'Dual Reporting' Explained

Scope 2 emissions come from the generation of electricity, steam, heating, or cooling that a business consumes. To fully understand and report these emissions, two perspectives are required:
​

These reflect the average emissions of the local electricity grid where the energy is used. This method doesn’t usually consider your specific energy purchases — it focuses on the carbon intensity of the regional energy mix.

⚡ Exception: If your electricity comes from a direct connection to a renewable source (such as onsite solar panels or a private cable to a wind or hydro plant), and it does not enter the public grid, then a source-specific emission factor can be used. This is one of the few cases where the location-based method may reflect zero or very low emissions.

These reflect how the energy is sourced or purchased. If your organisation buys renewable energy through contractual instruments like green tariffs, supplier-specific agreements, or energy attribute certificates (RECs, GOs, etc), the market-based method accounts for the emissions linked to those choices.

Dual reporting means calculating and reporting emissions using both the location-based and market-based methods. This ensures your emissions profile captures both your physical location’s energy impact and your efforts to procure cleaner energy.

Together, these two views provide a more complete and transparent picture of your Scope 2 emissions.

Dual reporting is recommended by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (see p. 64) because location-based insights provide valuable context about the carbon intensity of local energy grids, while market-based decisions, such as purchasing renewable energy, have a direct and measurable impact on emissions. Together, these perspectives help businesses understand and identify their sustainability efforts.

On January 30th, Plan A introduced dual reporting for Scope 2 emissions, bringing two important changes:

On January 30th, we introduced additional data points for all Scope 2 calculation methods. These new data points will help you accurately calculate new Scope 2 emissions from both a market-based and location-based perspective. The additional data points include:

These data points can be found on energy invoices or by contacting your energy supplier. Existing data does not need to be reuploaded but, if you’d like to enhance the precision of your historical data, you can optionally update it to include these new inputs. For those who wish to start preparing upcoming data uploads in the new format, you can find detailed explanations of the new data points here.

On January 30th, your emissions reports automatically transitioned to include both location-based and market-based Scope 2 emissions. Historically, data that came from 100% renewable energy was calculated using a market-based approach, while data from non-renewable energy used a location-based approach. To explain this in more detail, we have outlined the transition for every Scope 2 data type.

If you had uploaded electricity data marked ‘yes’ in the ‘100% renewable’ column, your emissions would have been calculated using a market-based approach.

After the transition to dual reporting, your market-based emissions will remain at 0 in your emissions report, and you will see an additional location-based calculation next to it. The location-based emissions will be calculated using your consumption data along with the average emission factor of the local energy grid.

All non-renewable electricity data was previously calculated using a location-based approach.

When we transition to dual reporting, you will see this emission figure appear in the location-based emissions section of your emissions export. In the market-based emissions column, you will see the same result as your location-based emissions, as no market-based data is available. If you have market-based inputs you can update your data to see updated market-based emissions here.

All non-renewable electricity data was previously calculated using a location-based approach.

When we transition to dual reporting, you will see this emission figure appear in the location-based emissions section of your emissions export. In the market-based emissions column you will see a new emissions value. In the EU, when no market-based data is uploaded, a market-based "residual mix" emission factor is used as a fallback.

The residual mix represents the portion of energy consumed in the region that comes from non-renewable sources after renewable energy has been accounted for. This aligns with EU reporting frameworks like the GHG protocol (p.56). If you have market-based inputs, you can update your data to see the updated market-based emissions here.

Your purchased heat energy was previously calculated using a location based approach.

When we transition to dual reporting you will see this emission figure appear in the location-based emissions section of your report. In the market-based emissions column you will see the same result as your location-based emissions as no market-based data is available. If you have market-based inputs you can update your data to see updated market-based emissions here.

All Scope 2 emissions calculated using National Averages were previously calculated using a location-based approach.

When we transition to dual reporting, you will see this emission figure appear in the location-based emissions section of your report. In the market-based emissions column you will see the same result as your location-based emissions as no market-based data is available. As National Averages are a fallback emissions result we recommend uploading actual activity data here.

All Scope 2 BYOE emissions will default to being displayed as location-based emissions. As energy consumption data will not be available, your BYOE location-based emissions will serve as a fallback for BYOE market-based emissions. If your BYOE emissions were originally calculated using a market-based approach, you can update your data, using the new BYOE templates, after the dual reporting launch to reflect this.

It’s very common that companies will have uploaded Scope 2 data that contained both 100% renewable data and non-renewable data. To date, if you uploaded Scope 2 data including both renewable and non-renewable energy, your total emissions calculation combined location-based calculations for non-renewable energy with market-based calculations for renewable energy. As you can see the in example outlined below.

Currently:

When Plan A transitions to dual reporting those figures will be separated in the emissions export. The original location-based emissions for non-renewable energy will now be combined with new location-based calculations for renewable energy. Meanwhile, the original market-based emissions for renewable energy will be combined with market-based calculations for non-renewable energy (with fallbacks applied if market-based information is unavailable).

After dual reporting:

This approach will give you dual Scope 2 emissions. This ensures a clearer and more accurate distinction between market-based and location-based emissions reporting and enables you to benefit from dual reporting insights.

This change will happen automatically. At first, it will appear only in the emissions report. Your emissions dashboards will transition to dual reporting at a later date.