If we sell fertiliser, do farm N2O emissions go in our Scope 3 Category 11?
Yes. Nitrogen fertiliser forms nitrous oxide in the soil when it is used, so a maker or distributor reports those emissions in Scope 3 Category 11, use of sold products, for the tonnes sold in the year. Urea sellers also report the CO2 from the carbon in urea.
Why it counts as a direct use-phase emission
The GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard requires direct use-phase emissions in Category 11. These include products that contain or form greenhouse gases released during use. Nitrogen fertiliser fits that description: the N2O forms from the product's own nitrogen once it is in the soil, not from energy the farmer uses.
What to include
- Direct N2O: kg N sold x 0.01 kg N2O-N per kg N (IPCC 2006 default).
- Indirect N2O from volatilisation (10% of synthetic N, then 0.01) and leaching (30% of N, then 0.0075). Include them or say you left them out.
- Urea CO2: 0.733 t CO2 per tonne of urea.
- Convert N2O-N to N2O with 44/28 and name the GWP, for example 273 (IPCC AR6).
Who else reports the same emissions
The farmer reports them in Scope 1. A maker and its distributors each report them in Category 11 for the volume they sell. That overlap is expected in Scope 3; it is not double counting within one company's inventory.
Keep it apart from your own footprint
Emissions from making ammonia and urea at your plant are your Scope 1 and 2. Purchased fertiliser you resell carries upstream emissions in Category 1. Use-phase N2O sits only in Category 11. Report all lifetime emissions in the year of sale.
Worked example: 1,000 t of urea sold
- Nitrogen: 1,000 x 0.46 = 460 t N
- Direct N2O: 460 x 0.01 = 4.6 t N2O-N x 44/28 = 7.23 t N2O x 273 = 1,973 t CO2e
- Indirect N2O: (460 x 0.10 x 0.01) + (460 x 0.30 x 0.0075) = 1.495 t N2O-N x 44/28 = 2.35 t N2O x 273 = 641 t CO2e
- Urea CO2: 1,000 x 0.733 = 733 t CO2
- Category 11 total: about 3,348 t CO2e
IPCC 2006 Tier 1 defaults; the IPCC 2019 Refinement offers updated and climate-specific factors.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads your fertiliser sales and purchase invoices and keeps product, quantity and date for each line, which gives the tonnes sold that this calculation starts from.
Sources: GHG Protocol Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions (2013), Category 11, 2006 IPCC Guidelines, Volume 4, Chapter 11 (N2O from managed soils, urea application), IPCC AR6 Working Group I, Chapter 7, Table 7.15 (GWP100)
Last reviewed 2026-10-18. Check the Category 11 chapter of the GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard and its Technical Guidance for the current list of example products that form greenhouse gases in use.