Are emissions from a tractor I hire with its driver Scope 1 or Scope 3?
Scope 3. A tractor hired with its operator from a custom hiring centre or a neighbour is run by them, so its diesel is in their Scope 1 and your Scope 3, Category 1, as a purchased service. Only tractors you own, or lease and operate yourself, are Scope 1.
The test
Under operational control, a source is Scope 1 if you run it day to day: you drive it or employ the driver, and you maintain it. A hired tractor with its operator fails that test for the farmer.
Case by case
- Own tractor, own driver: Scope 1.
- Tractor hired with operator: Scope 3, Category 1.
- Tractor rented without operator, driven by you: Scope 1 under operational control.
- Combine harvester hired per acre: Scope 3, Category 1.
Data to ask for
Hours or acres worked and the diesel used, from the hiring centre's log. Without litres, estimate from hours and label it an estimate.
Worked example: hired ploughing (illustrative inputs)
- Ploughing hired from a custom hiring centre: 8 hours
- Diesel used, from the centre's log: 40 litres
- 40 x 2.68 = 107.2 kg CO2, reported in Scope 3, Category 1 (purchased service)
Hours and litres are illustrative; 2.68 kg CO2 per litre is the IPCC 2006 diesel default.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads the invoices behind each line and files them as Scope 1, Scope 2 or Scope 3 evidence; the scope choice for contracted services follows the control test you record in your method note.
Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults)
Last reviewed 2026-10-21.