Annex 4 - Guidance on boundary determination

What practical advice is available for delimiting the study boundary?

Guidance on Boundary Determination

⏳[WIP] An annex providing scoping and guidance for delimiting boundaries is being drafted. It will be made available shortly.

The organisation may refer to sectoral work, such as that conducted by ADEME and French professional federations, which provides advice on boundary determination.

The Plan Carbone Général is also an exploitable resource, which aims to address these practical questions by sharing best practices from the carbon accounting community.

⏳[WIP] A forthcoming resource will be produced and made available to provide a reusable flow mapping template. Adaptations of this template for certain major sectors of activity will be proposed, to serve as sources of inspiration. These adaptations propose sectoral trends and do not guarantee the exhaustiveness of the flows identified, which will remain to be analysed on a case-by-case basis.

Guidance on Significance Determination

It is accepted that certain indirect GHG emission sources, within the operational boundary of an organisation, do not contribute significantly to the total indirect emissions. The notion of significance can be useful for setting priorities during accounting, when choosing actions or when monitoring results.

⏳[WIP] An annex providing scoping and guidance for determining significance thresholds is being drafted. It will be made available shortly.

🔎 The notion of significance comes from ISO 14064-1 and is used within the BEGES-R. A step-by-step procedure for identifying significant indirect emissions is proposed there.

For an emission to be called a significant emission, it must meet at least one of the significance criteria:

• Magnitude criterion: Indirect emission categories estimated to be substantial from a quantitative point of view are to be retained. A minimum magnitude threshold to consider is expressed as a percentage. It establishes the minimum proportion of indirect emissions from the operational boundary to include in the declaration boundary. The magnitude threshold must not be less than 80%. Note that ISO 14064-1 designates the same notion by the importance criterion.

• Level of influence and levers for action: the extent to which the body can monitor and reduce emissions and removals (for example, energy efficiency, eco-design, customer engagement, terms of reference).

• Strategic importance and vulnerability according to a risk or opportunity approach: concerns indirect emissions or removals that contribute to the body's exposure to risks (for example, risks associated with climate change such as financial risks, regulatory risks, supply chain risks, product and customer risks, litigation risks, reputational risks) or to its commercial opportunities (new market or new business model, for example).

• Sector-specific guidelines: GHG emissions considered significant for the sector of activity concerned, according to sector-specific guidelines.

• Subcontracting: indirect emissions and removals resulting from outsourced activities that are generally core activities.

• Employee engagement: indirect emissions likely to motivate employees to reduce their emissions or that build team spirit around climate change.

In summary, emissions are considered significant if they represent more than 80% of assessment emissions (magnitude or importance criterion), if they are directly influenced by the organisation (influence and levers for action criterion), if they contribute to exposure to risks and opportunities (strategic importance and vulnerability criterion), if they are considered significant for the organisation's sector of activity (sectoral guidelines criterion), if they result from core activities outsourced by the organisation (subcontracting criterion), and if they are likely to mobilise employees (employee engagement criterion).

The organisation can draw on several resources to identify its significant indirect emissions:

• Having carried out a first Bilan Carbone®, or drawing on the Bilan Carbone® of a similar organisation (OCCF)

• Referring to sectoral work, such as that conducted by ADEME and French professional federations, or by Think Tanks like the Shift Project, which provides advice on boundary determination. Example video.

• The Plan Carbone Général is also an exploitable resource, which aims to address these practical questions in a consensual manner. Sectoral approaches are useful for knowing common emission sources for a given sector.

• The step-by-step procedure for identifying significant indirect emissions from the regulatory GHG assessment method.