For scope 1, a transport company needs the fuel it purchases or has purchased for its own vehicles: diesel, petrol, LPG or AdBlue-related consumption data fall under this. For scope 2, it concerns the electricity consumption of the premises, the charging point at your own location and any electric vehicles charging on your own power supply. This is the core of what you need to provide yourself; outsourced transport by another transport operator falls into a different category and you usually do not need to calculate it yourself.
The reason these two categories often appear in an ESG questionnaire is simple: they are the emissions over which you as a business have direct control. Scope 1 is what comes out of your own exhaust, scope 2 is the electricity you purchase. Both can be traced back to documents you already have: fuel receipts, a fuel card statement and your energy bill.
What scope 1 and 2 precisely comprise
Scope 1 encompasses all direct emissions from sources that the company owns or operates. For a transport company, these are almost always own lorries, vans and possibly a heating installation at the depot running on gas. Scope 2 concerns the indirect emissions arising from the generation of the electricity you purchase, even if it is supplied as green. The VSME standard describes these two categories as the basic data that a non-listed SME can provide; anyone wishing to consult the standard itself will find the text on EUR-Lex.
Fuel: the basis of scope 1
For most transport companies, fuel is by far the largest item. Useful sources are invoices from the fuel supplier, the fuel card statement per registration number and, in the case of an in-house fuel installation, delivery notes from the fuel merchant. What is important is the distinction between litres and fuel type: diesel, petrol and LPG each have their own emission factor, and these factors are set with a reference date that can change. Once you have the litres per fuel type, the rest is calculation using the applicable factor.
Electricity and scope 2
Scope 2 is usually simpler to determine: the annual statement from your energy supplier shows total consumption in kilowatt-hours, often broken down by connection if you have multiple locations. If you have solar panels, only the consumption drawn from the grid counts towards scope 2; what you generate and consume yourself falls outside. For electric vehicles charging on company premises, that charging consumption also falls under scope 2, not scope 1.
Own fleet versus outsourced transport
This is the distinction that is most confusing for transport companies. A lorry that you own or lease and operate yourself falls under scope 1. A trip that you outsource to another transport operator does not fall under your own scope 1 or 2 — that emission belongs to the party that actually consumes the fuel. For your own reporting, this means that initially you can limit yourself to your own vehicle fleet, and that outsourced transport is a separate category that is not routinely requested by the VSME from smaller suppliers. A customer who nonetheless demands detailed figures on your subcontractors may be asking for more than the standard prescribes; what is and is not permitted in this regard can be found in the overview of topics per sector.
What you do not need to calculate yourself
The emission factor itself — the figure by which litres or kilowatt-hours are converted to CO2 — you do not need to look up or assess yourself. These factors are set centrally with a reference date, and a change in them can affect a dossier already in place. If in doubt about which factor applies to your situation, the established list is the source, not an estimate.
Where you get the figures from
For most transport companies, three documents suffice: the fuel overview per license plate or fuel card, the annual invoice from the energy supplier, and optionally a lease agreement showing which vehicles are registered in the company's name. With a few questions you immediately see where you stand, and here you can read where the figures in your dossier come from. A dossier that has been built once remains available for the next questionnaire.
Do you first want to know if this applies to your company, or simply see which figures are concretely needed? Take the free quick-scan or read the topics that apply to your sector — without needing an account.