Greenstone has published a 'Scope 3 Emissions Reporting & Where to Start' guide to help sustainability professionals, responsible for sustainability and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting for their organisation, to better understand scope 3 emissions and how to start reporting in this area.
Scope 3 emissions, also known as value chain emissions, are indirect Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions both upstream and downstream of an organisation’s main operations. This usually means all of the emissions a company is responsible for outside of its own operations—from the goods it purchases to the disposal of the products it sells.
In the past, organisations have typically focused on monitoring and documenting scope 1 and 2 emissions since they are relatively easy to interpret and data is readily accessible. However, due to a large number of organisations involved, complex logistical obligations and of course product use and disposal, it is often the case that scope 3 emissions are by far the largest proportion of an organisations’ carbon footprint. Yet, they are also the area over which businesses have the least control and have the most difficulty quantifying.
In a recent survey of 287 reporting companies, Greenstone asked the question “do you currently calculate and report your scope 3 emissions”. The survey found that only 17% of companies have been reporting scope 3 emissions for over 2 years and 18% have recently started to report in this area. The survey also found that a significant 38% of companies report limited scope 3 emissions e.g. business travel only and nearly 24% of companies said that they do not currently report any scope 3 but are considering reporting in this area in the future.
This guide includes:
- Introduction to Scope 3 emissions reporting landscape
- The difference between scope 1, 2 & 3 emissions
- What is driving the requirement for scope 3 reporting?
- Challenges companies might face when reporting scope 3 emissions
- How software can enable scope 3 reporting
- 4 key steps to starting your scope 3 emissions reporting journey
- Useful resources
Greenstone & scope 3 emissions calculation and reporting
Greenstone enables its clients to reliably measure and report in all scope 3 categories through its award-winning software solutions and customer support team of sustainability experts. Greenstone's suite of sustainability, ESG and supply chain software solutions provides advanced and integrated scope 3 GHG emissions calculations in line with the GHG Protocol.
Greenstone’s Enterprise sustainability reporting software enables scope 1, 2 & 3 GHG emissions calculations, including value chain and supply chain. Users can upload data from any category and automate that calculation process. This means that all 15 scopes 3 categories can be tracked against long term targets in our Enterprise Environment module.
SupplierPortal and InvestorPortal can be used to collect primary data from external organisations. So, data directly gathered from suppliers and portfolio companies is converted into carbon emissions data and automatically shared across our platform to ensure the clients have an accurate and responsive scope 3 emissions inventory.
