Methodology

1. Greenhouse gas emissions — Scope 1

Scope 1 covers direct emissions from sources owned or controlled by your organization. EcoDiligence calculates Scope 1 from the fuel-consumption inputs you enter during the wizard, using the following emission factors:

• Natural gas: 2.0 kg CO₂e per cubic meter (m³).
• Liquid fuels (diesel, petrol, heating oil): 2.68 kg CO₂e per liter, blended for the typical fleet mix.
• LPG / propane: 1.51 kg CO₂e per liter.

Source: UK Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) Greenhouse Gas Conversion Factors, 2024 edition.

2. Greenhouse gas emissions — Scope 2

Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from purchased electricity, steam, heating, and cooling. EcoDiligence uses country-specific grid emission factors based on the location of operation you select during the wizard. We call this the “Country Pack” system — see Section 4 below for the full list of supported countries and the source of each factor.

Factors are sourced from a combination of the International Energy Agency (IEA) Emissions Factors 2024 dataset, Ember Global Electricity Review 2024, the UK DEFRA GHG Conversion Factors 2024, and national regulatory sources where available. Each profile records the exact factor and source used at submission time, so the calculation remains auditable even after the underlying constants change.

If you operate in a country not present in our factor table, we fall back to either the European Union average (0.213 kgCO₂/kWh) or the global fallback (0.473 kgCO₂/kWh), based on Ember’s 2024 electricity generation carbon intensity data. These are CO₂ generation-intensity factors and do not include T&D losses or non-CO₂ gases. The profile clearly indicates when a default factor was used.

3. Energy mix and renewable percentage

The renewable percentage on your profile reflects what you enter in the wizard's energy step. We ask for either your direct renewable consumption (kWh from on-site solar, wind, etc., or Renewable Energy Certificates) or a percentage estimate. The percentage is then displayed verbatim on your profile.

We do not apply assumptions or imputation: if you do not know your renewable share, the field stays blank and a data-quality flag appears on your profile.

4. Country Pack methodology

EcoDiligence adapts every ESG Passport to the regulatory and operational context of your primary country of operation. We currently support 11 Smart Packs — each one configures the Scope 2 grid factor, the regulatory framework badges attached to your profile, and the country-specific text used in your PDF and methodology references.

For countries without a dedicated Smart Pack, EcoDiligence uses either the EU fallback of 0.213 kgCO₂/kWh or the global fallback of 0.473 kgCO₂/kWh, based on Ember’s 2024 electricity generation carbon intensity data. These are CO₂ generation-intensity factors and do not include T&D losses or non-CO₂ gases. The profile clearly indicates when a default factor was used.

Australian state-level factors (NGA Factors 2025)

The Australian grid spans the National Electricity Market (NEM, covering NSW & ACT, VIC, QLD, SA, TAS), the South West Interconnected System (SWIS, covering most of WA), and the Darwin–Katherine Interconnected System (DKIS, covering the Top End of the NT). Factors vary materially across these grids — from 0.20 kgCO₂e/kWh in hydro-dominated Tasmania to 0.78 kgCO₂e/kWh in brown-coal–heavy Victoria, a roughly four-fold spread. Selecting your state in the wizard gives a materially more accurate Scope 2 number than the national average; leaving it blank applies 0.620 kgCO₂e/kWh (the national location-based average from NGA Table 1).

How it works: When you complete Step 1 of the wizard with Australia as your country of operation, an optional State / Territory dropdown appears. Selecting a state stores the code (e.g. VIC) on your Passport and uses the corresponding factor for Scope 2 calculation. The PDF, public profile, and machine-readable exports all reflect the chosen factor and surface the state in the methodology source line (e.g. “NGA Factors 2025 (DCCEEW) — Victoria”).

