Greenhouse gas emissions reporting: Scope 3 Group 3 - research

2 Research methodology

The research undertaken has included a desk study phase and stakeholder interviews.

2.1 Desk Research

The desk research phase aimed to identify any relevant Scope 3 Group 3 emission sources. This phase incorporated laying out guidelines, followed by identifying the GHG emitting activities relevant to public bodies in Scotland.

Identification of potential activities under Group 3 categories was conducted through reviewing Scottish local authorities’ audited accounts and reviewing the current Scope 3 reporting by Scottish public bodies based on the most recent Public Bodies Climate Change Duties Reports (PBCCDR) submissions, using a collated dataset provided by Sustainable Scotland Network (SSN).^[7]

PBCCDRs were analysed by first compiling lists of all the unique emission sources reported. Based on the descriptions and conversion factors used, these lists were narrowed down to activities with the potential to fall under Scope 3 Group 3 categories.^[8] The free text comments of all selected categories were then reviewed to identify any further detail that would confirm these as examples of Group 3 categories. This provided a starting point to assess whether these are relevant to public bodies. The results showed some examples of relevant emissions, which were then discussed with stakeholders in more detail (see below).

An assessment of technical guidance and documents was also conducted to inform the approach to categorisation of potential examples, and identify approaches to calculating GHG emissions. This included assessing the GHG protocol Scope 3 standard^[9] and technical calculation guidance^[10], alongside the SSN reporting guidance^[11] and the statutory guidance for public bodies.^[12]

2.2 Stakeholder Engagement

Stakeholder engagement was undertaken to collect further details about potential sources of material Scope 3 Group 3 categories. This was used to refine the assessment of relevance and generate additional examples.

It also forms the basis for this study’s assessment of public bodies’ potential influence over relevant sources of emissions, the level of effort involved in collecting data or undertaking calculations, and the overall value for money of reporting those emissions.

Participants were selected through voluntary expressions of interest, and Scottish Government recommendations based on their ability to provide relevant insights (i.e. being known to undertake activities that might fall into Group 3). The geographic spread, remit and type of public body was also taken into account. However, it is acknowledged that this does not comprise a statistically representative sample, as the number of discussions was limited due to available project resources. Table 1 (below) provides a list of stakeholders contacted.

2.3 Analysis

Findings from the desk research and stakeholder interviews were analysed to produce a qualitative assessment of the relative GHG impact of different emissions sources, public bodies’ level of influence over them, and the overall value for money in reporting. Results were collated in a visual matrix (see Section 3.2) and then re-evaluated as part of an internal workshop with members of the research team to check for logical consistency.

2.4 Limitations of this approach

The main limitation of this work is that Group 3 activities are likely to be uncommon, but where they do occur, they are likely to vary significantly across organisations. Therefore, there may be gaps not covered by this research.

The research suggests that while these gaps exist, they likely represent activities that do not contribute significantly to most organisations’ overall footprints. However, it will be up to individual public bodies to confirm this through their own materiality assessments and analysis.

For further discussion of the limitations of this approach, see Appendix C.