The GHG Protocol: Explained for Music, Media and Live Events 

Most organisations in music, media and entertainment that report on carbon emissions do so using a framework they may never have read. The GHG Protocol is the global standard underpinning the vast majority of corporate greenhouse gas inventories, and, for anyone building a carbon footprint, setting a Net Zero target, or filing an ESG report, it is the document those numbers are ultimately built on.

That matters more now than it did twelve months ago. The GHG Protocol has just published its Land Sector and Removals Standard, its first standard dedicated to land emissions and biogenic CO₂ and it takes effect on 1 January 2027. For a sector that has invested significantly in biofuels as a transition solution, it changes the conditions under which those fuel savings can be claimed.

This article explains what the GHG Protocol is, how its scope structure works, and what the latest changes mean specifically for music, media and live events.

In this article, we’ll discuss:

• What the GHG Protocol is and why it matters
• How Scope 1, 2 and 3 work in practice for this sector
• The Corporate Standard and what it requires
• The Land Sector and Removals Standard: what changes in 2027
• What this means for biofuel reporting in live events
• What organisations should do now

Let’s start with the GHG Protocol.

What the GHG Protocol is and why it matters

The GHG Protocol is a set of international accounting standards for measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions. Developed through a partnership between the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, it is used by the majority of Fortune 500 companies, required or referenced by most major sustainability disclosure frameworks, and the foundation on which targets like Science Based Targets (SBTi) are built.

When an organisation produces a carbon footprint, sets a Net Zero target, or files an ESG disclosure, the numbers in that document are almost certainly structured according to GHG Protocol principles, whether or not the organisation knows it. The Protocol defines what counts as an emission, how emissions are categorised, and the rules for what can be excluded or reported separately.

For music, media and entertainment, that has practical consequences. The sector's emissions profile, such as temporary power, touring logistics, audience travel, and production supply chains, doesn't map neatly onto the corporate office model the Protocol was originally designed around. Understanding how the framework applies, and where its latest updates create new obligations, is increasingly crucial..

How Scope 1, 2 and 3 work in practice for this sector

The GHG Protocol's most widely used structure divides emissions into three scopes. Our guide to Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions covers the distinctions in detail, but the core structure is worth restating here in the context of what it means for live events and entertainment specifically.

Scope 1 

This covers direct emissions from sources owned or controlled by the organisation, like fuel combustion in company vehicles, diesel generators on site, and natural gas heating in owned buildings. For a touring production, this is where generator fuel sits. For a venue, this includes boilers and any on-site combustion.

Scope 2 

This covers indirect emissions from purchased electricity, heat or steam. A venue buying grid electricity reports those emissions under Scope 2. The emissions factor varies depending on the supplier and the energy certificate structure: a distinction that matters significantly for organisations making renewable electricity claims.

Scope 3 

This covers all other indirect emissions across the value chain: both upstream (supply chain) and downstream (use of products and end-of-life). For live music, this is where audience travel sits: 77% of UK live music emissions come from fan travel, according to research by Hope Solutions alongside MIT, Live Nation, Warner Music Group and Coldplay. 

It is also where production supply chains, artist and crew travel, and merchandise manufacturing sit. Scope 3 reporting is not mandatory under the GHG Protocol's Corporate Standard, but it is increasingly expected by funders, investors, and disclosure frameworks, including SECR and emerging UK Sustainability Reporting Standards.

The practical challenge in this sector is that Scope 3 is both the largest part of the footprint and the hardest to measure. Most organisations report Scope 1 and 2 reasonably well because the data sits in utility bills and fuel receipts. Scope 3 requires active data collection from supply chain partners, modelling of audience travel, and decisions about boundary-setting that have a significant effect on the final number.

The Corporate Standard and what it requires

The GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard is the foundational document most carbon footprints are built on. It sets out the principles of GHG accounting (relevance, completeness, consistency, transparency and accuracy) and establishes the rules for organisational boundary-setting, base year selection, and emissions calculation.

A few aspects of the Corporate Standard are particularly relevant for organisations in music, media and entertainment.

• Organisational boundaries: determine which entities and operations are included in the inventory. A major entertainment company with multiple subsidiaries, venues and touring operations needs to decide whether it applies an equity share approach or a control approach, and that decision significantly affects what ends up in the numbers. Getting this wrong doesn't just affect the carbon footprint; it affects whether targets and commitments are meaningful or not.
  
  
• Base year selection: matters because it sets the benchmark against which progress is measured. The GHG Protocol requires that base year emissions are restated when significant structural changes occur such as acquisitions, disposals, and outsourcing decisions, so that year-on-year comparisons remain valid. Many organisations in this sector have experienced significant structural change in recent years, and not all of them have updated their base years accordingly.
  
