If my products last longer, does Scope 3 Category 11 make my footprint look worse?

Yes, and the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol says so. Category 11 counts the lifetime emissions of everything sold in the year, so a longer life raises the number. It asks you to report product lifetimes and intensity, such as emissions per hour of use, beside it.

What the standard says

Category 11 includes total expected lifetime emissions of all relevant products sold in the reporting year. Because of that, companies making more durable products could appear penalised: as lifetimes rise, Scope 3 emissions rise, all else equal. To reduce the risk of misreading, the standard says to report relevant information such as product lifetimes and emissions intensity.

Intensity measures it suggests

• Annual emissions per product.
• Energy efficiency per product.
• Emissions per hour of use.
• Emissions per kilometre driven.
• Emissions per functional unit.

The standard's own example

An automaker sells one million cars in 2010, each expected to last ten years. It reports the anticipated use-phase emissions of all of them over ten years, and also reports average fuel economy in kilometres per litre and average emissions in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per kilometre.

Practical points

• Direct use-phase emissions are the required minimum. Indirect ones are optional.
• You can calculate Category 11 without collecting data from customers, from design specifications and assumed use.
• A change in your lifetime or use assumption is a method change, and may trigger a base-year recalculation.

Two air compressor models, 500 units sold each (example)

• Each draws 11 kilowatts (kW) for 1,500 hours a year: 16,500 kilowatt hours (kWh); x 0.675 = 11.1 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year
• Model A, 8 year life: 500 x 11.1 x 8 = 44,400 tonnes in Category 11
• Model B, 12 year life: 500 x 11.1 x 12 = 66,600 tonnes, 50% more, with identical efficiency
• Report 11.1 tonnes per unit a year and 7.4 kilograms per hour of use for both, so a reader sees the longer life, not worse performance

All numbers are examples, rounded. 0.675 is the Central Electricity Authority financial year 2025-26 grid factor, an estimate; use the grid where the machine runs.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads electricity bills and fuel invoices into monthly records for your own sites. Units sold, lifetimes and use hours for Category 11 come from your product data, which you add.

• Carbon calculators
• Use of sold products: how to calculate
• Use phase for pumps and motors
• Emissions per functional unit as an intensity metric

Sources: GHG Protocol, Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard, CEA, CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian Power Sector

Last reviewed 2026-11-04. Quotes are from the Scope 3 Standard. Check ghgprotocol.org for revisions before you file.