Scope 1, 2, and 3 Carbon Measurements Show Big Variations Among Data Sources

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / August 11, 2026 / As previously seen on the CSRHub blog.By Bahar Gidwani CSRHub has had a unique opportunity to track how much climate data is generated each year since 2008. As you can see below, the total number of climate-related indicators in our system has grown steadily, currently providing more than 4,000,000 data points per year.https://2489059.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/2489059/hubfs/blog-2026-scope-carbon/climate-data-points-per-year.png?width=1000&name=climate-data-points-per-year.pngWe see information from a wide range of sources-major Wall Street ratings groups such as MSCI, ISS, S&P Global Trucost, NGOs, academic researchers and government organizations. There have been many efforts to coordinate and standardize the types of carbon information companies and governments report. However, we've not yet seen any signs of consolidation in climate metrics.https://2489059.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/2489059/hubfs/blog-2026-scope-carbon/climate-indicators-count.png?width=1000&name=climate-indicators-count.pngWe were recently asked to look at the estimates for Scope 1, 2, and 3 carbon for a set of 60+ AI companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Alphabet, Meta, and Alibaba. We used data from three of our sources to construct an average estimate for each company. While the estimates were similar in some cases, there were many cases of huge (e.g., 1X to 10X) differences in estimate. As a result, the standard deviation of the estimates is large.https://2489059.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/2489059/hubfs/blog-2026-scope-carbon/scope-stddev-table.png?width=684&name=scope-stddev-table.pngNote that the variance in estimate increases as we move from Scope 1 to Scope 3. We believe this is because Scope 1 is better defined than Scope 2 and 3, and Scope 3 is often estimated or "modeled". The 94% standard deviation in the Scope 3 numbers we examined says that only 65% of the numbers we see are within 94% of the average number and 35% are more than 94% away from it. This suggests that two attempts to sum carbon across a supply chain (a typical use for Scope 3 estimates) could result in estimates that are 2X or more different from one another.These results confirm our view that a simple review of carbon metrics is not likely to be a good way to judge an entity's climate performance. Other factors such as commitments to targets, the management level at which climate measurement sits, and comparison against other entities with similar product or geo profiles should be considered.CSRHub benchmarks 62,000 entities based on twelve subcategories. The Energy & Climate Change subcategory measures a company's effectiveness in addressing climate change through appropriate policies and strategies, energy-efficient operations, and the development of renewable energy and other alternative environmental technologies. The subcategory includes energy use, emissions to air of CO2 and other Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG). This benchmark is a strong signal of performance of climate performance.CSRHub helps you compare performance against peers with a consensus view, not one source. We identify the factors shaping your ratings and help you focus improvement efforts where they will have the greatest impact. For more information, we welcome hearing from you. Please contact us here.About CSRHubCSRHub provides access to the world's largest corporate social responsibility and sustainability database, powered by expert consensus sustainability ratings, information, and tools. Clients use CSRHub's decisive data platform for global benchmarking, supply and value chain risk assessment and compliance readiness solutions. Founded in 2007, CSRHub covers 62,000 public and private companies, and provides ESG performance scores on 42,000 companies from 134 industries in 158 countries. Our Big Data platform uses algorithms to aggregate, normalize and weight ESG metrics from 1,000 sources to produce a strong consensus signal on corporate sustainability performance.Bahar Gidwani is CTO and Co-founder of CSRHub. He has built and run large technology-based businesses for many years. Bahar holds a CFA, worked on Wall Street with Kidder, Peabody, and with McKinsey & Co. Bahar has consulted to a number of major companies and currently serves on the board of several software and Web companies. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy. He plays bridge, races sailboats, and is based in New York CityFind more stories and multimedia from CSRHub at 3blmedia.com.Contact Info:Spokesperson: CSRHubWebsite: https://www.3blmedia.com/profiles/csrhub Email: info@3blmedia.comSOURCE: CSRHubView the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

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