Scope 3 emissions are indirect emissions that occur outside your direct business activities, for example, within your value chain with suppliers, customers, and end-users. They often account for the largest portion of an organisation's CO₂ footprint.

Yes. Almost all regulations (such as the CSRD and the Californian SB219) require scope 3 emissions to be included. The same applies to most voluntary labels, such as the Science-Based Targets, which also mandate scope 3.

However, there is some flexibility to start measuring scope 3 emissions pragmatically.

Scope 3 emissions often represent the largest source of emissions within an organisation, making them crucial for a complete CO₂ inventory. Measuring and managing these emissions is essential for an effective CO₂ reduction strategy and to meet sustainability requirements.

Scope 3 includes a total of 15 emission categories. Some examples are purchased goods and services, commuting, waste, the use phase of produced goods and/or services, business travel, and transport and distribution.

The GHG Protocol provides a guide to determine which emission sources should be included, but this can be difficult to interpret. Our scope 3 experts can assist you in identifying which emission sources are relevant for your organisation, based on your specific business activities and supply chain.

With this guidance, we will enable you to create an accurate and correct inventory.

Depending on your sector and data access, you can gather data through spend-based models, activity-based data, and supplier-specific data. Supplier-specific data provides the highest quality, followed by activity-based data.

Our experts will help you choose the most feasible and reliable combination of models with our scope 3 consulting services.

Spend-based data bases CO₂ emissions on expenditure, while activity-based data links CO₂ emissions to specific activities or processes. Although spend-based data is easier to gather, activity-based data provides more accurate insights.

Spend-based analysis applies a specific CO₂ emission factor to your spending in a given category, for example, office supplies. Spend-based data may suggest that lower-cost products reduce your CO₂ footprint. However, in reality, cheaper (produced) products often have a high(er) environmental impact.

With our scope 3 consulting, we help you identify the key emission sources and gathering the right data. We work with you in our Hedgehog Carbon Platform, enabling you to manage CO₂ monitoring and reporting in-house, in line with the GHG Protocol.