ISO 14064: Why it matters and what you need to know about it
Article
Published on 17/10/2025
In a previous post, we explained the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, launched in 1998, which provides a standardised framework for emission calculation and reporting.
Another respected template which can help ensure your carbon assessment and disclosure is thorough and credible is ISO 14064. This was developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The measure covers some of the same ground as the protocol, so the two are often positioned as alternatives, but they’re not mutually exclusive.
It’s therefore advisable to understand both frameworks, before you commit to a process for emission calculation and reporting. In this post, we’ll explain ISO 14064, including what it contains and how you can ensure your practices comply with it.
It’s therefore advisable to understand both frameworks, before you commit to a process for emission calculation and reporting. In this post, we’ll explain ISO 14064, including what it contains and how you can ensure your practices comply with it.
1. Who are the ISO?
The ISO is an independent, non-governmental body that develops and publishes voluntary, consensus-based global standards. These are aimed at delivering the consistency, quality and safety which make people’s lives easier and better, including through them being less hazardous.
Founded in 1947, the ISO has so far unveiled about 26,000 international standards and other deliverables. These cover everything from making products to using technology and managing processes. They apply to a huge range of industries and services, including food manufacture, transport, agriculture and healthcare. And, of course, they include ISO 14064.
The ISO’s members are the national standard setting bodies in about 175 countries, with only one constituent per nation being allowed. The UK member is the British Standards Institute. The ISO has a central secretariat – based in Geneva, Switzerland – and its standard development takes place via roughly 830 expert technical committees and sub-committees.
Founded in 1947, the ISO has so far unveiled about 26,000 international standards and other deliverables. These cover everything from making products to using technology and managing processes. They apply to a huge range of industries and services, including food manufacture, transport, agriculture and healthcare. And, of course, they include ISO 14064.
The ISO’s members are the national standard setting bodies in about 175 countries, with only one constituent per nation being allowed. The UK member is the British Standards Institute. The ISO has a central secretariat – based in Geneva, Switzerland – and its standard development takes place via roughly 830 expert technical committees and sub-committees.
2. What is ISO 14064?
ISO 14064, introduced in 2002 and updated in 2018, provides a set methodology that guides users through the emission calculation and disclosure process. This procedure is supplemented by a set of complementary and practical tools. Applicable to whole organisations or individual projects, the standard covers key elements of the task such as:
- Planning
- Identifying
- Quantifying
- Reporting
- Verifying
Users of ISO 14064, which is fully compatible with all its publisher’s other standards, include national and regional governments, many businesses and numerous additional organisations.
ISO 14064’s principles have been incorporated into other relevant frameworks, such as the UK’s Carbon Trust Standard. That’s an internationally recognised certification that validates an organisation’s efforts to measure, manage, and reduce its carbon emissions.
ISO 14064’s principles have been incorporated into other relevant frameworks, such as the UK’s Carbon Trust Standard. That’s an internationally recognised certification that validates an organisation’s efforts to measure, manage, and reduce its carbon emissions.
3. Benefits of ISO 14064
Following the standard enables users to secure a range of important advantages, such as:
- Ensuring their emission calculation and reporting procedures are:
- Accurate
- Reliable
- Complete
- Consistent
- Transparent
- Complying with all relevant voluntary reporting standards and compulsory regulation.
- Making direct comparisons with other organisations or projects which use ISO 14064 and contrasting different elements within their own activities.
- Setting future reduction targets, so they can work towards achieving realisable sustainability aims in the future.
- Being better equipped to participate in emission trading schemes and carbon markets, which effectively allow organisations to buy and sell permits for GHG emissions.
4. What does ISO 14064 contain?
ISO 14064 is split into three parts, to ensure it covers the whole gamut of carbon emission management:
- Part 1 sets out principles and requirements for GHG emission quantifying, reporting and removal across entire organisations. It centres on developing and managing a GHG inventory. This involves identifying and measuring all sources of relevant direct or indirect emissions.
- Part 2 fulfils much the same functions but in relation to specific projects or activities, regardless of their size, sector or location.
- Part 3 provides a framework for an accredited, outside professional to verify and validate your GHG data, calculations, methods and reports. It can be applied to material developed in accordance with either of the other two parts. The verifier will conduct a strategic analysis and risk assessment, including reviewing your information for errors and misstatements. Once this assessor’s happy, they’ll issue a verification statement, summarising their findings and confirming your compliance with ISO 14064’s requirements. The ISO 14064-3 standard is accepted by other respected schemes, such as the Carbon Disclosure Project, a widely used climate impact reporting system.
Businesses sometimes skip the verification stage, often on cost grounds, as it involves employing a third party, but this is an error. Without that expert, independent rubber-stamping, the outside world may rightly see your stated emission values as merely claims you make about yourself. These boasts will therefore carry much less weight in the eyes of your company’s important stakeholders than properly verified facts. These key groups might include regulators, investors, staff and customers.
Validation is a specialised area, so we don’t offer the service ourselves. We do, however, put clients in touch with trusted verification professionals, holding all relevant qualifications and accreditations, including in relation to ISO 14064-3, when appropriate.
Validation is a specialised area, so we don’t offer the service ourselves. We do, however, put clients in touch with trusted verification professionals, holding all relevant qualifications and accreditations, including in relation to ISO 14064-3, when appropriate.
