This ICT Sector Guidance provides guidance and accounting methods for the calculation of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions for ICT (Information and Communication Technology) products with a focus on ICT services. This ICT Sector Guidance is built on, and in conformance with, the GHG Protocol Product Standard.

The ICT Sector Guidance includes the following chapters:

• Telecommunications Network Services
• Desktop Managed Services
• Cloud and Data Center Services
• Hardware
• Software
• Transport Substitution

This Introduction Chapter gives some context and background to the issues around measuring the GHG emissions of ICT products, and discusses some of the reasons for doing this. It also provides an overview of the other chapters and general guidance on the following topics when assessing ICT products: screening, significance, scope definition, boundary setting, data collection and data quality, allocation, uncertainty, calculating GHG emissions, assurance, reporting.

Assessing the GHG emissions of ICT products presents a number of challenges because of the nature of ICT, with the complex and extensive features of ICT services, the long and complex supply chains for ICT hardware, and the wide use of shared resources within ICT systems requiring specific allocation techniques.

This ICT Sector Guidance aims to address these issues by providing practical methodologies, which provide a consistent approach to calculating the GHG emissions from ICT goods and services.