What is a carbon ledger and how does it differ from a traditional ghg inventory

A carbon ledger is a structured, transactional system for recording greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data at the source-event level (e.g., a fuel purchase, a shipment, a kWh reading), preserving provenance, calculation methods, and versioned emission factors. Unlike a traditional GHG inventory—which typically aggregates annual emissions by scope and category for reporting—a carbon ledger emphasizes data lineage, auditability, and repeatable calculations, enabling drill-down, restatements, and integration with operational systems (ERP, procurement, energy management). A good ledger stores metadata: activity data, emission factor reference, scope/category mapping (GHG Protocol Scope 1, 2, 3), organizational boundary, uncertainty, and data quality scoring. This design supports audit-ready reporting (Corporate Standard) and advanced use cases such as cost allocation, product carbon footprints, and supplier-specific updates over time. For example, Scope 2 entries can maintain both location-based and market-based calculations, while Scope 3 entries can shift from spend-based to activity- or supplier-specific as better data arrives, with full version control. In short, the ledger is the operational backbone that feeds the inventory and disclosures, not just a static annual rollup. Key Takeaway: A carbon ledger is a granular, auditable system that powers, not replaces, your annual GHG inventory.