Carbon accounting
Organizational Boundary
The definition of which operations a company owns or controls for greenhouse gas accounting, set using equity share or control approaches.
Definition
The organizational boundary defines which operations are included in a company's greenhouse gas inventory and how emissions from jointly owned or operated entities are consolidated. Under the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, companies select a consolidation approach — equity share, financial control or operational control — and apply it consistently.
References
definition and consolidation approaches
relationship between organisational and operational boundaries
Overview
What it means
Boundary choices materially change reported emissions: a joint venture's emissions may appear fully, proportionally or not at all depending on the approach. Setting the organisational boundary is the first step of any corporate inventory, before the operational boundary (Scopes 1, 2 and 3) is drawn.
How it is used
Companies document boundary decisions in GHG inventories and disclosures under CDP, CSRD/ESRS and ISSB standards, all of which build on the GHG Protocol framework.
Why it matters
Consistent, transparent boundaries are the foundation of comparable corporate emissions data; without them, reduction targets and performance claims cannot be meaningfully assessed or aggregated. **Note:** Serves as the merge target for ID 1945 (Operational control).
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