Emission Category Management
SYNE gives you category-by-category visibility and control over your full emissions footprint — from purchased energy and gas combustion to mobile fleets, air travel, waste and materials. Identify your highest-impact hotspots, model reduction levers and track progress in real time against science-based targets.
SYNE maps every emission source across your organisation. Click any category below to jump to the full reduction guide, lever library and live performance dashboard for that source.
Purchased electricity, heat and steam are typically your largest controllable emission source. SYNE tracks both location-based and market-based Scope 2 simultaneously — pulling from utility APIs, smart meter data and supplier emissions disclosures — then maps the fastest and most cost-effective path to zero for each site.
Natural gas combustion in boilers, furnaces and CHP systems is typically the largest direct Scope 1 source. SYNE integrates with gas meters, BMS and utility invoices, applies degree-day normalisation to separate consumption from weather variation, and models the financial case for heat pump electrification site-by-site.
Company-owned and leased vehicles burning petrol, diesel or LPG — cars, vans, delivery trucks and heavy plant. SYNE integrates with fleet telematics, fuel card feeds and odometer data to compute precise Scope 1 emissions per vehicle, then models the phased electrification business case including charging infrastructure costs and energy savings.
Business flights are among the most visible and controllable Scope 3 categories. SYNE integrates with corporate travel management platforms (Concur, Egencia, Amex GBT) and expense systems to capture every flight — applying DEFRA or ICAO emission factors with radiative forcing multipliers that account for high-altitude warming effects beyond CO₂ alone.
Waste generated in operations — landfill, incineration, recycling and composting of general, organic and hazardous streams. SYNE captures waste contractor invoices and transfer notes, categorises each stream by waste type and disposal route, and applies GHG Protocol waste emission factors including methane from biodegradable landfill decomposition.
The embodied carbon in purchased raw materials and goods — steel, aluminium, cement, chemicals, paper and packaging. For manufacturers and construction companies this often represents 30–60% of total Scope 3. SYNE maps procurement spend to material categories using Ecoinvent and EXIOBASE emission intensity factors, then identifies the highest-impact substitution and reduction opportunities.
Diesel generators, LPG boilers, oil-fired heaters and process equipment burning solid, liquid or gaseous fuels on-site. This covers all Scope 1 direct combustion not captured under natural gas (Gas & Heating). SYNE captures fuel purchase records, delivery notes and tank-level telemetry to compute emissions using GHG Protocol Tier 2 with fuel-specific net calorific values and emission factors — distinguishing CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O contributions per fuel type.
Rail, hire cars, taxis, buses and ride-hailing services used for employee business travel — distinct from the company-owned fleet (Mobile Combustion, Scope 1). This category is Scope 3 because your organisation does not own or control the vehicles. SYNE imports data from expense management platforms (Concur, Expensify, SAP), corporate card feeds and travel booking systems — classifying each transaction by transport mode and applying DEFRA, EPA or ADEME factors automatically.
Water withdrawn from municipal supply or abstracted directly carries an emission factor reflecting the energy consumed in extraction, treatment and pressurised distribution. In water-stressed regions, consumption also draws on energy-intensive desalination. SYNE integrates with utility water meters and sub-meters, applies region-specific water supply carbon intensity factors, and tracks water consumption intensity (m³ per unit of production) to surface efficiency opportunities across sites.
Wastewater generated on-site and discharged to municipal sewer generates downstream emissions at the treatment works — primarily methane (CH₄) from anaerobic decomposition of organic material and nitrous oxide (N₂O) from nitrogen removal processes. SYNE calculates treatment emissions using GHG Protocol wastewater methodology (based on chemical oxygen demand and nitrogen content of the effluent) or IPCC Tier 2 factors, and tracks effluent quality data from Environment Agency discharge consents and trade effluent returns.
Leased assets span two distinct GHG Protocol categories. Upstream leased assets (Cat 8): buildings, equipment and vehicles you lease from others — not owned but operated by your organisation (e.g. leased offices, rented warehouses, hire equipment). Downstream leased assets (Cat 13): assets you own and lease to others — the tenants' use generates emissions attributable to you as landlord. SYNE applies the relevant calculation approach for each — the asset-specific method where operational data is available, or the lessor-specific / average-data method where it is not.
Land use emissions arise from deforestation, land conversion, soil disturbance and agricultural operations — encompassing soil carbon release, fertiliser-derived N₂O and enteric fermentation from livestock. For food, agriculture, forestry and land-intensive organisations, the SBTi FLAG (Forest, Land and Agriculture) guidance requires these emissions to be reported and targeted separately from other Scope 3. SYNE supports FLAG methodology alongside Verra VCS and Gold Standard land-carbon accounting, and models nature-based solutions including reforestation, rewilding and regenerative agriculture as both emission reduction levers and carbon removal options.
Financed emissions from equity holdings, corporate loans, project finance, bonds, listed equities and commercial real estate are the largest Scope 3 category for banks, asset managers and insurers — often exceeding a financial institution's own operational footprint by 700× or more. SYNE implements the PCAF Global GHG Accounting and Reporting Standard for the financial industry in full, covering all six asset classes with their respective attribution factor methodologies, data quality scoring (PCAF score 1–5) and portfolio-level aggregation in tCO₂e and CO₂e intensity (tCO₂e/M€ financed).
SYNE supports every GHG Protocol emission category out of the box — from the six featured above to water, land use, leased assets, investments and more.
| Category | Scope | Reduction potential | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|
Energy |
Scope 2 | ‑88% | ● High |
Gas & Heating |
Scope 1 | ‑72% | ● High |
Mobile Combustion |
Scope 1 | ‑96% | ● High |
Fuels — Stationary |
Scope 1 | ‑65% | ● High |
Air Travel |
Scope 3 Cat 6 | ‑60% | ● Medium |
Business Travel |
Scope 3 Cat 6 | ‑55% | ● Medium |
Waste |
Scope 3 Cat 5 | ‑80% | ● Medium |
Materials |
Scope 3 Cat 1 | ‑40% | ● High |
Water Consumption |
Scope 3 Cat 5 | ‑45% | ● Standard |
Water Treatment |
Scope 3 Cat 5 | ‑50% | ● Standard |
Leased Assets |
Scope 3 Cat 8 | ‑60% | ● Standard |
Land Use & Nature |
Scope 1 / FLAG | Net+ | ● Standard |
Investments (PCAF) |
Scope 3 Cat 15 | ‑35% | ● Medium |
SYNE gave us category-level visibility we didn't have before. We discovered that 54% of our air travel emissions came from just 42 business-class long-haul trips. We changed the policy, saved £380k in travel costs and cut 1,300 tonnes of CO₂ in the same year.
Book a demo and we'll run a live emission hotspot analysis on your own data — identifying your highest-impact reduction opportunities across every category within 30 minutes.