Scope 3
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      3.2.2 Other Capital Goods

      Definition

      Capital goods are used by the company to manufacture, store, deliver or sell a product or to provide a service. In financial accounting, they are treated as fixed assets or property, plant and equipment. Examples of capital goods are plant, machinery, buildings, equipment and vehicles.

      Accounting for other capital goods

      The category Other Capital Goods includes all upstream issues from the production of capital goods purchased or acquired by the reporting company in the reporting year. However, emissions from the use of capital goods by the reporting company are not included. They are recorded either in Scope 1 (e.g. for fuel consumption) or in Scope 2 (e.g. for electricity consumption). It is important that you do not consider these emissions twice in your balance sheet. 

      You can use the following methods to calculate the Scope 3 emissions of capital goods:

      • The supplier-specific method: consumption data is obtained directly from the supplier (cradle-to-gate).
      • The product-based average method: Estimate emissions based on the mass or other unit of the purchased product and multiply the value by a secondary emission factor (e.g. an industry average value per unit of the purchased product).
      • The spend-based average method: Estimates emissions based on the spend on the purchased product and multiplies the value by a secondary emission factor (e.g. an industry average value per monetary value of the product).
      • The hybrid method: Uses a combination of the supplier-specific method and the product- or spend-based average method. 

      Accounting for other capital goods in the Climate Hub

      There are no predefined activities in the Climate Hub. You can create new activities using the Add own activity button. You can find a detailed description here. You can also upload a CSV file with activities and associated emission factors. You can find detailed instructions here.


      Further information can be found in the Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions  of the GHG Protocol in Chapter 2: Capital Goods from page 36.