Purchased Goods and Services (Scope 3 Category 1)
Category 1 of Scope 3 covers all upstream emissions from the production of products purchased or acquired by the reporting company in the reporting year, including both goods and services.
What is Purchased Goods and Services (Scope 3 Category 1)?
Purchased goods and services is typically the largest Scope 3 category for most organisations. It covers the cradle-to-gate emissions of everything a company buys — from raw materials and components to professional services, IT equipment, office supplies, and catering.
The GHG Protocol recommends three calculation methods in order of accuracy: the supplier-specific method (using emissions data from individual suppliers), the hybrid method (combining supplier-specific data with secondary data), and the spend-based method (applying sector-average emission factors to procurement expenditure). Most organisations start with the spend-based method and progressively improve data quality for their highest-impact categories.
Calculating Category 1 emissions is critical because it typically represents 40–60% of total Scope 3 for service-based companies and 60–80% for manufacturing firms. Identifying hotspots within this category helps organisations target supplier engagement and sustainable procurement programmes effectively.
Practical Examples
A professional services firm applies DEFRA spend-based emission factors to its annual procurement ledger, finding that IT hardware and cloud services account for 45% of its Category 1 emissions.
A food retailer uses supplier-specific data from its top 20 suppliers (covering 70% of spend) and spend-based factors for the remainder, producing a Category 1 estimate with a blended data quality score.
A construction company calculates the embodied carbon of purchased steel, concrete, and timber using EPD data, identifying concrete as the dominant source of its Category 1 footprint.
How Climatise Helps
Climatise automatically maps your procurement data to emission factor databases using spend-based, hybrid, and supplier-specific methods. Upload your purchase ledger and the platform categorises spend, applies the most appropriate factors, and highlights your top emission hotspots.
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