Standard factors are assigned automatically when data for a corresponding point type is uploaded. You can visit the Emissions app's Standard Factors page, to review the lists of factors available, each corresponding to the point type they support. If there are multiple standard factors available for a given point type (ex. EPA, UK DEFRA), then the EPA factor will be used.

Standard factor assignments can be overwritten with custom factors or other standard factors at the building or point level by editing a factor on the Emissions app, Building Emissions tab.

For your convenience, any custom emission factors or standard emission factors that are assigned to a building will continue to apply to the building in subsequent years—unless and until you have assigned new, updated factors to the building. For example, if you assign a factor for 2016 and one for 2020, then the 2016 factor will also apply to 2017, 2018, and 2019, after which the 2020 factor will supersede. By removing a factor assignment, the building will revert to using the most recent previous year for which a custom factor exists.

Building default factors will be assigned to your data points automatically if there is a factor available for the given point type.

View and configure which default factors are set in Organization settings.

Select emission factor categories for each region and arrange them in order of preference using the arrows on the left. Atrius will match point types with emission factors from the selected categories where available, and these will become the default factors starting in the specified year. Changes here don't override manually edited factors, and buildings or points with custom assignments won't receive default factors.

We use industry best practices to determine which emission factor inventory year is assigned to the given data year. In most cases our system defaults can be overwritten in the Emissions app or Organization settings, with the exception of 'Market-based electricity (Green-e).'

If a point type has multiple emission factors available in the selected default emission factor categories, the emission factor will be assigned according to the following default ranking:

According to GHG Protocol, it is an established global framework that measures greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions spanning private and public sector operations, value chains, and mitigation actions.

The organization supplies the world's most widely used greenhouse gas accounting standards, and in 2016, 92% of Fortune 500 companies responding to the CDP used GHG Protocol directly or indirectly through a program based on GHG Protocol.

U.S. EPA. Emissions & Generation Resource Integrated Database (eGRID) is a comprehensive source of data on the environmental characteristics of almost all electric power generated in the U.S.
We offers two different eGRID factor choices:

eGRID subregion emissions uniformly attribute electric generation in a specific region based on the generation that takes place in that part of the country. Defined by EPA, subregion end-use consumptive emissions rates are most similar to the generation emissions rates from the power plants within the subregion.

The eGRID subregion total output emission rates are used for estimating scope 2 emissions under the World Resources Institute (WRI), The Climate Registry (TCR), the California Climate Action Registry (CCAR), and the former EPA Climate Leaders protocols.

Emission rates in eGRID represent emissions and rates at the point of generation. Because eGRID state factors are bounded by state geography, they may exclude generation that is relevant to the area, as they do not consider how fuel mixes differ geographically across different parts of a state.

To specify how standard factors correspond to each inventory year for your organization, select 'eGRID emission factors'. In the modal window, select the appropriate eGRID edition for each year displayed.

The following table shows the default relationship between eGRID editions and the data years to which they apply:

View U.S. EPA's eGRID Q&A to learn more

Where more-accurate information about the resources and emissions associated with electricity use is not available from the user’s state, region, or electricity supplier, residual mix emissions rates should be used. Because regional residual mix emissions rates that factor out all specified electricity purchases are not yet available for all regions of the U.S. or published by a national data source, we offer rates provided by Green-e®, adjusted to remove all Green-e® Energy certified sales for each eGRID subregion.

This factor is assigned by default but can be overwritten by a custom factor specific to your market, if available.

The following table shows the default relationship between Green-e editions and the data years to which they apply:

The data year (the calendar year in which emissions occurred) is determined by the data used to calculate the factors in the given edition year.

Reporting frameworks including the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP) require organizations to report on Scope 2 emissions from purchased electricity to be reported two ways: one based on the location-based method, and one based on the market-based method.

There are two ways to view total emissions from purchased electricity throughout the platform.

Emissions app
Toggle between the two options for electricity emissions using the dropdown at the top of the page

Dashboards
Use the fields Reporting category and Electricity emissions to specify which emissions to display when the chosen point type includes electricity.

Prepared with versions of the US Environmentally-Extended Input-Output (USEEIO) Models, the Supply Chain Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors for US Industries and Commodities, are used to generate supply chain GHG emission factors, which are life cycle models of goods, services, and industries in the US economy.

For each category of goods or services, we provide 2 emission factors:

*Emissions associated with factory gate to shelf, which includes emissions from transportation, wholesale and retail as well as adjustments for price markups.
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The most recent release was based on 2021 data. We've adjusted the emission factors available for subsequent years according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator, and the following calculation:

According to the EPA, the Global Warming Potential (GWP) was developed to allow comparisons of the global warming impacts of different gases. It measures how much energy the emissions of 1 ton of a gas will absorb over a given period of time, relative to the emissions of 1 ton of carbon dioxide (CO2), which allows us to come up with emission factors for carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e).

Methodology (where the bolded numbers represent GWPs):
(10 kg CO2 x 1) + (10 kg N2O x 25) + (10kg CH4 x 298) = 3,240kg CO2e

Atrius allows users to select from three of The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) most widely used reports which define GWPs, and apply them to emissions data at the organization level. You can view or edit your organization's Global Warming Potential settings under Organization Settings.

For all emissions factors that are broken out into CO2, N2O, and CH4, we were able to use the various GWPs to provide the emissions factors associated with all three reports.

If the emission factor source provided only CO2e emissions, then we are only able to provide the GWP in which the factor was given.