Avoided emissions are emission reductions that occur outside a company’s own GHG inventory but arise as a result of the products, technologies, or services it provides. In other words, they show how a company enables other businesses and consumers to lower their emissions.
Based on the established WBCSD framework, the avoided emissions concept offers a rigorous approach to quantify how low carbon solutions support downstream decarbonization at our customers. This methodology enables businesses to credibly showcase their impact on climate mitigation and their role in accelerating the transition to Net Zero. By definition, avoided emissions represent the difference in total life-cycle GHG emissions between:
- a solution scenario, where a low‑carbon product or service is used, and
- a reference scenario, where that solution is not implemented.
If the solution scenario results in lower emissions than the reference scenario, the difference is considered “avoided emissions.”
These solutions complement efforts to reduce a company’s own direct and indirect emissions by helping prevent emissions from being generated by others.
In essence, avoided emissions quantify the gap between the GHG emissions that occur with the solution in place and the emissions that would have occurred without it. Ultimately, avoided emissions are a critical concept for scaling low‑carbon solutions and demonstrating a company’s contribution to tackling global climate challenges.
