GHG Emission Intensity per Rupee of Revenue — BRSR Core Attribute

What this attribute is

GHG Emission Intensity per Rupee of Revenue is one of the nine BRSR Core attributes that SEBI requires every Top-1,000 listed entity to subject to independent reasonable assurance. It sits within NGRBC Principle 6 — Environment and is the single most-scrutinised Core attribute in practice — every BRSR-related ESG-rating screen, every lender ESG covenant, and every internal sustainability dashboard references this one number.

The attribute measures how carbon-efficient your business is per unit of revenue generated. A lower number means more revenue per tonne of CO₂ equivalent emitted — i.e., better carbon efficiency. Year-on-year intensity reduction is a standard ESG-rating expectation; absolute emissions can grow with the business, but intensity should trend down.

Formula and units

GHG Intensity = (Total Scope 1 + Scope 2 emissions in tCO₂e)
              ÷ (Total Revenue from Operations adjusted for PPP)

The SEBI BRSR Core wording is Total Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions divided by Total Revenue from Operations adjusted for PPP (Purchasing Power Parity). The PPP adjustment normalises the rupee denominator using a published PPP conversion factor (typically the World Bank International Comparison Program factor for India), so the resulting intensity is internationally comparable across geographies.

Internal or supplementary intensity metrics in alternative units (per million USD, per ₹ Lakh, per unit of physical output) are sometimes used for management reporting and ESG-rating submissions; the SEBI BRSR filing itself uses the PPP-adjusted basis above.

For the assurance numerator, see the Scope 2 section below on dual reporting per GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance.

The numerator: Scope 1 + Scope 2

Scope 1 (direct emissions)

Scope 1 includes every direct emission from sources owned or controlled by the entity. The standard inclusions for a typical Indian listed entity:

• Stationary combustion — diesel for DG sets, LPG for canteens or process, coal for boilers, fuel oil where applicable
• Mobile combustion — fuel for company-owned vehicles (cars, trucks, forklifts, captive logistics)
• Process emissions — for manufacturing entities: cement clinker calcination, ammonia synthesis, electrolysis, etc.
• Fugitive emissions — refrigerant top-ups across HVAC, chillers, refrigeration; SF₆ from electrical equipment

Emission factors come from the IPCC 2006 Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories for combustion sources, and the IPCC AR5 100-year GWP table for refrigerants and other non-CO₂ gases (the convention adopted by GHG Protocol Corporate Standard).

The single most-overlooked Scope 1 source in first-year BRSR Core engagements: owned-vehicle fuel — sits in the admin GL, not in the EHS register, and routinely gets missed.

Scope 2 (indirect — purchased electricity)

The GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance requires dual reporting of Scope 2 wherever market-based or supplier-specific instruments exist:

• Location-based Scope 2 = (Electricity consumed in MWh) × (Grid emission factor in tCO₂/MWh). The grid factor is the state-wise CEA factor for the consuming facility’s location, for the relevant CEA database version. See CEA Grid Emission Factors for the table and version-selection rules.
• Market-based Scope 2 = adjusted for contractual instruments (renewable PPAs, Renewable Energy Certificates) where retirement is verifiably documented; falls back to a residual or supplier-specific factor for the rest.

Both numbers are reported in the BRSR Principle 6 disclosures. In Indian BRSR Core practice, the assured intensity is typically computed using the location-based Scope 2 figure — this avoids the assurance partner having to verify REC retirement chains as part of the Core engagement, and aligns with how most Indian listed entities have framed their first-cycle assurance scope. Entities with substantial market-based reductions disclose both numbers and discuss the gap in the supporting BRSR text.

For multi-location entities, location-based Scope 2 is calculated per facility (using the state-wise CEA factor for each facility’s location) and then summed. Applying a single national average to total consumption is a simplification permitted only when state-wise consumption split is genuinely unavailable AND the simplification is disclosed in the BRSR notes.

