ISO 14064-1 requirements explained: video brief

Clauses that follow the inventory

ISO 14064-1 is not a management system standard and does not follow the harmonised clause structure. After the scope, references and terms, it runs from principles to boundaries, quantification, mitigation activities, inventory quality, the GHG report and the organisation's role in verification, clauses 4 to 10, with eight annexes, two of them normative. This short film maps each clause.

Clause 4 sets the principles: relevance, completeness, consistency, accuracy and transparency, applied to every choice in the inventory, so boundary, method and exclusion decisions are written down with the reason. Clause 5 sets the inventory boundaries: organisational boundaries that consolidate the facilities the organisation controls or holds a share in, and reporting boundaries that sort emissions by category and decide which indirect emissions are significant.

Quantification, quality and reporting

Clause 6 covers the quantification of emissions and removals: identifying sources and sinks, selecting methods, collecting activity data, selecting or developing emission factors and calculating, with a base year chosen and recalculated when needed. Clause 7 covers mitigation activities, such as reduction initiatives, and how they are reported. Clause 8 covers inventory quality management, the procedures that keep data reliable. Clause 9 sets what the GHG report must contain, and clause 10 describes the organisation's role in verification activities.

ISO 14064-1:2018, published on 19 December 2018 and confirmed in 2024, is the current edition. It applies to any organisation asked for emissions figures it can stand behind. Inventories are verified under ISO 14064-3 by an independent verification body accredited to ISO/IEC 17029 and ISO 14065, which issues a statement at limited or reasonable assurance.

A GHG inventory is verified, not certified, and verification can give limited or reasonable assurance; reasonable assurance involves more evidence-gathering and a stronger opinion. Indirect emissions cannot be left out because they are inconvenient: significance is assessed with documented criteria, significant indirect emissions are quantified and exclusions explained. ISO 14064-1 quantifies and reports but makes no claim on its own, so carbon neutrality and net-zero claims rest on further standards.