# Is chilled water bought from a district cooling plant Scope 2?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/district-cooling-chilled-water-scope-2

Yes. Purchased cooling is Scope 2, like purchased electricity and steam. Ask the provider for the emissions per unit of cooling, usually per TR-hour or kWh of cooling, based on their electricity and fuel. Without it, estimate from their chiller efficiency and the grid factor, and label it an estimate.

## What to ask the provider

- Cooling delivered to you per month, from the meter.
- Their plant electricity and fuel per unit of cooling.
- Refrigerant top-ups, which they report in their own Scope 1.

## If you get only a bill in rupees

Ask for the metered TR-hours. A rupee-based estimate is weak evidence and verifiers will ask for the meter 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.

- [Emissions from purchased steam](https://senseible.earth/answers/how-to-calculate-emissions-from-purchased-steam)
- [Chiller plant per TR-hour](https://senseible.earth/answers/chiller-plant-emissions-per-tr-hour)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Scope 2 Guidance](https://ghgprotocol.org/scope-2-guidance), [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard)

Last reviewed 2026-10-23.