Scope 3 emissions

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With IBM® ESG Suite, you can configure your accounts to collect and report against the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard.

The Corporate Value Chain Accounting Reporting Standard provides a step-by-step guide for companies to use in quantifying and reporting their corporate value chain scope 3 emissions.
Note: Using spend data to calculate Scope 3 is restricted to categories 1, 2, 4, 6, and 9 as per the GHG protocol.

Scope 3 categories

Upstream:

  • Category 1 - Purchased goods and services
  • Category 2 - Capital goods
  • Category 3 - Activities related to fuel and energy
  • Category 4 - Upstream transportation and distribution
  • Category 5 - Waste generated in operations
  • Category 6 - Business travel
  • Category 7 - Employee commuting
  • Category 8 - Upstream leased assets

Downstream:

  • Category 9 - Downstream transportation and distribution
  • Category 10 - Processing of sold products
  • Category 11 - Use of sold products
  • Category 12 - End-of-life treatment of sold products
  • Category 13 - Downstream leased assets
  • Category 14 - Franchises
  • Category 15 - Investments
Note: For more information about factor set coverage in the context of indirect Scope 3 emissions, see the individual factor set pages under Emission factors, and also see Managed emission factors.

Category 3 - Activities related to fuel and energy

Also referred to as Lifecycle Emissions, category 3 relates to the direct use of scope 1 or scope 2 sources with the most common use being the fuel and energy related activities that are not included in scope 1 or 2 and which are usually associated with energy or fuel consumption.
Fuel- and energy-related activities include the extraction, production, and transportation of fuels and energy purchased or acquired by the reporting company in the reporting year. These activities include:
  • A. Upstream emissions of purchased fuels, that is, extraction, production, and transportation of fuels consumed by the reporting company.
  • B. Upstream emissions of purchased electricity, that is, extraction, production, and transportation of fuels consumed in the generation of electricity, steam, heating, and cooling consumed by the reporting company.
  • C. Transmission and distribution (T&D) losses (generation of electricity, steam, heating and cooling that is lost in a T&D system) and reported by the end user.
  • D. Generation of purchased electricity that is sold to end users (generation of electricity, steam, heating, and cooling that is purchased by the reporting company and sold to end users) and reported by utility company or energy retailer only.

In Envizi ESG Suite, the lifecycle emissions category is treated separately because it shares the same activity data (that is, consumption) as the associated Scope 1 or 2 source. Therefore, you do not have to capture the activity data in another account.

It is also possible for an organization to capture Scope 3 category 3 emissions separately in Envizi ESG Suite. Account styles can be configured specifically for the purpose.

Viewing Scope 3 category 3 lifecycle emissions

To view Scope 3 category 3 lifecycle emissions, choose one of the following options:
Emissions Performance Dashboard
Open the Emissions Performance Dashboard. You can export the data to a CSV file.

All other performance dashboards show scope 3 sources by default, but do not show a scope 3 breakdown.

Monthly Data Summary extract report
To view lifecycle emissions in the Monthly Data Summary extract report, do the following steps:
  1. From the global search list, select Reports, and enter Monthly Data Summary report.
  2. Select the Monthly Data Summary report from the grid to open it.
  3. Specify the report criteria:
    1. In Filter By #1, select Include Lifecycle Emissions (where available).
    2. Leave Filter BY #2 set to Consolidation.
  4. Click Submit.
Monthly dataset custom reports
The Monthly dataset includes an Emissions table that you can use to build custom PowerReports.