Organizational boundaries define requirements for accounting and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions. These boundaries are contained within the Climate Registry, and specifically define the emissions that an entity tracks and reports. In the United States, companies are providing this information to help in the reduction of global warming.

Organizational boundaries define an entity’s operation and also specify whether it is controlled or owned by the company reporting. Reporting can be further based on an equity share or a consolidated control approach.

One of the means of defining organizational boundaries is the equity share approach. This accounting method is used to report greenhouse gases emissions for each operation based on its sheer of the economic pie. The percentage would determine the extent of ownership that an entity has based on a simple profit and loss share of the entire operation.

The control approach can be used to define organizational boundaries. An entity reports all of its greenhouse gas emissions from all operations under its control. Ownership does not come into this equation.

Within North America, the Climate Registry distributes important information concerning greenhouse gas emissions. The Registry was established as a nonprofit and nongovernmental organization and now maintains important standards to calculate and report emissions in a unified manner. Some 330 corporations from government, industry and nonprofit sectors, are members of the Registry.

Under the greenhouse gas emissions registry, full organizational boundaries reporting is required for administrative buildings; revenue and non-revenue services operated by an entity; leased or owned stations and facilities operated by the entity; services provided by an entity under contract to another company; vanpools; and paratransit or other privately operated services contracted to the entity.

There are many greenhouse gases of significant concern. Environmentally damaging gases will lead to global warming. The most damaging are chlorofluorocarbons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, carbon dioxide, methane, chlorine, bromine, methyl bromide, methyl chloroform, sulfur hexafluoride, carbon tetrachloride, nitrogen trifluoride, hydrofluorinated ethers.

In the Climate Registrys inventory management plan, facilities need to indicate whether they are reporting based on either the control approach with equity share using operational control criteria; control approach with equity share using financial control; control approach based on operational control; or control approach based using financial control criteria. The inventory reporting document also includes a facilities and association emissions section in which a master list of all the buildings under an entitys organizational boundaries must be listed, along with their addresses, percentage of ownership or control, types of emissions and type of equipment or source. Because of the complexity of emissions tracking and reporting, many facilities equipped with refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) systems or heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are using refrigerant management programs to automatically track and report the information.