5. How to comply with ISO 14064
We’ve provided numerous practical, ground level, hints and tips for reducing your organisation’s carbon footprint in other posts, including that on the GHG Protocol. Those pointers are applicable and beneficial whichever standards for emission calculation and reporting you choose to follow.
Here, therefore, we’ll take things up a level. We’ll supply broad guidance on designing and managing a carbon evaluation and disclosure process that complies with ISO 14064.
Here, therefore, we’ll take things up a level. We’ll supply broad guidance on designing and managing a carbon evaluation and disclosure process that complies with ISO 14064.
- Ensure your organisation’s leadership is visibly committed to emission calculation and reduction. Persuade them to establish a GHG policy, if you don’t already have one, for example. This should ideally be aligned with a set of broader company sustainability goals.
- Conduct a gap analysis. Assess your current GHG management practices against ISO 14064’s requirements, to identify where you’re falling short.
- Train personnel. Provide carbon literacy or emission training to staff who’ll be gathering and calculating the GHG data.
- Inform stakeholders. Communicate your commitment to GHG management to all relevant internal and external stakeholders.
- Assign accountability, by appointing a project lead or steering group to oversee the emission reduction management process.
- Outlining clear limits for your GHG inventory is critical for successful evaluation and reporting. You can base these boundaries on factors such as:
- Equity share. Include emissions based on the percentage of an operation you own.
- Financial control. Account for emissions in operations where you hold all the purse strings.
- Operational control. Report emissions from facilities where you dictate the operational policies.
- You also need to classify all the emission types you identify into the three Scopes set out in the GHG Protocol.
- Establish a baseline. Choose a year zero against which to compare your performance over time. Ensure you have high-quality and reliable data on this starting point. You also need decide how regularly you’ll report, such as every calendar or financial year, and stick to this. In the case of individual projects, you’ll need to gauge the level of emissions that would have occurred without your reduction efforts. Establishing baselines in this way will additionally help you to set realistic parameters, objectives and targets for future carbon cutting efforts.
- Establish a plan to track the continuous data collection and performance of your emission evaluation effort.
- Gather accurate data on your relevant factors, such as:
- Purchased goods and services
- Energy use
- Fuel consumption
- Mileage in company cars
- Waste generation.
- Apply scientifically sound and recognised methods, tools and emission factors. The last of these are standard coefficients that allow you to convert data on activities or products into GHG emissions. ISO 14064 recommends using quantification processes like those in the GHG Protocol or advocated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for consistency and precision.
- Convert all GHG emissions into the accepted single, comparable unit: carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
- Document everything. Keep detailed records of all data, methods (including calculation techniques), and assumptions, to provide an audit trail.
- Compile your inventory data into a GHG report that follows the guidelines in ISO 14064. This should include details such as your:
- Reporting period
- Data sources
- Calculation methods
- Assumptions, uncertainties or limitations, that might affect accuracy.
- Before sending the outside verifier your material, you need to decide whether you’re seeking reasonable or limited assurance from them. Reasonable assurance provides a high degree of confidence in the data, whereas the limited type supplies only moderate certainty.
- Once you have your verification statement, use the data you’ve produced to set future short and long-term emission reduction goals.
- Improve continuously. Regularly review and update your GHG inventory to reflect changes in your operations, data collection methods and emission reduction strategies. You can also seek accreditation from recognised bodies to drive continuing effective GHG management.
6. Should I use GHG Protocol or ISO 14064?
There’s no universal answer, as both measures have unique strengths. The GHG Protocol is more widely used, detailed and recognised globally, for example. But ISO 14064 is deliberately more flexible, allowing greater scope for tailoring to an organisation or project’s particular circumstances.
In deciding which standard or standards to follow for GHG calculation and reporting, you’ll need to consider a range of variables applying only to you. These include your:
In deciding which standard or standards to follow for GHG calculation and reporting, you’ll need to consider a range of variables applying only to you. These include your:
- Purpose
- Scope
- Audience
- Resources
- Preferences
Do remember, however, that you’re not facing a binary choice here. The two standards can be complementary and compatible. It’s not that unusual for organisations to apply the GHG Protocol for identifying and calculating emissions, then ISO 14064 for reporting and verifying these findings, for example.
7. You won’t have to choose for much longer
However, if having more than one standard and the idea of picking and choosing between them sounds complex to you, here’s some positive news. As we were preparing this post, the bodies behind the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064 announced they were to merge these blueprints.
The amalgamated standard is expected to cover measuring, reporting and verifying emissions comprehensively, including by embracing corporate, product and project-level GHG accounting. The merger should provide the best of both worlds, by marrying the protocol’s detailed calculation methods with the ISO’s rigorous verification framework, for example.
This harmonised standard is likely to deliver benefits for users such as:
The amalgamated standard is expected to cover measuring, reporting and verifying emissions comprehensively, including by embracing corporate, product and project-level GHG accounting. The merger should provide the best of both worlds, by marrying the protocol’s detailed calculation methods with the ISO’s rigorous verification framework, for example.
This harmonised standard is likely to deliver benefits for users such as:
The new joint blueprint is expected to take effect in 2026. Please watch this space, as we may well have more to say about it as implementation approaches.
See how our tools such as the carbon calculator software for construction and carbon reporting software for construction can help your business today.
