# Does buying a new machine go in Scope 3 Category 1 or Category 2, and in which year?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/machinery-purchase-scope-3-category-1-or-2

A machine you capitalise as a fixed asset goes in Category 2, capital goods, with all its cradle-to-gate emissions in the year you acquire it. Parts, tools and consumables you expense go in Category 1. Follow your own accounts: the GHG Protocol tells companies to use their financial accounting treatment to draw the line.

## The rule for drawing the line

The Scope 3 Standard defines capital goods as final products with an extended life that a company uses to make products or provide services, and tells companies to follow their financial accounting: if it is capitalised in the fixed asset register, it is Category 2; if it is expensed, it is Category 1.

## Common cases in a factory

- New CNC machine, press, compressor, boiler, forklift: Category 2.
- Replacement motor or gearbox that you capitalise: Category 2; if expensed as repairs: Category 1.
- Cutting tools, dies you write off in the year, lubricants, spares: Category 1.
- Building and civil works for a new shed: Category 2.
- A machine taken on lease rather than bought: not Category 1 or 2; Scope 1 and 2 or Category 8, depending on your boundary approach.

## Which year it goes in

The year of acquisition, in full. It is not spread over the asset's life as depreciation would be. If a machine is delivered in March and installed in May, use the date it is recorded as acquired in your accounts, and apply that rule every year.

## Handling the spike it causes

A large purchase can make Category 2 jump in one year and fall the next. Report it as it is, explain the purchase in a note, and keep it out of any intensity metric you use to show operational improvement, or show that metric both with and without it.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible classifies invoice lines by HSN code, so a machine invoice under chapter 84 sits in the Scope 3 trail as a likely capital good, flagged for you to confirm whether it was capitalised. It does not read your fixed asset register; that confirmation comes from your accounts team.

- [Scope 1, 2 and 3 with Senseible](https://senseible.earth/answers/scope-1-2-3-with-senseible)
- [Counting a new machine in Scope 3](https://senseible.earth/answers/how-to-count-a-new-machine-in-scope-3)
- [Scope 3 Category 1, spend-based](https://senseible.earth/answers/scope-3-category-1-spend-based)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard (2011), Table 5.4, Categories 1 and 2](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [GHG Protocol Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions (2013), Category 2](https://ghgprotocol.org/standards)

Last reviewed 2026-10-15.