GHG Protocol Corporate Standard
The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard is an initiative for the global standardisation of emission of greenhouse gases in order that corporate entities should measure, quantify, and report their own emission levels, so that global emissions are made manageable. The relevant gases, described by the 11 December 1997 Kyoto Protocol, implemented 16 February 2005, are: carbon dioxide, hydrofluorocarbons, methane, nitrous oxide, nitrogen trifluoride, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride.
The protocol itself is under the management of the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. The GHG Protocol was launched in 1998 and introduced in 2001.
The GHG Protocol has been criticised for not including in its guiding principals the need for emission reports to be comparable across companies. Nonetheless, it has become the de facto standard for corporate carbon footprinting thanks, in part, to organizers' persistent efforts to prevent competing standards from emerging.