What is Scope 3 Category 2: Capital goods?
Scope 3 Category 2 covers emissions from producing and transporting capital goods acquired in the reporting year. These are long-life final products used in operations, including buildings, machinery, equipment and vehicles. The GHG Protocol categories place them outside Category 1 purchased goods and services.
Why does Scope 3 Category 2 matter to you?
A customer or CDP request may ask for Scope 3 by category. One large asset purchase can move your total. Missing the fixed-asset register omits it, while spreading emissions through depreciation breaks the GHG Protocol method.
How is Scope 3 Category 2 calculated?
Start with fixed-asset additions. Use a supplier figure covering raw-material extraction through delivery. Otherwise combine supplier data with estimates, multiply mass or units by a product-average emissions factor, or multiply spend by an industry emissions factor. Count the total in the acquisition year. Keep invoices, classifications, factor sources and units.
What mistakes should you avoid?
- Including fuel or electricity used to run the asset, which belongs in Scope 1 or Scope 2.
- Counting the same purchase in Category 1 and Category 2.
- Excluding buildings when they are capital goods. The Keslio calculator has no dedicated capital-goods input, so calculate and report them separately.
- Using a spend factor without recording its currency, price year and geography.
Is Category 2 the same as purchased goods and services?
No. Suppose a paper mill in Singapore buys a pulping machine and extends its warehouse. If both are fixed assets, their emissions are Category 2. Pulp fibre and process chemicals consumed in production remain Category 1.
What should you send when a customer asks for Category 2?
Send the reporting year, purchases included, total kg or tonnes CO2e, method for each item, factor source, cradle-to-gate boundary and exclusions. Flag exceptional purchases that explain a year-to-year change.
What does a Category 2 calculation look like?
Suppose a paper mill buys two identical pulping machines during the reporting year. In this hypothetical example, the supplier provides a cradle-to-gate product carbon footprint of 42,000 kg CO2e per machine, including delivery to the mill.
Calculation: 2 machines x 42,000 kg CO2e per machine = 84,000 kg CO2e, or 84 metric tonnes CO2e in Category 2 for the acquisition year. Keep the supplier record, boundary, units and delivery coverage with the calculation.