Should a family business group with several units use operational control or equity share for its carbon footprint?
Most family groups should use operational control: count 100% of every unit the group runs day to day, and nothing from units it only invests in. Use equity share when partly owned units run by partners are a large part of the group and your buyers or lenders want emissions in line with ownership.
What the three approaches mean
These come from chapter 3 of the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard. ISO 14064-1:2018 allows the same choice between control and equity share.
- Operational control: 100% of emissions from every unit where the group has full authority to introduce and run its operating policies, whatever the ownership share.
- Financial control: 100% of units whose financial and operating policies the group directs to gain economic benefit, usually those consolidated as subsidiaries in the accounts.
- Equity share: each unit's emissions multiplied by the group's ownership share.
Why operational control fits most family groups
- The family usually runs the units it owns, even when shares are spread across relatives, trusts and holding companies, so control is clearer than the ownership chain.
- You hold the bills for the units you run, so the data is available.
- Buyers mostly ask a supplier for the emissions of the plant that makes their product, which matches control.
When equity share is the better choice
- The group has large stakes in joint ventures that a partner manages.
- Lenders or investors want emissions to follow the financial interest in each unit.
- Ownership is stable and documented, so the percentages can be shown.
Rules once you choose
- Apply one approach to every unit and every gas, and state it in the report.
- Under a control approach, a unit you hold shares in but do not control drops out of Scope 1 and 2; its emissions can appear in Scope 3 Category 15, investments.
- If units are bought, sold or merged, recalculate the base year so the trend stays comparable.
Worked example: a group with three units
- Unit A: 100% owned, run by the family, 800 t CO2
- Unit B: 60% owned, run by the family, 500 t CO2
- Unit C: 30% owned, run by a partner, 1,000 t CO2
- Operational control: 800 + 500 = 1,300 t (Unit C left out of Scope 1 and 2)
- Equity share: 800 + (60% x 500 = 300) + (30% x 1,000 = 300) = 1,400 t
The choice changes the total by 100 t here, and changes which bills the group must collect.
What Senseible does here
Senseible counts the bills and invoices you upload to an account. Which units belong in the boundary, and at what share, is your decision; Senseible does not apply equity percentages.
Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (2004), chapter 3, setting organisational boundaries, ISO 14064-1:2018, clause 5.1, organisational boundaries
Last reviewed 2026-10-15.