Scope 3 emissions are the indirect greenhouse gas emissions occurring across a company’s value chain, including agricultural raw materials, transport and processing, and they typically represent the largest share of a food retailer’s or manufacturer’s total carbon footprint.
In trade practice
EU food buyers subject to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive or internal net-zero targets increasingly request product-level carbon footprint data from suppliers, covering field-to-gate emissions. Suppliers may be asked to complete questionnaires, share life-cycle assessment reports or use buyer-specified calculation tools. A common difficulty is the absence of primary activity data at farm level, leading to reliance on generic emission factors that buyers may not accept. Logistics teams should also capture transport emission data, including reefer fuel consumption per tonne-kilometre.
In a specification
A supplier code of conduct or sustainability annex may require disclosure of scope 3 emissions data in a specified format, referencing the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain Standard as the calculation methodology.