# My products are components sold to other manufacturers. Can I exclude downstream Scope 3?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/exclude-downstream-scope-3-intermediate-products

Partly. The GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard lets a company selling intermediate products disclose and justify excluding downstream categories when the eventual end use is unknown, as with a part that goes into many different products. If you know the end use, you should estimate it. Either way, upstream categories and Scope 1 and 2 stay in.

## What counts as an intermediate product

An intermediate product is something another company processes, assembles or turns into a final product: a forged gear, a casting, a resin, a dye intermediate, a PCB. A final product is used as sold by the end customer.

## Which downstream categories the exclusion can cover

The exclusion is a disclosed choice, not a silent gap. Write which categories you left out and why the end use cannot be reasonably estimated, and check the wording in Chapter 6 of the Scope 3 Standard on whether the categories can be excluded selectively.

- Category 9, downstream transport you do not pay for.
- Category 10, processing of sold products by your customers.
- Category 11, use of sold products.
- Category 12, end-of-life treatment of sold products.

## A decision rule

1. If one part goes to many customers and many applications, and you cannot say what share ends up where, the exclusion of the downstream categories above is reasonable.
2. If you supply one known part for a known product, such as a component for one vehicle model, estimate Category 10 and 12 from your customer's process data and the part's mass and material.
3. A passive part, such as a bracket or a gear, has no direct use-phase emissions of its own, so Category 11 is usually zero or not relevant, even when the end use is known.
4. If your product burns fuel, uses electricity or releases a gas when used, such as a refrigerant or a solvent, Category 11 usually matters and should be estimated.

## What still has to be reported

Scope 1 and 2, every relevant upstream category, Category 4 if you pay for outbound freight, and Category 5 for waste from your own operations. Excluding downstream does not shrink these.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible's work is upstream: it reads your fuel, electricity and purchase invoices for Scope 1 and 2 and keeps Scope 3 supplier lines in a separate evidence trail. It does not estimate downstream processing, use or end-of-life emissions.

- [Can we exclude a Scope 3 category?](https://senseible.earth/answers/can-we-exclude-a-scope-3-category)
- [Calculating use of sold products](https://senseible.earth/answers/use-of-sold-products-category-11-calculation)
- [Which Scope 3 categories are mandatory](https://senseible.earth/answers/which-scope-3-categories-are-mandatory)
- [Scope 3 for Indian manufacturers](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/manufacturing-scope-3-emissions-india)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard (2011), Chapter 6 on intermediate products](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [GHG Protocol Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions (2013)](https://ghgprotocol.org)

Last reviewed 2026-10-15. The GHG Protocol is revising its standards; check whether the intermediate product exclusion wording changes in the revised Scope 3 Standard.