Concept
Scope 3 emissions
Also: scope 3 · value chain emissions · indirect emissions
All indirect greenhouse gas emissions that occur in a company's value chain, upstream and downstream, other than the purchased energy counted in Scope 2, as defined by the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard.
The GHG Protocol divides a company’s emissions into three scopes. Scope 1 covers direct emissions from owned or controlled sources, Scope 2 covers purchased electricity, heat and steam, and Scope 3 covers everything else in the value chain.
The fifteen categories
The Scope 3 Standard defines fifteen categories, eight upstream (including purchased goods and services, capital goods, fuel- and energy-related activities, transport and business travel) and seven downstream (including use of sold products, end-of-life treatment and investments). For most manufacturers, purchased goods and services is the largest category.
Why product data matters
Category 1 emissions are calculated from what a company buys. Spend-based or average-data methods are quick but blunt; supplier-specific product carbon footprints are more accurate but require consistent methodology and data exchange, which is what PACT and Catena-X provide.
Reporting pressure
CSRD, investor frameworks and customer requirements increasingly require Scope 3 disclosure with assurance, which pushes data quality requirements down the supply chain.
Where Verdatir fits
Verdatir verifies the supplier and product footprints that feed Scope 3 inventories and keeps their lineage intact, so that an assured corporate number can be traced back to verified product-level data.
Sources and further reading
In practice
Verdatir turns the rules behind this term into automated checks with a reviewer in the loop.
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