Yes, green electricity can lower your CO2 figure, but only if you demonstrate it correctly and only for the part of your emissions called scope 2: the indirect emissions from the electricity you purchase. Whether it makes a difference depends on two things: what evidence comes with your electricity contract, and which calculation method your customer, bank or insurer wants to see.
Most energy suppliers call a contract "green" if Guarantees of Origin (GOs) are attached to it. This is a certificate indicating that somewhere in Europe a quantity of renewable electricity has been generated that corresponds to your consumption. Physically, the electricity flowing through your meter is still the network mix, but administratively you are purchasing the renewable portion. For your CO2 calculation, this counts if you use the so-called market-based method: you then calculate with the emissions factor specific to your contract or supplier, rather than the national average.
Two ways to calculate the same consumption
Besides the market-based method, there is the location-based method. This simply calculates using the average emissions factor of the electricity grid in the country where you consume, regardless of what is stated in your contract. For the same amount of electricity, these two methods can therefore produce a very different figure: low if you calculate market-based with a green contract, higher if you calculate location-based using the national average.
Which method is appropriate depends on what is being asked. Some questionnaires want only the location-based figure, because it is independent of administrative constructs. Others accept or specifically ask for the market-based result, to allow companies that demonstrably invest in renewable generation to show what that delivers. In the established emissions factors that esgia.eu uses, each reference date specifies which factor applies to which method; this prevents you from having to search for the correct source yourself.
What appears on your energy bill
On a business energy invoice, it usually states whether it is grey electricity, green electricity, or a mixed contract, and sometimes what percentage of GOs have been purchased. This information is the starting point: without this mention, you cannot assume in the calculation that a market-based emissions factor applies. If the mention is missing from the invoice, the supplier will usually provide it separately on request, for example as a certificate or as an appendix to the annual statement.
This is precisely the type of data that, once recorded, does not need to be looked up again for the next questionnaire. In the dossier you build, you link the energy bill to the calculation method chosen, so that with a next customer, bank or insurer you can reuse the same starting point instead of searching again for what contract you had.
What the VSME standard asks about this
The VSME standard asks, among other things, how much energy a company consumed and from which source it came, without imposing a mandatory choice for one calculation method. This means that the precise question from your customer determines what you provide: some questionnaires explicitly ask for both methods, others for one of them. If you are unsure whether a requested breakdown falls within what the standard asks for, you can have that checked with the capcheck before you spend time on a calculation that should not have been requested.
What this is not
The choice between market-based and location-based accounting, and which of the two fits your situation and your customer, is not a question with one universally correct answer. This article describes how the methods work and what is common practice when requesting them; it is not sustainability advice and not a replacement for an audit or assurance statement. For your specific contract and the question which method is most appropriate for your reporting, your energy supplier or an adviser is the right party to consult.
Would you first like to see which questions about energy and scope 2 may be asked of your company at all, and which of these can already be answered from your existing documents? Do the free quick scan in a few questions or view in the overview of topics how scope 2 and energy procurement relate to the rest of your file. Curious how esgia.eu maintains the emission factors and the reference date? You can read that on the page about how it works, and frequently asked questions about electricity contracts and calculations can be found at the frequently asked questions.