Notes on coverage: NSW and ACT share a single factor in NGA Table 1 and are presented as a unified option. Western Australia is represented by the SWIS factor, which serves the great majority of the state's population and business activity; the smaller North-West Interconnected System (NWIS) is not surfaced in the dropdown — users in Karratha or the Pilbara can either leave the field blank (national average) or contact us. Hydro-dam methane is included in the TAS, NSW & ACT, and VIC factors. Methane and N₂O use AR5 GWPs for NGER alignment; ASRS will transition to AR6 in due course.

5. Workforce & Governance disclosures

From v6 (May 2026) EcoDiligence collects four core workforce and governance disclosures aligned with the VSME Basic Module:

• VSME B8 — Number of employees by gender (male, female, other / prefer not to say).
• VSME B9 — Recordable work-related accidents and fatalities during the reporting period.
• VSME B10 — Coverage of employees by collective bargaining agreements (with optional “not applicable”).
• VSME B12 — Presence of code of ethics, anti-corruption, and anti-harassment policies.

These disclosures are optional — but populating them strengthens the ESG Passport's usefulness for supply-chain due diligence requests under EU CSDDD, German LkSG, India BRSR, and similar frameworks. Consultants filling Passports on behalf of SME clients see the same fields — the methodology is identical regardless of who completes the wizard.

6. Standards mapping

Every wizard question maps to one or more disclosure requirements in the standards we support. The mapping is built into the export logic, not just labelled in marketing copy.

• EFRAG VSME (v1.3.0, June 2026) — primary target. Our XBRL export is structured to match the VSME taxonomy concepts.
• IFRS ISSB S2 (Climate-related Disclosures) — secondary mapping for climate-specific data points.
• California SB 253 / SB 261 — Scope 1 / 2 disclosure thresholds applicable to entities doing business in California.
• Germany LkSG, UK SECR, India BRSR, Japan SSBJ, Korea K-ESG, Singapore SGX, Malaysia Bursa, Brazil B3, Israel ISA — country-specific framework alignments documented in our Regulations Hub.

7. ISO 14001 Supplier Management Support

EcoDiligence helps organizations meet ISO 14001:2026 Clause 8.1 requirements for controlling and influencing the environmental performance of their value chain and suppliers.

How ISO 14001-certified organizations use EcoDiligence:

1. Value Chain Environmental Data Collection (ISO 14001 §8.1). Enterprise procurement teams use Supplier Mode to systematically collect ESG data from across their value chain — exactly what Clause 8.1 requires for managing "outsourced processes" and establishing control over "products and services from external providers."
2. Standardized Disclosure Format. Every supplier ESG Passport follows the same VSME-aligned structure, making comparison and audit straightforward. This satisfies the “documented information” requirement of ISO 14001 §7.5.
3. Environmental Aspect & Risk Identification (ISO 14001 §6.1.2). Aggregated supplier data helps organizations identify environmental aspects and life-cycle impacts within their supply chain — fulfilling the core risk-based thinking and life-cycle perspective requirements of ISO 14001:2026.
4. Continuous Improvement (ISO 14001 §10.3). Year-over-year supplier ESG data enables organizations to demonstrate improvement in value chain environmental performance.

8. Plausibility checks

As you enter data, the wizard runs sanity checks against typical industry ranges. A check does not reject your input — it surfaces a warning so you can confirm you meant to enter that value. Example ranges that trigger warnings:

• Energy intensity (kWh per employee per year) outside the 2,000–50,000 range.
• Renewable percentage above 100% or below 0%.
• GHG intensity (tCO₂e per million USD revenue) outside the 5–500 range.

You can always submit a value the wizard flagged; the warning is informational.

9. Data quality & attestation

EcoDiligence data is self-reported. We are not an audit firm and do not provide assurance. From v6, every new ESG Passport carries an attestation block — the name, role, and email of the company representative who explicitly took responsibility for the submission. This provides accountability without claiming third-party verification.

Each profile also shows data-quality indicators so viewers can assess confidence:

• Evidence-supported — the field was supplied with supporting evidence (e.g. an electricity bill uploaded to the AI parser). Still self-reported; we do not assure the underlying document.
• Self-reported — entered manually without supporting evidence.
• Estimated / imputed — derived from an estimate you provided (e.g. a percentage rather than an absolute value).
• Not provided — left blank; appears as N/A on the profile.

