What are fugitive emissions?

Quick Answer: Fugitive emissions are unintentional releases of greenhouse gases that escape from equipment, processes, or infrastructure rather than being discharged through a controlled outlet like a chimney or exhaust pipe. Common sources include leaks from refrigeration and air conditioning systems, gas pipelines, and industrial equipment. Under the GHG Protocol, fugitive emissions are classified as Scope 1 emissions and must be included in a complete carbon footprint.

What Are Fugitive Emissions?

Fugitive emissions are greenhouse gases that escape unintentionally from equipment or processes, rather than being released through a designated, managed exhaust point. The word "fugitive" reflects the nature of the release: unplanned, often invisible, and easy to overlook.

The most common gases involved are hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which leak from refrigeration and air conditioning systems, and methane, which escapes from natural gas infrastructure. Both carry a significantly higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide. HFCs can be hundreds or thousands of times more potent than CO2 over a 100-year period, depending on the specific compound.

Because these releases are unintentional, they are frequently underreported or missed entirely in carbon accounting. That makes them one of the more consequential blind spots in an organisation's emissions data.

Where Do Fugitive Emissions Come From?

Fugitive emissions arise across a range of industries and building types. The sources most relevant to businesses completing a carbon footprint fall into a few clear categories.

Refrigerants from HVAC and refrigeration systems are the most common source for office-based and commercial businesses. Air conditioning units, commercial refrigerators, and heat pumps all use refrigerant gases. When these systems are serviced, topped up, or reach end of life, refrigerant can escape. A single service top-up recorded in a maintenance log is often the data point needed to calculate the associated emissions.

Natural gas and LPG infrastructure can release methane through minor leaks at joints, valves, and fittings. For businesses that use gas for heating or manufacturing, this is a relevant source, though the quantities involved at a site level are typically small.

Industrial processes such as coal mining, oil and gas extraction, and chemical manufacturing generate fugitive emissions at scale. These are more relevant to larger industrial operations than to the typical SME completing a footprint for the first time.

Wastewater treatment can produce methane and nitrous oxide as organic matter breaks down. This is relevant for businesses with on-site treatment processes.

For most small and medium-sized businesses, refrigerants are the primary fugitive emissions source worth investigating. A business with a large cold storage facility, a restaurant chain, or a supermarket will have more material exposure here than an office-based professional services firm, though HVAC systems mean it is rarely zero.

How Are Fugitive Emissions Measured?

The GHG Protocol treats fugitive emissions as Scope 1 because they are direct releases from sources owned or controlled by the organisation.

The standard approach for refrigerants uses the refrigerant top-up method: the quantity of refrigerant added to a system during servicing is treated as the amount that leaked. This data typically sits in maintenance records or service engineer reports. The quantity is then multiplied by the relevant global warming potential (GWP) for that specific refrigerant to convert it into a CO2-equivalent figure.

For example, if a system is topped up with 2 kg of R-410A refrigerant (GWP: 2,088), the resulting fugitive emission is approximately 4.2 tonnes of CO2e.

Where direct measurement data is unavailable, emissions factors based on equipment type and age can be used as a fallback. This is less accurate but still better than omitting the source entirely.

The practical challenge is that the data often lives outside the finance system, in service contracts, maintenance logs, or facilities management records. That is one reason fugitive emissions are frequently missing from first-year carbon footprints.

Why Do Fugitive Emissions Matter for Carbon Reporting?

Fugitive emissions are not a niche concern. For businesses with significant refrigeration or air conditioning infrastructure, they can represent a meaningful share of total Scope 1 emissions.

Under frameworks like the GHG Protocol, SECR (Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting), and SBTi target-setting, a complete and accurate Scope 1 figure is required. Omitting fugitive emissions produces an understated footprint and weakens the credibility of any reduction targets set against it.

For businesses working towards B Corp certification, EcoVadis assessments, or responding to supply chain questionnaires, the quality and completeness of emissions data is increasingly scrutinised. Auditors and assessors are familiar with the tendency to miss fugitive sources, and an inventory that excludes them without explanation raises questions.

There is also a practical reduction argument. HFC refrigerants are potent greenhouse gases, and reducing leakage through better maintenance schedules, equipment upgrades, or switching to lower-GWP alternatives can produce meaningful emissions reductions without changes to energy use or operations.

How Should Businesses Account for Fugitive Emissions?

The first step is identifying which systems on site use refrigerant gases or have other potential fugitive sources. This means reviewing maintenance contracts, equipment registers, and service records rather than relying on utility bills alone.

Once identified, the relevant data points to collect are:

• The type of refrigerant used in each system
• The quantity topped up or replaced during the reporting period
• The date and nature of any servicing that involved refrigerant handling

This information, combined with published GWP values for each refrigerant type, produces a calculated CO2e figure that can be included in a Scope 1 inventory.

For businesses completing their first carbon footprint, facilities managers or building services contractors often hold this data and may not realise it is relevant to carbon reporting. A short internal request, rather than a lengthy data collection exercise, is usually sufficient to surface it.

Seedling's carbon accounting process includes fugitive emissions as a standard part of Scope 1 data collection, with guidance on where to find the relevant records and how to handle gaps in historical data. For businesses with limited sustainability resource, having that structure built into the process removes the risk of an incomplete footprint.

Common Misconceptions About Fugitive Emissions

"We don't have any fugitive emissions." Most businesses with air conditioning or commercial refrigeration do. The absence of data is not the same as the absence of emissions.

"They're too small to matter." This depends heavily on the business. A logistics company with a large refrigerated fleet or a food retailer with extensive cold storage may find that refrigerant leakage accounts for a significant portion of total Scope 1 emissions. The GWP of common refrigerants means even small quantities translate to substantial CO2e figures.

"They're too hard to measure." For most businesses, the data already exists in service records. The challenge is knowing where to look, not performing complex calculations.

Getting fugitive emissions right in year one sets a more accurate baseline for reduction tracking in subsequent years. A footprint that excludes them is not just incomplete; it makes meaningful progress harder to demonstrate over time.