  
• Consistency and transparency: principles the Protocol takes seriously and that are increasingly being taken seriously by external stakeholders. An ESG report that presents carbon figures without disclosing the boundary assumptions, emission factors used, or treatment of Scope 3 is technically non-compliant with Protocol principles, even if it satisfies a tick-box reporting requirement. As scrutiny of sustainability claims increases, through the FCA's Anti-Greenwashing Rule, the Green Claims Code, and growing investor due diligence, that gap is becoming harder to sustain.

The Land Sector and Removals Standard: what changes in 2027

In January 2026, the GHG Protocol published the Land Sector and Removals Standard: the first Protocol standard to formally address land emissions, CO₂ removals, and the accounting treatment of biogenic products. It takes effect on 1 January 2027.

The Standard's most significant implication for this sector concerns biofuels. The traditional approach to biofuel accounting has been to exclude direct CO₂ emissions from biofuel combustion from the physical GHG inventory, treating them as carbon-neutral on the basis that the plants from which biofuels are derived absorbed roughly the same amount of carbon during their growth. Under the LSR Standard, that exclusion now has explicit conditions attached.

As our detailed analysis of the LSRS and its implications for biofuel reporting sets out, the Standard is direct: "Biogenic product CO₂ emissions are not zero, and biogenic products cannot be assumed to be carbon neutral." Under Requirement 17, organisations that purchase, consume or sell biogenic products, including bioenergy feedstocks, must account for those emissions across Scope 1, 2 and 3.

There are two scenarios under which those emissions are reported. If an organisation can account for all lifecycle GHG emissions associated with the biogenic product, including net land carbon stock changes of sourcing lands, and can also account for land carbon leakage where required, biogenic CO₂ emissions may continue to be reported separately from the physical inventory, outside the primary total. If those conditions cannot be met, because lifecycle data is unavailable, unverified, or leakage has not been assessed, biogenic product CO₂ emissions must be included in the physical GHG inventory.

This is a significant shift for any sector that has built its biofuel emissions case on assumptions rather than evidence.

What this means for biofuel reporting in live events

The events and entertainment industry has moved substantially towards biofuels, HVO in particular, as a near-term alternative to diesel for generator power. That transition has been reported as a meaningful emissions reduction. Under the LSR Standard, whether those reductions hold up depends on what evidence organisations have about their biofuel supply chains.

As documented in our report on UK events and diesel use, the UK event industry uses an estimated 380 million litres of diesel annually; over 8% of all UK red diesel consumption, generating 1.2 million tonnes of CO₂e per year. The shift to HVO and other alternative fuels has been presented as addressing a significant portion of that footprint. The LSR Standard raises the question of whether the accounting basis for that claim is robust.

For HVO derived from waste feedstocks (used cooking oil, for example), the leakage risk is lower, but supply chain traceability is still required to demonstrate it. For HVO derived from food or feed crops, the Standard identifies this as a "high leakage risk activity", meaning organisations must quantify and report land carbon leakage, which requires methodology and data, not a judgment call.

The practical question for most event operators is not whether to stop using biofuels: they remain a credible transitional solution, particularly while grid-connected alternatives are not viable at scale. The question is whether the emissions savings being claimed can be evidenced to the standard the Protocol now requires. For many organisations, the honest answer is that the supply chain data does not yet exist to demonstrate this. That is a data gap that needs to be closed before 2027, not after.

It is also worth noting the broader context. The LSR Standard is arriving at the same time as several other tightening accountability mechanisms: SECR reporting requirements for large UK organisations, the FCA's Anti-Greenwashing Rule, and increasing scrutiny from investors and funders. The direction of travel is consistently toward claims that can be substantiated, not assumed. Greenwashing in live events is no longer a communications risk managed after the fact: it is a governance risk managed upfront.

What organisations should do now

Understand your current GHG inventory

If your organisation has a carbon footprint, establish what framework it was built on, what scope boundaries were applied, and where biogenic emissions currently sit. If biofuel combustion is excluded from the physical inventory, identify whether that treatment meets the LSR Standard's conditions.

Audit your biofuel supply chain

If you use biofuels in operations or across the value chain, establish what the feedstock is, where it is sourced from, and what land use data is available. The LSR Standard sets minimum traceability requirements as a prerequisite for Scenario 1 reporting.

Don't conflate regulatory compliance with GHG Protocol compliance

Meeting the UK's Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) or the EU's Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) sustainability criteria is not the same as meeting the Protocol's accounting requirements. The two frameworks serve different purposes. Assuming one substitutes for the other is a common mistake and an increasingly exposed one.

Build the data infrastructure now

The LSR Standard takes effect on 1 January 2027. The data needed to meet its conditions cannot be assembled in the weeks before a compliance deadline. Organisations that start now have time to do this properly.

At Hope Solutions, we work with organisations across music, media and live events to build GHG inventories that are accurate, defensible, and aligned with current Protocol standards. If the Land Sector and Removals Standard raises questions about how your organisation accounts for biofuel emissions, get in touch today.

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