Should a franchisor count its franchisees' purchases, like ingredients, in Scope 3?

Yes, when they are significant. The minimum for Category 14 is your franchisees' Scope 1 and 2. The GHG Protocol's calculation guidance adds that a franchisor should include significant upstream emissions from what franchisees buy, and gives the example of a fast-food chain and the beef its restaurants purchase.

What Category 14 must cover

Category 14 applies to franchisors. Its minimum boundary is the Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions of franchisees while they run the outlets: grid power, DG set diesel, kitchen LPG or PNG, refrigerant top-ups. The emissions from building or fitting out the outlets are optional.

Where franchisee purchases come in

The Technical Guidance goes one step further than the minimum: if significant upstream emissions result from goods and services that franchisees buy, the franchisor should include them in Category 14. Its example is a large fast-food franchise counting the upstream emissions of the beef its restaurants buy.

The same chapter lists franchisees' own Scope 3 data as optional to collect. Read the two together: you need not gather every franchisee's full Scope 3, but a large source such as meat, dairy or cooking oil bought by every outlet should be counted.

Do not count the same kilo twice

• If your central kitchen or warehouse buys the ingredient and supplies it to outlets, its upstream emissions are already in your Category 1 when you buy it. Leave it out of Category 14.
• Count in Category 14 only what franchisees buy directly, for example from your approved vendors.
• Franchisee travel, waste and packaging they buy locally can stay out unless they are large for your business; say what you left out and why.

Getting the quantities

1. If you mandate approved vendors, ask them for quantities supplied per outlet per month. One report from a vendor beats a hundred franchisee replies.
2. Otherwise ask franchisees for kilograms or litres by item from their purchase invoices, not costs.
3. With many outlets, the guidance allows a representative sample, grouping outlets of similar type and size, then scaling up.
4. Multiply quantities by a cradle-to-gate factor per kilogram for each item, and state the factor source.

Example: 120 franchised outlets of a chicken restaurant chain

• Outlet power: 120 x 4,000 kWh a month x 12 = 57,60,000 kWh x 0.675 = 3,888 t CO2 (minimum boundary)
• Chicken bought direct from approved vendors: 120 x 900 kg a month x 12 = 12,96,000 kg, or 1,296 t
• Category 14 also covers these 1,296 t of chicken, multiplied by a published poultry factor for the sourcing region

Outlet power and chicken quantities are an example. 0.675 is the India grid factor for FY 2025-26 (CEA version 22.0).

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads the electricity bills, LPG invoices and approved-vendor purchase invoices that franchisees share, and keeps purchase lines in a separate supplier evidence trail, so outlet energy and ingredient quantities stay apart and each traces to its document.

• Collecting franchisee energy data
• What a franchisee reports
• Scope 3 supplier evidence

Sources: GHG Protocol Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions, Category 14: Franchises, GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard (2011), table 5.4, CEA, CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector, version 22.0

Last reviewed 2026-10-31.