In the food and beverage sector, most emissions don’t come from your operations. They come from your value chain (upstream suppliers, downstream logistics, packaging, product use, and disposal).
These are Scope 3 emissions. They’re complex, often hidden, and for most companies, they represent the lion’s share of the carbon footprint.
This guide explains what Scope 3 emissions are, why they matter for food companies, and how to tackle them.
Scope 3 emissions are all indirect greenhouse gas emissions that occur throughout a company's entire value chain, including both upstream (before products reach you) and downstream (after your products are sold) emissions.
They’re different from:
Scope 3 emissions fall outside your direct control but are still closely linked to your business. Think of them as the carbon footprint of everything that happens before your raw materials arrive and after your products leave the shelf.
According to the GHG Protocol, Scope 3 can account for up to 90% of a company’s total emissions. That’s why managing it isn’t optional if you’re aiming for net zero. It’s where the biggest risks and the biggest opportunities lie.
For most food companies, Scope 3 emissions make up 80% to 95% of total emissions, according to company disclosures and industry studies. In 2021, Nestlé reported that 95.8% of its footprint was Scope 3, for JBS, it was 91.4%, and for food distributors like Solinest, it’s 99% of their entire carbon footprint.
These figures highlight a clear reality: real progress on climate targets depends less on what happens inside your company and more on the decisions you influence across your supply chain.
Here’s why it matters:
The GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard divides Scope 3 emissions into 15 categories. Categories 1 to 8 are upstream, covering emissions from goods, services and activities before a product reaches the company. Categories 9 to 15 are downstream, covering emissions after the product is sold.
Companies are expected to assess all 15, but only need to report on those that are relevant. For any category you exclude, you'll need to explain why.
Emissions from the goods, services and activities a company relies on before its products are made or sold.
Emissions from the production of all goods and services that a company buys. For food companies, this includes everything from raw agricultural products to packaging materials, and is usually the largest Scope 3 category.
Emissions from the production of capital goods purchased by the company. These are physical assets used to produce other goods or services, such as equipment or buildings.
Emissions from producing and transporting fuels and energy that a company uses but does not own or directly control.
Emissions from transporting and distributing products before they reach the company, including third-party logistics services you don't directly control.
Emissions from treating and disposing of waste that a company creates in its day-to-day operations.
Emissions from employee business travel in vehicles not owned or controlled by the company, such as commercial flights or rental cars.
Emissions from employees traveling between home and work, using any means of transport not owned by the company.
Emissions from the operation of assets leased by the company (not already included in Scope 1 and 2), like rented warehouses or offices.
Emissions that come from the distribution, use and disposal of your products and services.
Emissions from transporting and distributing products after they leave the company, such as shipping finished goods to customers.
Emissions from further processing of intermediate products you sell. This primarily applies to food companies that sell ingredients to other manufacturers.
Emissions from consumers and businesses using your products throughout their lifetime, such as energy consumed by appliances or vehicles.
Emissions from disposing of or recycling products after customers are done with them, including packaging waste management.
Emissions from assets you own but lease to others, such as retail space or equipment.
Emissions from activities of franchisees operating under the company’s brand.
Emissions from companies you invest in, including subsidiaries, joint ventures, and financial investments.
Calculating Scope 3 emissions involves mapping your value chain, collecting activity data from suppliers, partners, and customers, and applying appropriate emission factors.
For food companies, the goal isn’t to calculate everything at once; it’s to build a reliable picture over time, starting with your biggest impact areas.
The GHG Protocol offers several calculation methods, depending on the quality of data you have:
Pro tip: To make this process faster and error-free, consider using a platform like Carbon Maps. It automates calculations, provides access to over 34,000 emission factors, visualizes your data with dashboards, and makes it simple to collect primary data from your suppliers through an automated supplier engagement feature.
Tracking Scope 3 emissions is hard, especially in a sector with complex supply chains, short product cycles, and hundreds of suppliers. Here are some of the biggest barriers food companies face:
Data availability and quality
Getting accurate, detailed data from suppliers is tough. Many suppliers don’t track their emissions or don’t have the systems to share the data you need. Estimates based on industry averages can be helpful, but they reduce accuracy.
Low visibility beyond direct suppliers
Most emissions come from suppliers you don’t deal with directly, like raw material producers or ingredient processors. Tracing ingredients or materials back through multiple tiers of the supply chain (especially in food and personal care) is difficult and resource-intensive.
Complex supply chains
Food value chains involve multiple actors across geographies and product types. That makes it tough to map where emissions are coming from or where to focus reduction efforts.
Low engagement from suppliers
Even when you request data, suppliers may be unresponsive or unsure how to provide it. Without clear incentives or guidance, it’s hard to get consistent participation.
Want to engage suppliers more effectively? Read: Automating Supplier Sustainability Assessments for Smarter Engagement
Your Scope 3 footprint depends heavily on what you sell. Even within food, each sub-sector has a distinct value chain, with different emissions hotspots and data challenges. Understanding these differences helps teams prioritize where to act.
Learn how CSR and Procurement teams can team up to cut Scope 3 emissions
Carbon Maps is a SaaS decarbonization and sustainability platform for the food industry that helps companies measure, manage and reduce Scope 3 emissions at the product level, where the bulk of their impact lies.
Engage suppliers and collect primary data through automated supplier sustainability assessments. You get accurate product-level data that reflects your actual supply chain, without chasing spreadsheets or emails.
Purchased goods (Category 1) are often the biggest and most complex source of Scope 3 emissions. Carbon Maps breaks this down by ingredient, helping you understand the true carbon footprint of your raw materials.
Get a category-specific breakdown: by ingredient, packaging, transport, or product use, so you can prioritize actions where they’ll have the biggest effect.
The eco-design feature lets you model the emissions impact of changing suppliers, ingredients, packaging, or transport. See the difference in real time, and make choices that align with your climate goals.
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Scope 3 emissions are the indirect greenhouse gas emissions that occur across a company's value chain, outside its own operations and the energy it buys. They include emissions from suppliers, transport, product use and disposal. The GHG Protocol divides them into 15 categories, and for most food companies they make up the large majority of total emissions.
Typical examples include farming raw ingredients such as milk, wheat and cocoa (Category 1), refrigerated transport by third-party hauliers (Categories 4 and 9), packaging production and disposal (Categories 1 and 12), and waste from processing (Category 5). Category 1 is usually the largest by far, because agriculture accounts for most of a food product's footprint.
In the EU, the CSRD requires companies with more than 1,000 employees and over €450 million in net turnover to report material Scope 3 emissions. In the US, California's SB 253 requires companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue doing business in the state to report Scope 3 emissions from 2027. Companies outside both scopes are often affected indirectly, as customers that report ask their suppliers for emissions data.
Most customers asking for Scope 3 data want a product carbon footprint (PCF): the emissions per unit of the product you sell them, in kg CO₂e, usually calculated cradle-to-gate. A PCF calculated to ISO 14067 and shared in a PACT-aligned format will be easier for customers to use. See How to Respond to Product Carbon Footprint Requests: A 7-Step Guide.
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