# How do I answer CDP's question asking me to allocate emissions to my customer?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/cdp-allocate-emissions-to-customer-question

Your customer requested you through CDP, and question 7.26 of the corporate questionnaire (2025 numbering) asks you to give it a share of your emissions for what you sold it that year. You fill one row per scope: method, quantity supplied, tonnes and how sure you are. 7.27 and 7.28 ask what made it hard and how you will improve.

## The 7.26 table, column by column

- Requesting member: already filled in. Check it is the right customer for this reporting year.
- Scope of emissions: Scope 1, Scope 2 location-based, Scope 2 market-based, or Scope 3. One scope per row, so most suppliers fill two rows per customer. You only need to allocate one Scope 2 figure.
- Allocation level: company wide, business unit, facility or commodity. If you pick facility, name it.
- Allocation method: mass, volume, energy content, chemical content, number of units, area or another physical factor, or the market value of what they bought.
- Unit and quantity supplied: the tonnes, kilograms, rupees or other unit you name for what you sold this customer. If your goods share no common unit, CDP asks for market value, in the currency you chose in question 1.7.
- Emissions in tonnes CO2e, then uncertainty in plus or minus per cent, your major emission sources, and whether a third party verified the allocation. Answer Yes only if an independent verifier checked it.
- Two text boxes: how you identified the emission sources and what you assumed, and a reference for any published or industry average data you used.

## Rules that trip suppliers up

- Allocate only the emissions you reported earlier in the same response (questions 7.6, 7.7 and 7.8). A different total here is the first thing a reviewer spots.
- What you allocate becomes your customer's Scope 3. Which Scope 3 category it falls in is their call, not yours.
- If you allocate by facility or subsidiary, the same breakdown must appear in your Scope 1 and 2 split by subsidiary (7.23.1), with the names written the same way.
- If you pick "allocation not necessary" because you have primary data per customer, the calculation columns disappear. Use it only if you truly metered that customer's work.

## Physical or market value

CDP counts mass, volume, units and area as physical allocation and market value as economic allocation, and points to Chapter 8 of the GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard for the choice. If you make one kind of product, use tonnes or pieces: it follows the energy you actually used. Use market value only when you sell this customer a mix of goods with no common unit. Revenue loads more emissions onto a customer who pays a higher price for the same steel or cloth.

## 7.27 and 7.28: say what is hard, honestly

7.27 gives fixed reasons, such as too many product lines to cost each one, a customer base too large to track, or the need to disclose commercially sensitive data, plus "no challenges". Add what would help, for example a sub-meter on the line that runs this customer's parts. 7.28 asks whether you plan to get better at allocation. A short, dated plan beats "No" with "lack of internal resources".

## Worked example: a forging unit, one customer, FY 2025-26

- Furnace oil 1,50,000 L x 2.97 kg/L = 445.5 t CO2
- DG diesel 20,000 L x 2.645 kg/L = 52.9 t CO2
- Scope 1 = 498.4 t CO2
- Grid electricity 12,00,000 kWh x 0.675 kg/kWh = 810 t CO2 (Scope 2, location-based)
- Output 3,000 t of forgings; this customer bought 450 t, which is 15%
- Row 1: Scope 1, company wide, mass, 450 metric tons, 498.4 x 0.15 = 74.8 t CO2e
- Row 2: Scope 2 location-based, company wide, mass, 450 metric tons, 810 x 0.15 = 121.5 t CO2e

Example figures. Grid factor from the CEA CO2 Baseline Database version 22.0; fuel factors from IPCC 2006 defaults. State both in the explanation box.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible turns a year of fuel invoices and electricity bills into Scope 1 and 2 figures with the source behind each line, so the total you split in 7.26 matches the bills. Its team can draft the 7.26 to 7.28 answers from your verified records, you review and submit, and its checks are not third-party verification.

- [Check your supplier evidence](https://senseible.earth/scope-3-supplier-evidence)
- [Choosing a key for one customer](https://senseible.earth/answers/allocate-my-emissions-to-one-customer)
- [A CDP supply chain request arrived](https://senseible.earth/answers/cdp-supply-chain-request-what-to-do)
- [Mass or value allocation](https://senseible.earth/answers/buyer-asks-mass-or-value-allocation)
- [Questionnaire support](https://senseible.earth/esg-ratings)

Sources: [CDP, Full Corporate Questionnaire guidance, Module 7, questions 7.26 to 7.28 (April 2025)](https://cdn.cdp.net/cdp-production/cms/guidance_docs/pdfs/000/005/688/original/Full_Corporate_Questionnaire_Module_7.pdf), [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, Chapter 8 on allocation](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [CEA CO2 Baseline Database for the Indian power sector, version 22.0](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-view?mappingId=234&lang=en), [IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2: Energy](https://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/vol2.html)

Last reviewed 2026-10-29. Question numbers are from CDP's 2025 guidance. Check numbering against the current cycle's Module 7 guidance each April.