What do upstream and downstream mean for my business's carbon?

Upstream is what comes in through your back door: the goods and services you buy. Downstream is what goes out of your front door once you sell. The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol sorts Scope 3 into 8 upstream and 7 downstream categories.

The standard's two definitions

• Upstream emissions: indirect greenhouse gas emissions from purchased or acquired goods and services.
• Downstream emissions: indirect emissions from sold goods and services. They also include emissions from products that are distributed but not sold.

The eight upstream categories

1. Purchased goods and services
2. Capital goods, such as machines
3. Fuel- and energy-related activities not already in Scope 1 or Scope 2
4. Upstream transportation and distribution
5. Waste generated in operations
6. Business travel
7. Employee commuting
8. Upstream leased assets

The seven downstream categories

1. Downstream transportation and distribution
2. Processing of sold products
3. Use of sold products
4. End-of-life treatment of sold products
5. Downstream leased assets
6. Franchises
7. Investments

Which side your buyer is asking about

The Scope 3 Standard, the GHG Protocol rulebook for a company's wider supply chain, says upstream emissions apply for all types of purchased products. Whether the downstream categories apply depends on whether the products sold are final or intermediate products. A buyer who asks you for data is usually looking at its own upstream side, because you are something it buys. That is my reading, not a quote.

Example: sorting a bakery's list

• Flour and sugar bought: upstream, category 1, purchased goods and services.
• A new oven: upstream, category 2, capital goods.
• Staff travelling to work: upstream, category 7, employee commuting.
• Waste carted away: upstream, category 5, waste generated in operations.
• Bread wrappers that customers throw away: downstream, category 12, end-of-life treatment of sold products.

Our sorting of example items, using the category names in the standard's list.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into records, so the quantities behind each figure are on file. Senseible fills the Scope 1 and 2 part of your answer from your bills. Supplier footprints are handled in a separate supplier trail.

• Which Scope 3 categories are mandatory?
• Scope 3 formulas by category
• Who reports freight under FOB, CIF or ex-works?
• Scope 1, 2 and 3 explained with a kitchen

Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard (Chapter 5 and glossary)

Last reviewed 2026-11-07. Definitions and the list of 15 categories are from the GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard (Table 5.3 and glossary). The bakery sorting is ours.