# What are the five data quality indicators a buyer may use to rate our Scope 3 data?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/ghg-scope-3-data-quality-five-indicators

The GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard names five: technological, temporal and geographical representativeness, completeness, and reliability. Companies should pick data that is most representative, most complete and most reliable. It is a guide for buyers choosing between your figure and a generic factor.

## The five indicators, in the standard's words

- Technological representativeness: how far the data reflects the technology actually used.
- Temporal representativeness: how far it reflects the actual year or age of the activity.
- Geographical representativeness: how far it reflects the actual location, such as country or site.
- Completeness: how far the data is statistically representative of the activity, including the share of sites covered and normal seasonal swings.
- Reliability: how dependable the sources, collection methods and verification are.

## How the standard scores them (Box 7.2 example)

- Temporal: very good under 3 years of difference, good under 6, fair under 10, poor over 10 or unknown.
- Completeness: very good when data covers all relevant sites over an adequate period, good above 50% of sites, fair below 50%.
- Reliability: very good for verified data from measurements, down to poor for a non-qualified estimate.

## What this means for a supplier

Your own meter and bill data for the exact plant and year scores high on all five. A buyer using a national average from another year scores low. That gap is your reason to send site data.

Buyers must describe the data quality of reported emissions, so a supplier who states the year, the site and the evidence makes that description easy.

## Example (made-up supplier)

- Your figure: FY 2025-26 electricity bills for the plant making the buyer's parts. Technology: very good. Time: very good. Geography: very good.
- Buyer's alternative: an average factor for the sector, 8 years old, from another country. Time: fair. Geography: fair or poor.
- Same buyer, same product. Site data leads on all three representativeness indicators.

Scores follow the standard's example criteria; each buyer applies them its own way.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible turns a supplier's own bills into site-level figures with the year, the site and the source document recorded, which is the information these indicators ask about.

- [Scope 3 supplier evidence](https://senseible.earth/scope-3-supplier-evidence)
- [Low-quality Scope 3 data in the first years](https://senseible.earth/answers/low-quality-scope-3-data-first-years)
- [Carbon number for MSMEs](https://senseible.earth/msme-carbon-number)

Sources: [GHG Protocol, Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, chapter 7, table 7.6 and box 7.2](https://ghgprotocol.org/sites/default/files/standards/Corporate-Value-Chain-Accounting-Reporing-Standard_041613_2.pdf)

Last reviewed 2026-11-03.