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Definition

Scope 3 Category 13: Downstream leased assets

Scope 3 Category 13 counts operating emissions from assets your company owns and rents to customers when those emissions sit outside your Scope 1 and Scope 2 totals.

What is Scope 3 Category 13: Downstream leased assets?

Your company owns the asset; another company operates it. GHG Protocol Table 5.4 puts that operation in Category 13 only when your Scope 1 and Scope 2 totals exclude it. Count the asset, not the tenant's other operations.

Why does Scope 3 Category 13 matter to you?

An inventory reviewer may compare your asset register, lease register and boundary note. If they disagree, the same electricity use or refrigerant leak can be counted twice or omitted.

How is Scope 3 Category 13 calculated?

List owned assets leased out. Remove any whose operation is already in Scope 1 or Scope 2. For the rest, request asset-level meter, fuel, refrigerant, or emissions records. Category 13 guidance applies the Category 8 methods. If the tenant gives only a combined total, allocate it using a recorded physical measure, such as equipment count. Match the lease period.

What mistakes should you avoid?

  • Treating legal ownership alone as enough without checking your boundary note.
  • Adding the tenant's full company inventory instead of the leased asset.
  • Allocating a combined figure without keeping the physical measure used.
  • Putting manufacturing or construction inside the minimum operating boundary.

Is Category 13 the same as Category 8?

No. The asset owner checks Category 13. The company using someone else's asset checks Category 8. Both first decide whether the operating emissions already belong in their Scope 1 or Scope 2 totals.

What should you keep for a Category 13 calculation?

Keep the ownership record, lease, asset identifier, dates, boundary decision, tenant records, factor file, calculation, and allocation note. For IT hardware, tie cooling or electricity data to the serial numbers or meter covered by the lease.

Example

Suppose a software and IT services firm in Italy owns a modular edge-computing unit with an R-410A cooling system and leases it to a customer for all of 2026. The customer operates the unit, and its operation is outside the owner's Scope 1 and Scope 2 totals. The tenant's maintenance log records a 1.8 kg refrigerant leak during the year.

Refrigerant warming potential is not country-specific. It compares the warming effect of a gas with CO2 over 100 years. The published Keslio factor is 1,924 kg CO2e/kg refrigerant, from UK DESNZ and DEFRA's Government GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting 2026. Calculation: 1.8 kg x 1,924 kg CO2e/kg refrigerant = 3,463.2 kg CO2e, or 3.4632 metric tonnes CO2e in Category 13. The maintenance log covers the full lease year, so no time adjustment is needed. Electricity used by the unit still needs its own activity data and factor before the owner can report the complete Category 13 total.

Where it comes up

GHG Protocol Category 13 reporting-year boundary, minimum boundary, and asset-owner treatmentCorporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, Table 5.4 and section 5.5 Category 13, pages 37 and 51; Appendix A, pages 125-126Official sourceGHG Protocol Category 13 tenant data request and physical allocationTechnical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions, Category 13, pages 128-129 and Example 13.1Official source

Related terms

Scope 3 Emissions

Scope 3 emissions are the indirect greenhouse gas emissions from goods, services, transport, product use, investments, and other upstream and downstream activities outside your company's Scope 1 and Scope 2 boundary.

Emission factor

An emission factor converts a measured activity, such as kilowatt-hours of electricity or litres of fuel, into greenhouse gas emissions by stating the emissions released per unit of that activity.

Carbon Accounting

Carbon accounting is the process of defining a company’s greenhouse gas inventory, collecting activity data, applying emission factors, and reporting Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions on a consistent basis.

Scope 3 Category 8: Upstream leased assets

Scope 3 Category 8 covers operating emissions from leased buildings, vehicles, and equipment that your company uses but excludes from its Scope 1 and Scope 2 inventory.

Scope 3 Category 11: Use of sold products

Scope 3 Category 11 covers the expected lifetime emissions from customers using goods and services your company sold during the reporting year, including fuel or electricity use and greenhouse gases released from products.

Sources

  • GHG Protocol

    Category 13 definition, minimum operating boundary, part-year treatment, leased-product election, and Appendix A boundary test

    2026-08-20

  • GHG Protocol

    Tenant data requests, asset allocation, and use of the Category 8 calculation methods for Category 13

    2026-08-20

  • UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

    The 2026 R-410A refrigerant factor used in the example

    2026-08-20

Last verified 2026-08-20

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Scope 3 Category 13: Downstream leased assets Definition | Keslio