Boundary

The boundary for the numerator must match what the BRSR cover note declares. Three boundary conventions are recognised under the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard:

Boundary	What’s in scope
Operational control	All facilities the entity has authority to introduce and implement operating policies for
Financial control	All facilities consolidated in the financial statements
Equity share	Emissions allocated proportionate to ownership share

The SEBI BRSR Annexure I excerpt does not mandate a specific consolidation basis — the entity’s BRSR cover note must declare which boundary applies and apply it consistently across the numerator (Scope 1 + 2) and the denominator (revenue from operations) and across years. Operational control is widely used in practice by Indian listed entities, but the choice should be a documented governance decision, not an inheritance from the prior year by default.

The denominator: Revenue from operations, adjusted for PPP

The denominator starts as Revenue from operations — the same line item disclosed in the audited Statement of Profit and Loss prepared under Indian Accounting Standards — and is then adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity per the SEBI BRSR Core wording.

Four rules that catch most entities:

1. Exact match to financial statements (pre-PPP). Use the audited revenue-from-operations figure, not the gross-of-tax revenue, not net-of-excise-duty revenue, not turnover-net-of-discounts. Whatever the audited P&L declares as “Revenue from operations” is the starting figure.
2. Boundary alignment with numerator. If Scope 1+2 covers only the standalone listed entity, revenue must be the standalone listed entity’s revenue — not consolidated. If environmental data is consolidated, revenue must be consolidated.
3. Apply the PPP adjustment. Convert the rupee revenue using a published PPP conversion factor for India. The World Bank International Comparison Program factor is the most commonly cited source; the entity should disclose which factor and which year it has applied.
4. Don’t restate for non-recurring items. The denominator is not adjusted for inflation or for one-off transactions. Even if a year had a divestment that inflated revenue, the intensity uses the as-reported (then PPP-adjusted) revenue. Year-on-year intensity comparisons can be discussed in the supporting BRSR text but the numbers themselves are unadjusted beyond PPP.

Worked example

Illustrative only — not a canonical SEBI-compliance calculation. The numbers below are constructed to make the structure of the calculation clear. Emission factors used are methodology-dependent and an actual filing must apply the entity’s documented choice of factor source (IPCC 2006, BEE PAT scheme, supplier-specific, etc.) consistently and with an audit-trail.

A diversified mid-cap manufacturer for FY 2024-25, operational-control boundary, standalone listed entity:

Step 1 — Scope 1

Source	Activity data	Emission factor (illustrative)	tCO₂e
DG set diesel	412 KL	~2.7 tCO₂e/KL (methodology-dependent)	1,116
Canteen LPG	28 t	~3.0 tCO₂e/t	84
Owned-vehicle fuel	67 KL diesel + 14 KL petrol	~2.7 + 2.3 tCO₂e/KL	214
Process emissions (kiln)	18,400 t clinker	0.52 tCO₂e/t (entity-specific)	9,568
Refrigerant top-ups (HFC-134a)	145 kg	GWP 1,300 (AR5 basis)	188
Scope 1 total			11,170

Step 2 — Scope 2 (location-based)

Two facilities — one in Maharashtra, one in Tamil Nadu.

Facility	Electricity (MWh)	CEA factor (tCO₂/MWh)	tCO₂e
Maharashtra plant	8,420	0.732	6,163
Tamil Nadu plant	4,180	0.541	2,261
Scope 2 total (location-based)			8,424

(Market-based Scope 2 is reported separately if PPAs/RECs apply — not used in the assured intensity figure here.)

Step 3 — Numerator

Scope 1 + Scope 2 = 11,170 + 8,424 = 19,594 tCO₂e

Step 4 — Denominator (with PPP adjustment)

Step	Value
Revenue from operations (audited, standalone)	₹1,847 Cr
World Bank India PPP conversion factor (illustrative, FY 2024-25)	~22 INR per international dollar
PPP-adjusted revenue	1,847 ÷ 22 ≈ ₹83.95 Cr equivalent (in PPP-adjusted terms)

The exact PPP factor used must be the published World Bank ICP (or equivalent SEBI-recognised) factor for the reporting year — entities should disclose the source and year of the PPP factor applied.

