GHG Emission Factor

Definition

A GHG Emission Factor is a factor that converts activity data into GHG emissions data

Two types of emission factors can be used for calculating emissions associated with a material or product:

• Life cycle emission factors, which include emissions that occur at every stage of a material/product’s life, from raw material acquisition or generation of natural resource to end of life
• Cradle-to-gate (sometimes referred to as “upstream”) emission factors, which include all emissions that occur in the life cycle of a material/product up to the point of sale by the producer.

Example

• kg CO2 emitted per liter of fuel consumed, or
• kg CO2 emitted per kilograms of material produced