# How does a real estate developer count emissions from flats it sells?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/real-estate-developer-sold-flats-scope-3

Materials like cement, steel and glass are the developer's purchased goods, Category 1, counted when bought. Contractors' site diesel and power are Scope 3 unless the developer runs the site. Residents' electricity after sale is use of sold products, Category 11, usually estimated over the building's expected life.

## Main figures

- Embodied carbon: materials by quantity from bills of quantities.
- Construction: site diesel and electricity.
- Use: expected annual electricity per flat × years × grid factor.

## Label assumptions

Category 11 rests on assumptions about use and grid change; state them.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible keeps purchase invoices on the Scope 3 trail with the category, method and factor source on every line, so spend-based estimates are labelled as estimates and can be replaced with supplier data later.

- [Ready-mix concrete per m3](https://senseible.earth/answers/ready-mix-concrete-carbon-footprint-per-cubic-metre)
- [Glass facade per sq m](https://senseible.earth/answers/glass-facade-embodied-carbon-per-sq-m)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [CEA CO2 Baseline Database](https://cea.nic.in/cdm-co2-baseline-database/?lang=en)

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.