10. Authoritative sources

The factors, standards, and frameworks above draw on:

• Ember Global Electricity Review 2024 / European Electricity Review 2024 / US Electricity 2025 (ember-energy.org).
• International Energy Agency — Emissions Factors 2024 (iea.org).
• DEFRA Greenhouse Gas Conversion Factors 2024 (gov.uk).
• Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection — Emission Factor Tables v9.0 (Aug 2025) (gov.il).
• Singapore Energy Market Authority (EMA) — Singapore Energy Statistics (ema.gov.sg).
• Energy Commission / Suruhanjaya Tenaga — Peninsular Malaysia main grid factor (st.gov.my).
• EFRAG Voluntary SME Standard v1.3.0, June 2026 (efrag.org).
• IFRS Foundation — ISSB S2 Climate-related Disclosures (ifrs.org).

11. Advanced Disclosures (Pro · optional)

Pro users can opt into an additional disclosure layer inside the wizard (Steps 7 & 8). Two modules are available, each individually optional:

• VSME Comprehensive Add-on — 8 questions drawn from EFRAG VSME Comprehensive Module topics C2 (strategy & environment), C3 (governance), and C4 (climate & energy). Five of the questions accept a brief narrative note alongside the Yes/No answer.
• ISSB Transition Readiness — 7 questions aligned with IFRS S2 transition-plan topics (§20-23): GHG reduction targets (with structured baseline year, target year, and reduction percentage fields), timeframes, climate strategy, materiality, implementation timeline, allocated resources, and financial impact.

Output mapping

• PDF: rendered as a dedicated section between Workforce / Governance and Methodology. Each question shows Yes/No, the VSME or IFRS source code, and the optional narrative note (if the user answered Yes and provided one). A footer disclaimer states: “Self-reported data; not independently assured. Curated subset, not a full VSME Comprehensive Module submission nor a formal ISSB Transition Plan.”
• VSME Digital Template (XLSX): two verified boolean cells are written (UndertakingHasSetATargetWhichIsRelatedToAPolicy and the climate-adaptation-actions disclosure). Three narrative notes map to verified text cells in the template (strategy description, climate hazards, main actions). The remaining six wizard booleans have no equivalent named range in the EFRAG template and are omitted from the XLSX. The ISSB transition note is written to the template's transition-plan description cell as the primary source (with the B12 environmental goals description as a fallback).
• Quick XBRL: two verified VSME-namespace concepts are emitted for the C-series booleans. ISSB fields are not emitted because they belong to the ifrs-s2 taxonomy namespace, which the generator does not yet support. The Quick XBRL output already carries a prominent “informal export” disclaimer.

Downgrade behaviour

When a Pro user downgrades to Free, all Advanced Disclosures data remains in the database. The public profile page, PDF, XLSX, and XBRL exports silently omit the advanced sections. The owner sees a dashboard notice confirming the data is preserved. Re-upgrading to Pro restores visibility instantly with no data re-entry required.

Verification status

Named ranges and XBRL concepts for the VSME C-series were cross-checked on 2026-06-11 against the official VSME-Digital-Template v1.2.0 defined_names list via openpyxl. Two matches were confirmed; six were removed. See lib/xbrl-vsme-mapping.ts v5 changelog andlib/vsme/fill-template.ts for the detailed mapping. ISSB XBRL mapping is deferred to a future phase that introduces the ifrs-s2 taxonomy namespace.

12. Updates to methodology

When emission factors, taxonomies, or standards change, we update this page and rebuild affected exports. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page reflects the most recent change. Emission factors reviewed quarterly. Full methodology reviewed annually.

EcoDiligence ESG Passports are self-reported summaries structured for ESG disclosure workflows. Content is not independently assured. Information aligned with EFRAG VSME and IFRS S2 (ISSB) frameworks does not constitute formal compliance or certification.