The Global Electronics Association and Responsible Business Alliance Publish GHG Emissions Reporting Guidance

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The Global Electronics Association and Responsible Business Alliance announced the publication of joint guidance on Accounting for Scope 3 Category 1 Greenhouse Gas Emissions; saving time, improving data accuracy, and enabling more consistent, high-quality sustainability reporting across global supply chains.

The guidance aims to provide the electronics industry with specific knowledge and practical recommendations to support the quantification of value chain greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in supply chains, specifically for Category 1, purchased goods and services, as defined by the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.

Companies across the industry face increasing pressure to report credible and accurate Scope 3 emissions data. This includes legislation requiring companies to publicly report third-party assured Scope 3 emissions data and pressure from downstream customers that rely on supplier data to quantify their corporate GHG emissions data to inform their external disclosures and decarbonization plans.

“Although Category 1 is a material contributor to Scope 3 emissions in the electronics industry, reporting is currently limited and the use of supplier-specific data is low,” said John Mitchell, president and CEO, Global Electronics Association. “We believe practical guidance, such as this from the Global Electronics Association and the Responsible Business Alliance, can help change that dynamic.”

“This joint guidance demonstrates how the Responsible Business Alliance and Global Electronics Association are working together to build supply chain alignment around GHG reporting rules,” said Rob Lederer, CEO, Responsible Business Alliance. “By working together to provide reporting guidance, we can have a greater impact and better support companies in their GHG emission reporting and quantification efforts.”

Emissions calculations based solely on secondary data limit companies’ ability to target supply chain decarbonization and to reflect suppliers’ emissions reduction efforts in Scope 3 results. This guidance builds upon recent Scope 3, Category 1 guidance from the semiconductor industry and is designed to support a transition toward an approach that strategically leverages a combination of primary data, including supplier-specific data, and secondary data, enabling clearer insights and more targeted decarbonization efforts.

Guidance such as this is increasingly important to GHG reporting solutions in operationalizing aligned data requests and enabling more efficient, standardized exchange of supplier GHG data across company supply chains.

View the new guidance on the Global Electronics Association website or the Responsible Business Alliance website.