Climate & Environment
Upstream Emissions
Definition
Upstream emissions are the greenhouse gas emissions occurring in an organisation's value chain before its own operations: extraction, production and transport of purchased goods and services, capital goods, fuel- and energy-related activities, business travel, employee commuting and upstream leased assets (Scope 3 categories 1–8). For most companies in most sectors, upstream categories — above all purchased goods and services — dominate the total footprint, often by an order of magnitude over direct emissions.
References
Source imported for editorial provenance.
This reference provides supporting context for how “Upstream Emissions” is defined and used.
Overview
How it is used
The boundary structures Scope 3 inventories, science-based target coverage requirements, CDP supply chain programmes, and procurement-driven decarbonisation.
Why it matters
A company that only counts its own chimneys counts the smallest part of itself; upstream emissions are the rest of the iceberg.