Industry insight
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) recently deferred the deadline for first-year reporting of Scope 1 & 2 emissions under California Senate Bill (SB) 253: Climate Corporate Data Accounting Act to November 10, 2026.
In short, the deadline extension is simply to ensure reporting entities have clarity on the final regulation before their data is legally due. CARB withdrew their initial regulation from the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) — where it had been submitted for final review and approval — to make limited amendments; these changes are expected to be immaterial, explicitly intended to reduce ambiguity and add clarity. CARB will publish their updates for a public comment period before they resubmit the regulation to OAL.
If you're preparing to report for SB 253:
- Stay the course. Use this deadline extension as breathing room for Scope 1 & 2 data validation and audit preparation, not a reason to deprioritize.
- Scope 3 is coming. Use this time to also set up the complex systems and internal controls required for 2027's value chain emissions reporting.
Reporting for SB 261? From Sustainability Explorer, you can review CARB's checklist for voluntary submissions for California SB261: Climate-related Financial Risks Act. To learn more, view Explore California Air Resources Board rules for sustainability reporting.
Looking for more insight? Workiva has Industry Principals dedicated to gathering and sharing Sustainability & Carbon knowledge and expertise! For more insight, follow them — Alyssa Zucker for Carbon, Esther Toth for EMEA & APAC, and Mark Mellen for North America & APAC — on LinkedIn.
What's new
If you use Carbon, emission factor library V4.1 includes recent enhancements:
- For spend-based calculations, you can now choose to base commodities on North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)-6 levels for more granular emission factors.
- For fugitive emissions such as fire suppressants and refrigerants, library V4.1 now uses Kyoto and non-Kyoto global warming potential (GWP) values published by United Kingdom Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (DBEIS). These values replace those from United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), The Climate Registry, and 3M.
Want to view non-Kyoto emissions for Buildings? To include out-of-scope non-Kyoto emissions in the new Buildings data ledger, select emission factor library V4.1, then request a recalculation. To learn more about non-Kyoto emissions, view Methodologies for Workiva Carbon calculations.
To learn more about emission factor library V4.1, view Factor sources in Workiva Carbon.
Want to stay current? Follow What's new in Sustainability Reporting and What's New in Carbon!
On the calendar
July 21 — To learn more about the amendments to California SB 253, join CARB for their virtual public workshop, California Climate GHG reporting. At this workshop, learn CARB's reporting requirements for 2027 and beyond, including:
- Regulatory concepts for Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including data assurance
- The proposed approach for Scope 3 emissions reporting
Share your thoughts
The Workiva Community provides opportunities to engage with and learn from subject-matter experts (SMEs), advisory partners, and other sustainability reporters. For example, join Sustainability Management to learn and share best practices and experiences with sustainability reporting — in general and within the Workiva Platform — through discussion threads like:
- 2026 CDP Questionnaire FAQs, with insight and information curated from the lively Q&A session at last month's Beverage Break: Navigating the 2026 CDP Questionnaire & New Form Improvements
- Launching New Workiva Onboarding Paths for Carbon & Sustainability Teams, introducing new solution paths in Learning Hub to help team members get started in Workiva Carbon or your Sustainability Reporting workspace
Questions?
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