Start with the boundary
Before you add up a single bill, decide which sites and companies are "yours". The GHG Protocol's corporate standard, which the PPN 006 technical standard follows, gives three ways to draw the line:
| Approach | You count | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Operational control | Every site where you have full authority to introduce and implement operating policies | Most small groups and multi-site businesses |
| Financial control | Every site whose financial and operating policies you can direct | Groups whose reporting follows the accounts closely |
| Equity share | Your percentage share of each operation's emissions | Joint ventures, or where emissions are recorded centrally by a parent |
Use the same approach for every site and every company, and write it in your method note. Changing it later means restating your baseline, as our post on restating a baseline explains.
Franchises: two scopes, one set of emissions
The GHG Protocol's Scope 3 standard has a category just for franchises, category 14:
- If you are the franchisor, the Scope 1 and 2 emissions of your franchisees' outlets go in your Scope 3, category 14. Your own head office, warehouses and company-run outlets stay in your Scope 1 and 2.
- If you are a franchisee, the outlet you run is in your Scope 1 and 2. You may optionally report your franchisor's Scope 1 and 2 in your Scope 3, category 1, purchased goods and services.
Category 14 isn't one of the five Scope 3 categories a PPN 006 plan must cover, but a franchisor whose outlets are mostly franchised may find it is the biggest part of its footprint. Our guide to the 15 Scope 3 categories shows where it sits.
The practical problem is data. Franchisees pay their own bills. A simple annual request for each outlet's electricity, gas and vehicle fuel, in kWh and litres rather than pounds, gives the franchisor real figures; where an outlet doesn't reply, estimate from similar outlets and say so.
Collecting data site by site
For a group of shops, offices, depots or clinics, the same few sources cover most of the footprint:
- electricity and gas bills for each site, in kWh;
- heating oil or LPG deliveries;
- fuel cards or mileage for vehicles based at each site;
- refrigerant top-ups from service records, for sites with air conditioning or cold rooms.
Landlord-supplied energy is a common gap. If the landlord bills you for electricity or heating in a service charge, ask for your share in kWh. Our post on turning gas readings into kWh helps where you only have meter readings.
A worked example
Three illustrative shops in one group, Scope 1 and 2 from their electricity and gas, at the 2026 government factors:
| Site | Electricity (kWh) | Gas (kWh) | Scope 1 and 2 (tonnes CO2e) | kg CO2e per m² |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Street | 25,000 | 30,000 | 8.74 | 58.3 |
| Retail park | 40,000 | 0 | 5.24 | 26.2 |
| Market town | 18,000 | 45,000 | 10.56 | 88 |
| Group | 83,000 | 75,000 | 24.54 |
The group total is what goes in the Carbon Reduction Plan. The per-site view is what tells you where to act: the Market town shop emits 88 kg CO2e per square metre against 26.2 kg at Retail park. In this example the gas heating is the difference, so that is the site to look at first when its boiler is due. Comparing sites by floor area or headcount, rather than in raw tonnes, stops the biggest site always looking worst.
Groups of companies: SECR and PPN 006
- SECR. A parent preparing a group directors' report includes the energy and carbon figures of its subsidiaries in the consolidation that are themselves in scope, and may leave out those that wouldn't have to report on their own. A subsidiary may be exempt from reporting separately if it is included in its parent's group report and the conditions in the government's guidelines are met. Our SECR guide covers who is in scope.
- Carbon Reduction Plans. PPN 006 says a plan should be specific to the bidding company. It can cover the bidder and its parent only if the bidder is wholly owned by the parent, the parent's net zero commitment is adopted by the bidder, the measures can be applied by the bidder on the contract, and the plan is published on the bidder's website. Even then, bidders should get their own plan as soon as reasonably practicable.
- ESOS works differently again: groups take part as a whole. See our ESOS guide.
How Carbon Recycling helps
Carbon Recycling lets you add each site, or upload a list of sites from a spreadsheet, and tag every bill to the site it belongs to. Each site gets its own branded site report for the year, with Scope 1 and 2, energy use, a month-by-month view, emissions per square metre and per person, and where the site ranks among your sites. 10 site reports a year are included, then £10 each plus VAT. Site reports aren't statutory: your SECR report and Carbon Reduction Plan stay at company level, built from the same data. Starter covers 2 sites and Growth 10; on Enterprise, a parent can run several companies from one login and see a group report across all of them.