Singapore expands carbon registry to help businesses better track emissions footprint

[SINGAPORE] The Republic has strengthened its carbon data infrastructure with the addition of 94 new emission factors to the Singapore Emission Factors Registry (SEFR), a move designed to help businesses more accurately track and report their carbon footprint ahead of impending mandatory requirements.

SERF is the nation’s single reference point for localised emission factors; these are are scientific multipliers that convert business activity data into carbon emissions data.

The expansion, announced by the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) on Thursday (Jan 22), brings the total number of emission factors in the registry to 319.

The registry now covers 100 per cent of emissions reporting for Scope 1 (direct emissions) and Scope 2 (indirect energy emissions), as well as four out of 15 categories for Scope 3 (indirect value chain emissions).

The update comes as listed companies on the Straits Times Index (STI) prepare for mandatory Scope 3 reporting starting from the financial year 2026. 

While reporting remains voluntary for non-STI companies, many are increasingly adopting these disclosures to meet investor and stakeholder expectations.

The latest expansion specifically targets cleaning, security, professional services and information and communications technology (ICT) sectors. 

The additions include:

• Services: Three new emission factors for cleaning, security and professional services, developed in consultation with local trade associations.
• ICT: Five new emission factors to help firms track emissions from cloud services more accurately, developed by the Infocomm Media Development Authority and NUS Energy Studies Institute.
• Industry and energy: 86 new emission factors covering industrial processes and product use, refrigerants, purchased energy and building materials.

Focus on local services

Previously, service businesses often relied on international databases and “environmentally extended input-output” models. These provided aggregated, economy-wide figures that often did not fully reflect the local operational reality, SBF said. 

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The three new factors were developed to create market-average emission factors specific to local service sectors.

“Cleaning, security and professional services are used by almost every company in Singapore,” said chief executive officer of SBF Kok Ping Soon. “To report Scope 3 emissions properly, businesses need emission factors that reflect local conditions, rather than rely on overseas averages. These new Singapore-specific factors fill an important gap.”

“Beyond reporting, they help companies see more clearly where their emissions are coming from and what they can realistically do about them,” he added. This enables businesses to run in a “smarter, more cost-effective way”.

“SEFR gives Singapore companies a straightforward and credible tool to take real, practical action on decarbonisation,” he said.

New study for operational insights

A joint study by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research and SBF, announced in the same statement, identified distinct emission profiles for different services:

• Cleaning services: Emissions are largely material-intensive, driven by consumables and equipment (45 per cent), followed by employee commuting.
• Security services: These are technology-intensive, with electricity for surveillance systems contributing 47 per cent of emissions.
• Professional services: Emissions are driven by service delivery, specifically local business transport (57 per cent) and IT equipment use (43 per cent).

Since its launch in October 2024, SEFR has assisted more than 800 Singapore businesses in their reporting efforts, said SBF. 

“With nearly 320 (emission factors) now, we are confident that SEFR will empower even more businesses to track their emissions, which is critical to help them decarbonise,” said Lee Chuan Seng, chairman of the SEFR governance committee.

The new emission factors and a newly rolled-out carbon calculator for ICT are available online at the SEFR website.