The 15 scope 3 categories

What are the scope 3 categories?

The GHG Protocol defines scope 3 as all indirect emissions in a company's value chain that are not in scope 2. The Scope 3 Standard divides them into 15 categories, eight upstream, from the goods and services the company buys, and seven downstream, from the products it sells. See the GHG Protocol explained. See operational boundaries.

How does a company decide which categories are relevant?

The standard requires a company to account for all relevant categories and to disclose and justify any it excludes. It suggests five tests: size, whether the category contributes significantly to expected scope 3 emissions; influence, whether the company could reduce them; risk, whether they expose it to climate-related risks; stakeholders, whether customers, investors or others consider them critical; and outsourcing, whether they come from activities the company used to do itself. Sector guidance and the company's own criteria also count. A first screening with rough estimates, often spend-based, usually shows that two or three categories make up most of the total. See the spend-based method.

Scope 3 categories: an electronics brand's inventory

A consumer electronics brand designs products, buys components and contract manufacturing, and sells through retailers and online. It screens all 15 categories and estimates the ten that apply.

Scope 3 totals 148,500 tonnes. Use of sold products is 85,000 tonnes, the electricity customers' devices use over their expected lives, and purchased goods and services is 48,000 tonnes, mostly from components and assembly. Together they are 90% of the total. Categories 8, 10, 13, 14 and 15 do not apply: it leases no assets outside its boundary, sells finished products, lets nothing, has no franchises and holds no investments of note, and it says so. Its manufacturing is outsourced, which is why its scope 1 and 2 are small and category 1 is large. The five categories CARB has proposed to make mandatory under SB 253 from 2027 add up to 51,500 tonnes, 35% of its scope 3, so its largest category would be voluntary under that proposal.

Which scope 3 categories are hardest to measure?

Category 1 is the largest for most companies that buy physical goods, and it needs either supplier data or estimates based on spend or quantities, so its accuracy improves slowly as suppliers measure their own emissions. Category 11 depends on assumptions about how long products last and how much energy they use; the standard requires direct use-phase emissions, such as fuel burned or electricity used, and makes indirect ones optional. Category 15 is the main category for banks, insurers and investors, which measure financed emissions, usually with the PCAF standard. Categories 3 and 6 are easier, because energy use and travel bookings are already recorded. The December 2025 amendments to IFRS S2 let financial institutions limit category 15 to financed emissions; see the IFRS S2 amendments. See category 1 in detail and supplier-specific data.

What do IFRS S2, the ESRS and SB 253 require?

IFRS S2 requires scope 3 emissions with the categories included, measured under a framework that prioritises direct measurement, primary data and verified data, and it allows a company to omit scope 3 in its first year. ESRS E1 requires gross scope 3 emissions from each significant category. California's SB 253 requires scope 3 reporting from 2027, and CARB has proposed that only categories 1, 3, 5, 6 and 7 be mandatory at first. Under the law, penalties for scope 3 between 2027 and 2030 apply only for not filing, and misstatements made with a reasonable basis and disclosed in good faith are not penalised. See IFRS S2, ESRS E1 and California SB 253. See SB 253 scope 3 from 2027.

How do the categories avoid double counting?

Within one company's inventory, each emission belongs in one place. Freight the company pays for is category 4, while freight its customers pay for is category 9. Leased assets are in scope 1 and 2 or in category 8 or 13, depending on the boundary approach and whether the company is lessee or lessor. Across companies, double counting is expected: a supplier's scope 1 is its customer's category 1. That is why scope 3 totals are not added up across companies, and why reducing them depends on suppliers and customers. See scope 1 and 2 emissions.

This guide is general information. It is not tax or legal advice for your situation.