# What are the seven steps of a GHG inventory quality system?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/ghg-inventory-quality-system-seven-steps

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard lists seven: set up an inventory quality team, write a quality management plan, run generic checks, run source-specific checks, review the final inventory, feed findings back to the team, and set up reporting, documentation and archiving. Each is small enough for a one-person plant.

## The seven steps

1. Establish an inventory quality team or a named manager, who deals with business units, facilities and outside parties such as verifiers.
2. Develop a quality management plan covering every level, from data collection to final reporting. Build on any existing quality procedures.
3. Perform generic quality checks on data handling, documentation and calculations.
4. Perform source-specific checks, such as whether electricity bills or meter readings are the better source of consumption data.
5. Review the final inventory: a technical review first, then a managerial review that secures approval.
6. Feed the review results back to the person or team from step one, correct errors and make the improvements.
7. Set up record keeping: what is documented for internal use, how it is archived and what is reported outside.

## What generic checks look like

- Check a sample of input data for transcription errors.
- Keep version control on electronic files.
- Check that units are labelled and carried through every step, and that conversion factors are right.
- Keep input data and calculated data visibly apart in the spreadsheet.
- Check some calculations with a quick back of the envelope sum.

## Scale it down

A plant with one person on the inventory can still do all seven. The team is the person, the plan is one page, the generic checks are a monthly tick list, and the review is the owner reading the total before it leaves the building.

## Example: a quick sum catches a slip (example figures)

- Spreadsheet shows furnace oil 5,000 L at 2.97 kg CO2 a litre giving 148.5 tonnes (t) CO2
- Quick check: 5,000 x 2.97 = 14,850 kg = 14.85 t CO2
- The sheet is ten times too high: a decimal slip. Fix it, note the fix and the date.

Example figures to show the check. Furnace oil at 2.97 kg CO2 a litre is Senseible's published factor.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible checks each record against rules (a missing quantity or unit, an unusual quantity, a low reading confidence) and re-checks the arithmetic. Passing means the rules were met against the evidence; it is not an outside audit.

- [A carbon data governance policy](https://senseible.earth/answers/carbon-data-governance-policy-what-to-include)
- [Trust and method](https://senseible.earth/trust)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, revised edition, Chapter 7](https://ghgprotocol.org/sites/default/files/standards/ghg-protocol-revised.pdf)

Last reviewed 2026-11-04. Based on the revised edition of the Corporate Standard.