Step 5 — Intensity

GHG Intensity = 19,594 tCO₂e ÷ 83.95 (PPP-adjusted Cr) ≈ 233.4 tCO₂e per PPP-adjusted ₹ Cr

For year-on-year comparability, the same PPP convention is held constant in disclosure footnotes; if the PPP factor itself moves materially year-on-year, the change is disclosed alongside the intensity comparison.

The BRSR XBRL filing carries this value in the relevant taxonomy element (verify the current MCA-published BRSR taxonomy for the exact element name and unit reference) with both current-year and previous-year values populated.

Common audit findings specific to this attribute

In rough order of frequency observed in post-FY 2024-25 BRSR Core assurance engagements:

1. Owned-vehicle fuel omitted from Scope 1. Sits in the admin/finance GL under “Vehicle running expenses” rather than the EHS register. Auditor reconciles fuel-purchase GL to EHS register, finds the gap.
2. Boundary mismatch between numerator and denominator. Scope 1+2 reported on standalone basis, revenue from operations reported on consolidated basis (or vice versa). Trivial fix at the disclosure stage; impossible to fix retrospectively.
3. Wrong CEA database version. Entity used Version N–1 because Version N wasn’t published when internal calculation was finalised. Auditor re-runs with Version N where applicable; surfaces a delta.
4. Refrigerant top-ups missing. Maintenance records exist (HVAC contractor logs) but were never aggregated for GHG accounting purposes. Easy to surface in year one.
5. Scope 2 calculated using a national average factor. Single CEA all-India factor applied to total electricity rather than per-facility state-wise factors. The all-India simplification is permitted only if state-wise consumption split is genuinely unavailable AND the simplification is disclosed in the BRSR notes.
6. Self-generation electricity counted twice. On-site DG output counted under Scope 2 (purchased electricity) when in fact the DG fuel is already in Scope 1 stationary combustion. Result: double-count.

XBRL filing

This attribute is filed in the BRSR XBRL instance document under the relevant element from the MCA-published BRSR taxonomy module. Element names, namespace prefixes, and unit references should be verified against the current MCA taxonomy version before generating the instance document — the taxonomy is updated periodically and version-specific element names should not be assumed from prior reporting cycles or third-party guides.

Both CurrentYear and PreviousYear context references must be populated, and the value carried in the XBRL instance must reconcile to the assured value in the signed BRSR Core report. See XBRL Taxonomy for BRSR for the structural overview of the BRSR XBRL module and a sample instance-document fragment.

How this attribute rolls up into the BRSR Core engagement

This attribute is one of the four Core attributes under Principle 6. The signed BRSR Core assurance report attests this number to reasonable assurance under SAE 3000 (Revised) — India’s adoption of ISAE 3000 (Revised). Workpapers retained by the assurance partner cover the recalculation, vouching to source documents (utility bills, fuel registers, audited financials), and the boundary reconciliation between numerator and denominator.

For the engagement that produces the signed assurance opinion, see BRSR Core Assurance. For a broader Scope 1 + 2 + material Scope 3 inventory verification under the international ISAE 3410 standard (often engaged in parallel with BRSR Core for entities with Western enterprise customers), see ISAE 3410 / Standalone GHG Verification.

Related reading

• NGRBC Principle 6 — Environment — parent pillar covering all environmental disclosures
• CEA Grid Emission Factors — Scope 2 factor table by Indian state, with version-selection rules
• Document Evidence Requirements — full per-attribute evidence checklist
• Tally Ledger to BRSR Mapping — how to map fuel-purchase GL entries to Scope 1
• XBRL Taxonomy for BRSR — full element reference for SEBI XBRL filing
• BRSR Core Assurance — service
• ISAE 3410 / Standalone GHG — service