GHG Protocol tutorial: measure your full carbon footprint in Dcycle

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard splits your footprint into three scopes: Scope 1 (direct emissions you control), Scope 2 (energy you buy), and Scope 3 (everything in your value chain). This tutorial walks through building a full inventory in Dcycle, one category at a time — each step links to a short, focused guide with real screenshots of the upload flow.

Total time if you work through every guide: roughly 45–60 minutes, plus however long it takes to gather your source documents (invoices, fuel card exports, purchase ledgers…).

Before you start

Set up the basics first — they're a prerequisite for almost everything below: Setting up your facilities in Dcycle, Configure a fiscal year other than calendar year, and Invite a team member if colleagues will help enter data.

Scope 1 — Direct emissions

Emissions from sources you own or control: fuel you burn, gas that leaks from your equipment, fuel your fleet burns.

Category	Guide
Mobile combustion (fleet vehicles)	Register vehicles and fleet fuel in Dcycle
Stationary combustion (gas, diesel, heat)	Upload a stationary combustion invoice
Fugitive emissions (refrigerant recharges)	Add a refrigerant recharge

Industrial process emissions

Run a cement, lime, steel, aluminium, glass, ceramics, chemicals or pulp & paper process? Those emissions come from the chemical reaction itself, not from burning fuel, and need a custom emission factor. See Process emissions: what to collect by industry.

Scope 2 — Energy you buy

Emissions from electricity, heating or cooling purchased from a supplier.

Category	Guide
Electricity invoices	Upload an electricity invoice
Electricity (Spain, automatic)	Connect Datadis for automatic electricity data
Renewable electricity certificates	Set electricity emissions to zero with a Guarantee of Origin

District heating and cooling use the same “Combustion” facility tab as stationary combustion, above — ask your Customer Success contact to activate it if your facilities receive heat or cold from a district network.

Scope 3 — Your value chain

The GHG Protocol defines 15 Scope 3 categories. Not every organisation reports on all 15 — start with what’s material to your business — but here’s what Dcycle supports today, and where to find each one.

Category	Guide
1 — Purchased goods & services	Upload purchases and capital goods (CapEx)
1 — Water (facility portion)	Upload a water invoice
2 — Capital goods	Same guide as Category 1 — see Upload purchases and capital goods (CapEx)
3 — Fuel- & energy-related activities	Calculated automatically from Scope 1 & 2 data — see Scope 3 Category 3: fuel- and energy-related activities for what’s included and why renewable energy still shows emissions here
4 — Upstream transportation & distribution	Upload goods received
5 — Waste generated in operations	Upload a waste collection record
6 — Business travel	Upload business travel data in Dcycle
7 — Employee commuting	Upload employees (prerequisite), then Resend the survey to pending employees and Estimate emissions for employees who didn’t answer
9 — Downstream transportation & distribution	Upload goods shipped
10, 11, 12 — Processing, use, and end-of-life of sold products	Upload product use and end-of-life data for summary reporting, or Dcycle’s LCA module for a full material-flow model — see Starting an LCA in Dcycle: data collection checklist

Categories 8, 13, 14, 15 — leased assets, franchises, investments

Upstream/downstream leased assets (8, 13) aren't a separate module in Dcycle — they're typically rolled into the lessor's Scope 1 & 2 or the lessee's facilities, depending on the approach you choose. Franchises (14) and investments (15) are more specialised, sector-specific flows (financed emissions, franchisee data collection) — talk to your Customer Success contact to configure them for your account.

Reference: full data checklists

Before you upload anything, it helps to know exactly what fields each category needs and where to source them:

Next steps

Once your primary data is in, head to Reporting to filter your emissions, export to Excel, and generate CSRD / EINF / GHG inventory reports — or Customization if you need to override a default emission factor with a supplier-specific or custom one.