# We bought a factory partway through the year. How do we count its emissions?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/factory-acquired-mid-year-carbon-inventory

Report the factory's actual emissions from the date you took control, using its bills from that date. If the purchase is significant, also recalculate your base year as if you had owned the factory then, and show a full-year comparable figure for the current year, so growth by acquisition is not mistaken for higher emissions.

## The current year

Under operational or financial control, a factory enters your inventory when control passes. Use the transfer date in the sale deed or business transfer agreement, and take its bills dated from then. Bills that straddle the date are split by days or by meter reading.

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard also says that when a significant structural change happens mid-year, current-year emissions should be shown for the full year to stay comparable with a recalculated base year. Reporting both figures, clearly labelled, meets both needs.

## When to recalculate the base year

- Recalculate if the acquired factory's emissions pass the significance threshold in your base-year policy, a figure you set and disclose, such as 5% of the base year total.
- Add the factory's base-year emissions, from the seller's records, to your base year.
- Do not recalculate if the factory did not exist in the base year; that is growth, not a structural change.
- Building a new plant yourself is organic growth and never triggers recalculation.

## Getting the seller's data

Put a clause in the purchase agreement for 12 to 24 months of electricity bills, fuel invoices and refrigerant records before the sale. If they cannot be had in time, the GHG Protocol allows the recalculation to follow in the next reporting year, with a note saying so.

## Selling a unit works the other way

Drop the sold unit from the transfer date, and remove its base-year emissions if significant. Otherwise a sale shows up as a reduction you did not make.

## Worked example: plant acquired on 1 January, FY April to March

- Acquired plant per month: 50,000 kWh and 2,000 litres of diesel
- January to March: 150,000 x 0.710 = 106,500 kg plus 6,000 x 2.68 = 16,080 kg, so 122.6 t CO2
- Reported FY total: existing units 2,000 t + 122.6 t = 2,122.6 t CO2
- Full-year comparable: 600,000 x 0.710 = 426,000 kg plus 24,000 x 2.68 = 64,320 kg, so 490.3 t; 2,000 + 490.3 = 2,490.3 t
- Significance: 520 / 1,800 = 28.9% of the base year, above a 5% threshold, so the recalculation applies
- Base year: 1,800 t original + 520 t for the plant (seller's records) = 2,320 t recalculated

Existing-unit, base-year and seller figures are illustrative.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible holds each plant's bills and invoices under the account, with the billing period on every line, so an acquired plant's records start from the bills dated after the transfer. The base-year recalculation and the significance test are decisions you make and record.

- [Recalculating past years when factors change](https://senseible.earth/answers/recalculate-past-years-when-grid-factor-changes)
- [Keeping history through method changes](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/maintain-historical-carbon-data-methodology-changes)
- [Carbon accounting](https://senseible.earth/carbon-accounting)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, Chapter 5, Tracking emissions over time](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard), [ISO 14064-1:2018, Organisation-level GHG inventories](https://www.iso.org)

Last reviewed 2026-10-18.