Sustainability
Scope 1 emissions
Also written: scope 1
Scope 1 emissions are direct greenhouse gas releases produced from sources owned or controlled by a hotel company. In hospitality, these primarily include stationary combustion from onsite boilers and generators, mobile combustion from property-owned shuttle vehicles, and fugitive emissions from leaking air conditioning refrigerants.
Formula
Scope 1 Emissions (tCO₂e) = Fuel or Refrigerant Consumed (Unit) × Specific Emission Factor (tCO₂e / Unit)
How it is used
Operators track Scope 1 emissions to meet ESG reporting standards, lower fuel costs, and comply with municipal building energy performance requirements. Revenue managers and commercial teams leverage verified Scope 1 reductions to win corporate travel RFPs that mandate carbon transparency. Capital expenditure decisions, such as replacing gas-fired laundry equipment with electric heat pumps or transitioning diesel shuttle fleets to electric vehicles, are driven directly by the need to abate these onsite emissions.
Worked example
A 250-room hotel consumes 50,000 therms of natural gas annually for space heating and domestic hot water. Using an EPA emission factor of 0.0053 metric tons of CO₂e per therm, the property calculates direct heating emissions: 50,000 × 0.0053 = 265 tCO₂e. Adding 15 tCO₂e from shuttle gasoline and 20 tCO₂e from refrigerant leaks yields 300 tCO₂e total Scope 1 emissions.
Common mistake
Misclassifying electricity usage as Scope 1 is common; offsite purchased electricity belongs under Scope 2, whereas Scope 1 strictly covers direct onsite fuel burn and physical gas leakage.