Energy-Related Activities). QETs are not offsets, not carbon credits, and do not transfer Scope 1 emissions between parties.
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Map QETs to Your GHG Protocol Inventory
Request a demo and we'll walk through Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 Category 3 exports out of a single QET.
What the GHG Protocol Covers
The GHG Protocol is a family of standards maintained by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). For corporate reporters, three documents do most of the work:
- GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard — the Scope 1 / Scope 2 / Scope 3 architecture and the core boundary, base year, and recalculation rules.
- GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance — the location-based vs market-based method split, contractual-instrument quality criteria, and supplier-specific factor rules.
- GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard — the 15 Scope 3 categories, with Category 3 (Fuel- and Energy-Related Activities) sitting upstream of combustion.
QETs do not change what the GHG Protocol covers. They change the quality of the data feeding it.
How QETs Map to Scope 1
QETs strengthen Scope 1 in two ways: they substantiate a specific verified carbon intensity on the fuel a company combusts, and — for RNG — they substitute fossil fuel with renewable fuel that carries its own biogenic carve-out per GHG Protocol biogenic guidance. Either way, the buyer's Scope 1 line stays on the buyer's inventory; the QET does not transfer that line to anyone else.
For natural gas combustion, a QET-NG carries a verified multi-pollutant CI (CH₄, CO₂, N₂O converted via IPCC AR5 GWP100) tied to a specific producer, basin, and pipeline pathway — so the buyer's Scope 1 emission factor is no longer a national average. For renewable natural gas, a QET-RNG applies fuel substitution against the same combustion, with the biogenic CO₂ accounted separately under the relevant biogenic guidance.
The crucial detail: a QET does not transfer Scope 1 emissions between parties. Two companies cannot simultaneously claim Scope 1 reductions from the same MMBtu of gas by transferring tokens. The token retires once, against one buyer's claim, and the producer's Scope 1 inventory stays the producer's.
For Scope 1 fuel-substitution reporting under SBTi
How CDR fits into a net-zero stack alongside Scope 1 abatement
How QETs Map to Scope 2 (Market-Based Method Support)
Scope 2 lives or dies on the GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance's contractual-instrument quality criteria — and QETs are built to satisfy them. The QET-ELEC extension carries the electricity attribute, geography, MRV tier, and methodology version onto a single token that the buyer retires irrevocably on-chain. The retirement record is the artifact a Scope 2 auditor wants to see.
QET-ELEC is structured to satisfy public T-EAC frameworks — including those published by major corporate procurement programs — and supports EnergyTag-compatible hourly matching for buyers running 24/7 carbon-free electricity strategies. Location-based reporting is unaffected; QET-ELEC sharpens the market-based number.
How retirement anchors the Scope 2 claim · How QETs prevent double counting
How QETs Map to Scope 3 — Especially Category 3 (Fuel- and Energy-Related Activities)
Scope 3 Category 3 covers upstream emissions from the fuels and electricity a company consumes — production, processing, transmission, distribution, and the losses along the way. It is the line item where natural gas reporting most often falls back on national averages, and the line item where QETs most directly improve the number.
GasTrace is Greentruth's downstream product surface for Category 3 reporting on natural gas. It generates a free, verified Scope 3 Category 3 Environmental Attribute Certificate (EAC) per delivery location, decomposed across Production, Gathering & Boosting, Processing, Transmission, Storage, and Distribution. The default tier uses R&D GREET 2025 reference values; the upgrade path replaces those defaults with producer-specific QET-NG and pipeline-operator-specific QETs.
Other Scope 3 categories that touch QETs:
- Category 1 (Purchased Goods and Services) — supplier-specific QETs sharpen embedded-energy emissions where natural gas or electricity is a material input.
- Category 4 (Upstream Transportation and Distribution) — for natural-gas transmission, the pipeline pathway model and pipeline-operator QETs tighten the corridor-level CI.
- Category 11 (Use of Sold Products) — for producers and utilities selling gas, QET-NG and QET-RNG substantiate the downstream end-use attribute.
What QETs Are NOT Under the GHG Protocol
This is the part the brief is most explicit about, and it's the part most worth tattooing on the wall of any reporting team using QETs:
A QET is not an offset, not a carbon credit, and does not transfer Scope 1 emissions. It is a fuel- or electricity-attribute certificate. It substantiates a specific verified physical unit of fuel or electricity, and the buyer's retirement of that token anchors a single, specific claim against the buyer's own inventory. A producer that issues QETs keeps its own Scope 1 emissions on its own books. A buyer that retires QETs sharpens the inputs to its own scope-by-scope number — it does not net those numbers against an unrelated tonne of CO₂e.
Three corollaries:
- The GHG Protocol Land Sector and Removals Guidance does not apply to QETs. That document governs removals and the inventory treatment of land-based emissions; QETs are fuel- or electricity-attribute instruments. Carbon dioxide removal coverage in Greentruth is handled separately via the QET-CCS extension and discussed in the CDR concept page.
- Voluntary carbon market integrity initiatives (those governing carbon credits and offsets) do not govern QETs. QETs sit upstream of the offset stack — they shape the number you have to abate, not the number you offset.
- A QET retirement is not a Scope 1 transfer mechanism. It is a single, irrevocable, on-chain claim record.
For ESG teams making this call to assurance providers · For corporate buyers structuring their net-zero stack
The In-Progress Updates to the GHG Protocol
The GHG Protocol is being updated. WRI and WBCSD are running consultation tracks on the Corporate Standard, the Scope 2 Guidance, and the Scope 3 Standard simultaneously, with revised guidance expected over the next several reporting cycles. Three threads are worth tracking for QET users:
- Scope 2 Guidance update. Touches market-based method quality criteria, deliverability, and matching. Likely to interact with hourly-matching standards (EnergyTag) and the QET-ELEC alignment.
- Scope 3 Standard update. Touches Category 3 (Fuel- and Energy-Related Activities) and the data-quality hierarchy that QETs feed.
- Cross-protocol clarifications. On fuel-attribute certificates, biogenic CO₂, and the relationship between market-based reporting and physical chain-of-custody.
Greentruth's methodology architecture is versioned precisely so QETs can move with the Protocol rather than against it. Each token records the exact methodology and GREET version used; framework exports are mapped to the Protocol version in force at the time of retirement.
How ISO 14064-3 reasonable assurance underpins the verification · Biogenic emissions accounting in detail
Frequently Asked Questions
QETs are fuel- or electricity-attribute certificates that strengthen GHG Protocol Scope 1 (primary-data CI and fuel substitution), Scope 2 (market-based method via QET-ELEC), and Scope 3 — especially Category 3 (Fuel- and Energy-Related Activities) via QET-NG and QET-RNG.
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Walk Through a GHG-Protocol-Mapped Attestation
Request a demo and we will walk through Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 Category 3 exports out of the same underlying QET — exactly the form your reporting team will file.