Tunley Engineering chief carbon reduction engineer, Dr Torill Bigg, explains the importance of Scope 3 emissions which are often not reported or taken seriously.
Scopes 1 and 2 largely comprise direct and indirect energy use through business operations, travel, heating and lighting. These are the most commonly reported scopes. Scope 3, despite being often the largest of the scopes is less frequently reported.
It’s sometimes misunderstood that a company’s scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions are simply the scope 1 and 2 emissions of their suppliers. This would merely be the carbon equivalent of fuel and energy use and could be considered to represent a double counting of carbon emissions. Sometimes, this reasoning is used to justify not measuring or reporting an organisation’s scope 3 emissions.
It has been stated by some, that if all companies report their scopes 1 and 2 there would be no need for these “other indirect emissions” that make up scope 3 to be reported. However, there are 15 different emission sources included in scope 3, as defined by the greenhouse gas protocol corporate reporting standard. They can be the largest part by far of an organisation’s carbon footprint, and not all of them can justly be laid at the foot of the supply chain.
Let’s take this back a step; scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from sources such as stationary combustion for example furnaces, ovens and central heating plus direct mobile combustion such as in company owned vehicles like company cars or delivery vans. Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from purchased energy sources, most commonly this is electricity bought in to operate the business lights, IT, and machinery.
Although scope 3 will include the scope 1 and 2 emissions of suppliers, for example, it also includes items that are very much the emissions of the reporting organisation. While some scope 3 emission sources can be a little harder to collate data for, the size of their contribution to an organisation’s greenhouse gas emissions in total means that environmental responsibility demands sufficient commitment to their measurement and so the visibility that lends allowing for reduction opportunities from them.
For example, emissions from business travel. If an employee travels to a business meeting on behalf of the company, in their own car and then re-claims that in expenses, these are scope 3 emissions. And organisations can reduce these emissions through actions such as incentivising more remote meetings or greener travel.
There are plenty of good options allowing the reduction of supplied water use. These include harvesting of rainwater, water re-use in a grey water system, maintenance and prevention of leaks and losses and fitting water reduction gadgets to hand washing basins and toilet cisterns.
How a company disposes of their waste materials is included in scope 3 -The organisation can choose to dispose of refuse by landfill, or by separating out their waste for recycling. They can play an active part in reducing waste materials so that the amount disposed of is less. These are all part of business practices in business strategies that all decisions made by the reporting organisation.
When transporting out goods or mail packages, an organisation can select how those items are freighted selecting the lowest carbon emissions for the purpose.
All in all, organisations have control over, and choices in, a very large element of the scope 3 emissions. As such it is not acceptable to plead that scope 3 is out of their control and is effectively in the gift of their supplier chain.