Where Do Digital Emissions Sit in the GHG Protocol? A Practical Guide for Modern Organisations

Written by: Lanre C. Oluborode

Last Updated: December 2,2025.

Digital activity has become one of the largest and fastest-growing contributors to corporate emissions. Every streamed meeting, cloud-hosted database, and server request draws energy from somewhere, often far from the eyes of the organisation creating the demand. Yet despite the rapid rise of digital infrastructure, the GHG Protocol treats these emissions within its established framework.

There is no special category for digital carbon. Instead, digital operations are woven through the existing scopes, and understanding where they sit is essential for honest reporting.

This article explains how digital emissions are recognised, where they fall, and how to treat them when your organisation either buys cloud services or runs its own servers.

Digital Emissions: Not a New Box, but a New Part of the Value Chain

The GHG Protocol’s principles remain the same:

Emissions sit where control, ownership, and influence sit.

The digital world has simply expanded the landscape. Cloud platforms, on-premise infrastructure, and user-driven energy consumption each leave a different footprint along the chain.

When You Operate Your Own Servers

Some organisations still maintain physical, on-premise data rooms or server farms. In this case, digital emissions cut across multiple scopes.

Electricity for Servers and Cooling : Scope 2

If you own and operate the hardware, all purchased electricity used to:

• power servers

• run cooling systems

• operate UPS units, fans, and networking equipment belongs in Scope 2.

  
  

This is straightforward: you purchase the electricity, so you report its associated emissions.

Refrigerant Leakage : Scope 1

Cooling systems rely on refrigerants, and refrigerant leakage counts as Scope 1 because it is a direct emission from equipment you own or control.

This includes:

• server-room air-conditioning

• CRAC units

• chillers

• heat pumps

  
  

Refrigerants such as HFCs carry extremely high global warming potentials. Even a minor leak becomes a significant reporting item, and the GHG Protocol treats this as a fugitive emission under Scope 1.

Owning your own servers therefore comes with a heavier reporting duty: electricity in Scope 2, refrigerant leakage in Scope 1.

When You Use Cloud Services or Hosted Servers

Cloud adoption shifts digital emissions into the value chain. You no longer control the building, the servers, or the cooling system, but your demand still drives their energy use.

Here, emissions land in multiple Scope 3 categories.

Scope 3, Category 1: Purchased Goods and Services

This is where most digital emissions sit today.

If you use:

• AWS, Azure, Google Cloud

• SaaS platforms

• outsourced data hosting

• managed IT services

  
  

The emissions from the data centres powering those services fall under Scope 3, Category 1.

You purchased a service; the provider consumes electricity and refrigerants to deliver it.

This category often becomes one of the largest components of a modern company’s carbon footprint.

Scope 3, Category 2: Capital Goods

If you buy hardware such as laptops, networking equipment, on-premise servers; the embodied emissions from manufacturing that equipment fall into Category 2.

These are upstream emissions created before you ever switch the devices on.

Scope 3, Category 3: Fuel- and Energy-Related Activities

This category can apply if your cloud provider’s electricity use includes upstream emissions not counted elsewhere. Some organisations include this for completeness.

Scope 3, Category 14: Use of Sold Products

This applies when your customers’ energy use is driven by your digital products. For example:

• A streaming platform whose users play videos

• A software provider whose app heavily uses CPU/GPU cycles

• A digital service that triggers data downloads or high-bandwidth activity

  
  

Here, emissions sit downstream; the product drives the user’s energy consumption.

Why This Structure Matters?

Digital infrastructure has grown faster than most organisations’ accounting systems. Many companies still underestimate the impact of outsourced data processing because it does not sit within their walls. Yet regulators, investors, and major clients now expect digital emissions to be measured with the same rigour as physical operations.

The GHG Protocol does not require new categories; it requires that organisations understand the flow of energy through their digital supply chain.

How Organisations Should Respond

A credible digital-emissions strategy should involve:

1. A thorough mapping of all digital services:

Cloud platforms, SaaS tools, internal servers, data-processing contracts, personal devices used for work.

2. Clear allocation across Scopes 1, 2, and 3

• Own servers Electricity = Scope 2

• Refrigerant leakage = Scope 1

• Cloud services Emissions = Scope 3, Category 1

  
  

3. Supplier engagement

Request accurate emissions factors from providers. Many major cloud companies now disclose this at high resolution.

4. Internal governance

Sustainability, IT, finance, and procurement must work together. Digital emissions are cross-functional by nature.

5. Forecasting

Digital workloads tend to grow annually. Planning ahead prevents the footprint from quietly ballooning.

Final Word

Digital emissions do not live in a hidden corner of the GHG Protocol. They travel through the same structure that has guided reporting for decades. The difference today is the scale: vast data flows, energy-hungry servers, and cooling systems that whisper their impact through heat and refrigerant loss.

Whether a business operates its own servers or relies entirely on the cloud, its digital footprint is no longer invisible. The organisations that understand these mechanics and report them with clarity are the ones building credibility in a world increasingly built on data.