# How do I count remanufactured or refurbished parts I buy in Scope 3?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/remanufactured-parts-scope-3

Count them in Category 1, or Category 2 if you capitalise them, using the remanufacturer's own footprint for the part where you can get it. Otherwise estimate the remanufacturing energy plus the new components fitted. Do not use a new-part factor, which overstates them, and do not count them as zero.

## Which category

Spare parts, reconditioned engines, gearboxes and pumps bought for maintenance are purchased goods, Category 1. A remanufactured machine or major assembly you record as a fixed asset goes in Category 2, capital goods, in the year you buy it, the same as a new one. The category follows how you account for the purchase, not whether the part is new.

## The order of data to use

1. A product footprint from the remanufacturer for that part, cradle to its gate, ideally to ISO 14067.
2. Supplier-specific activity data: electricity and fuel used to strip, clean, machine and test the core, plus the footprint of new components fitted.
3. A spend-based estimate, labelled as such. Spend factors are built from new goods, so check whether a cheaper remanufactured part over or understates the result, and say so.

## What a remanufacturer footprint should cover

- Energy and consumables used in the remanufacturing plant.
- New components that replace worn ones, such as bearings, seals and gaskets.
- Transport of the old core to the plant, if the supplier arranges it.
- It should not carry the emissions of making the original part; those belong to the first life.

## Do not net off the saving

The difference between a new part's footprint and a remanufactured one is an avoided emission. You may report it separately to show the benefit, but your Category 1 total should carry the remanufactured part's actual footprint, not the new-part figure minus a credit. If you pay to send old cores back, that freight is in Category 4.

## Illustrative example: 40 remanufactured engines for a fleet

- Remanufacturing electricity reported by the supplier: 150 kWh per engine; x 0.710 = 106.5 kg CO2
- New components fitted, from the supplier's footprint: 60 kg CO2e per engine (illustrative)
- Per engine: 106.5 + 60 = 166.5 kg CO2e
- Fleet purchase: 166.5 x 40 = 6,660 kg, about 6.7 tonnes CO2e in Category 1

The component figure is CO2e because it covers several gases; the electricity part is CO2 only. Figures are illustrative; use the supplier's data.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible keeps supplier invoices for these purchases in a separate supplier evidence trail, and where only spend is known it gives a spend-based estimate labelled with its wider uncertainty.

- [Using a supplier's product footprint](https://senseible.earth/answers/can-i-use-my-suppliers-product-footprint)
- [Machinery purchase: Category 1 or 2?](https://senseible.earth/answers/machinery-purchase-scope-3-category-1-or-2)
- [Scope 3 supplier evidence](https://senseible.earth/scope-3-supplier-evidence)
- [Spend-based or activity-based Scope 3](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/spend-based-vs-activity-based-scope-3-method-choice)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions (2013), Categories 1 and 2](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products](https://www.iso.org)

Last reviewed 2026-10-18.