The inclusion of Scope 3 emissions may seem unusual – why should my organisation be counting emissions from another company.
However, the logic is that when choosing your freighting method or business travel method you have a level of control over the companies you work with and therefore you have a level of influence over them.
This influence can be used to encourage improvement in sustainability performance and development of long-term relationships which can result in mutual improvements in carbon footprinting.
In order to have the motivation to influence the supply chain the emissions of said supply chain need to be accounted for in your footprint.
For the indirect emissions which are counted in Scope 3 such as water supply and wastewater treatments, while companies don’t tend to have control or influence over how the wastewater is treated (on a municipal scale) they do have influence over how much wastewater they discharge and can therefore work at reducing their footprint this way.
If a company has signification scope 3 emissions (over 40% of total scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions), it should set a scope 3 target.
