What is the difference between insetting and offsetting?

Insetting means funding reductions inside your own value chain, such as helping a supplier switch fuel; they show up as lower Scope 3 when the supplier's data changes. Offsetting means buying credits from outside it, reported separately and never subtracted from your inventory.

Insetting

• Counts only through measured lower emissions in your supplier data.
• Paying for a project does not by itself change your figures.

Offsetting

• Credits are retired and reported alongside, not deducted.
• Check the credit's quality, for example against ICVCM principles.

Wording

Insetting is not a GHG Protocol term. Describe what you funded and what changed in the data.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads bills, fuel invoices and production records into dated, fingerprinted records, so the figure you send a buyer can be traced to its documents.

• Can offsets be subtracted
• Credits and SBTi targets

Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.