A first greenhouse gas inventory without a sustainability team

The first inventory fails when it is assigned to “whoever has time” and succeeds when it is assigned to the person who already chases invoices. That is usually accounts, not communications.

What “first” should contain

Scope 1: stationary fuel, mobile fuel, refrigerants you can evidence with service sheets. Scope 2: electricity, and heat if you buy it. A thin Scope 3: well-to-tank on fuels, and business travel if the travel agent’s file exists.

That is enough for a board and for most bank consultants. It is not a purchased-goods model. Do not apologise for the omission; schedule it as a later year if the parent requires it.

Electricity in a hydro country

Georgia’s grid is not a European coal grid. It is also not zero. Wet years and thermal years differ. We pick a factor, write the year of the factor, and do not change it mid-draft because a marketing sentence wanted “almost renewable.” If you generate your own hydro, that belongs in Scope 1 or as owned generation — we settle the category on day one so you do not double-count.

Refrigerants

Hotels and wine cellars leak. Service sheets from the contractor are the source, not a nameplate charge on the unit. If the contractor cannot produce a year of top-ups, the inventory will say “incomplete” for that gas. Incomplete is a defensible word. Zero is not, unless you have the sheets.

Time

Four weeks is possible for one office and one warehouse with clean files. Eight weeks is the honest number for a hotel group. The inventory engagement exists because the arithmetic is dull and the arguments (leased cars, landlord electricity) are not.

Bring the invoices. Bring the person with the keys to the generator. Leave the chart until the cells add up.