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Scope 3 categories: the 15 GHG Protocol categories, explained with examples

The Scope 3 categories are the fifteen groups the GHG Protocol uses to organise every emission in a company's value chain that is not in Scope 1 or Scope 2. Eight are upstream, from what you buy, and seven are downstream, from what you sell. Most customer questionnaires ask for only a few of them.

The Scope 3 categories at work: freight and shipping in an export supply chain

The 15 Scope 3 categories at a glance

Upstream: what you buy

  1. Purchased goods and services. The extraction, production and transport of what you buy: raw materials, packaging, components, outsourced services.
  2. Capital goods. The same, for long-life assets such as machinery, vehicles, buildings and equipment.
  3. Fuel- and energy-related activities not included in Scope 1 or 2. The upstream emissions of the fuel and electricity you use, and grid transmission losses.
  4. Upstream transportation and distribution. Moving purchased products to you, and outbound transport you pay for, in vehicles you do not own.
  5. Waste generated in operations. Third-party disposal and treatment of your waste.
  6. Business travel. Employees travelling for work in vehicles owned by others: flights, trains, buses and cars. Karbon360 covers this category.
  7. Employee commuting. Employees travelling between home and work. Karbon360 covers this category.
  8. Upstream leased assets. Assets you lease that are not already counted in Scope 1 or 2.

Downstream: what you sell

  1. Downstream transportation and distribution. Transport and storage of your products after sale, when you do not pay for it.
  2. Processing of sold products. Emissions when customers process your intermediate products, for example steel turned into components.
  3. Use of sold products. Emissions from customers using what you sold, such as the energy a product consumes in use.
  4. End-of-life treatment of sold products. Disposal and recycling of your products once they are finished with.
  5. Downstream leased assets. Assets you own and lease to others.
  6. Franchises. Emissions from franchised operations that are not in your Scope 1 or 2.
  7. Investments. The emissions of what you invest in or finance. This is the category banks and lenders mean by financed emissions.

Which Scope 3 categories matter for an exporter

It depends on the product. For a manufacturer, purchased goods (category 1) and transport (categories 4 and 9) are often the largest, and use and end of life (11 and 12) can dominate for products that consume energy. For a bank, category 15 is the whole inventory.

What customers actually ask for is narrower. Questionnaires and bank templates ask for business travel (6) and employee commuting (7) first, which is why those two are the categories Karbon360 covers today. Read the request before you start: answer the categories it names.

How the Scope 3 categories fit with Scope 1 and 2

The scopes do not overlap inside one inventory, but they connect across companies. Your Scope 1 emissions are your customers' Scope 3 category 1. See Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions explained for the whole picture, or the glossary entries for Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3.

What to do about the categories you do not cover

A boundary you state is accepted. A number you invent is not. If a questionnaire asks for a Scope 3 category outside your inventory, say it is outside the current boundary and, if you can, when you expect to add it. Karbon360 reports its own boundary the same way: 2 of 15 categories, on every report.

The categories are defined in the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard.

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