Should I split purchases into production and non-production when building Category 1?

It is optional, and usually worth doing. The GHG Protocol says splitting purchases into production-related items (materials, components, parts) and non-production items (office supplies, IT support, services) can follow how your purchase team already buys, which makes the data easier to organise and collect.

What goes on each side

Box 5.2 of the Scope 3 Standard draws the line like this:

• Production-related (often called direct procurement): materials, components and parts you process or build into your product; goods bought for resale, for traders and distributors only; and plant and equipment used to make the product.
• Non-production-related (often called indirect procurement): office supplies, furniture, computers, phones, travel services, IT support, outsourced admin, consulting, housekeeping and gardening; plus maintenance, repair and operations items such as spare parts.

The split organises data; it does not change categories

Category 1 holds every purchase not reported in Categories 2 to 8. So machines and other capital goods still go to Category 2, upstream fuel and power losses to Category 3, freight you pay for to Category 4 and travel to Category 6, whichever side of the split they sit on.

Why it helps a factory

• Production purchases are usually a few vendors with tonnes or kilograms printed on the invoice: steel, granules, yarn, cartons. These suit quantity-based factors or supplier data.
• Non-production purchases are many small vendors billed by value. A spend-based estimate is usually enough.
• The Technical Guidance allows different methods for different activities within one category, so each side can use the method that fits it.

How to split your purchase register

1. Raw material and packing material ledgers: production-related. Cartons and pallets that leave with your product count here.
2. Consumables, stationery, AMC, repairs, professional fees: non-production.
3. Spare parts for machines: non-production, as maintenance, repair and operations, even though they are used on the shop floor.
4. Check doubtful lines by HSN code, then keep the rule the same every year.

Adding the non-production side later

Many companies start with production purchases only. The Scope 3 Standard uses this exact case as an example: adding non-production procurement to Category 1 in a later year is a change in activities that can trigger a base year recalculation if the effect is significant. Note what you left out in year one so the change is easy to explain.

Example: a Ludhiana fastener maker's purchases for one year

• Wire rod: 2,400 t, Rs 14.4 crore (production)
• Plating chemicals: Rs 0.9 crore; cartons: Rs 0.6 crore (production)
• Non-production: Rs 1.5 crore across 140 vendors
• Total Rs 17.4 crore; production side 15.9 / 17.4 = 91% of spend from a handful of vendors, with tonnes on the invoice
• Plan: quantity-based or supplier data for wire rod first; spend-based for the 140 small vendors

Figures are an example.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads purchase invoices line by line with HSN code, quantity and unit, and keeps Scope 3 lines in a separate supplier evidence trail, so you can sort production materials from consumables before choosing a method for each.

• Scope 3 supplier evidence
• Capital goods in Category 2
• Spend-based estimates and GST
• Which suppliers to ask first

Sources: GHG Protocol Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions, Category 1: Purchased goods and services, GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard (2011), box 5.2 and section 9.3, GHG Protocol Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions (2013), introduction

Last reviewed 2026-10-31.