# Our Indian company is a subsidiary of a group. Do we set our own SBTi target?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/sbti-subsidiary-target-or-parent-level

Usually not. Under C1 of the SBTi Corporate Near-Term Criteria V5.3.1, targets should be submitted at parent or group level, and the parent must include every subsidiary inside its consolidation approach. A subsidiary can still set its own target, but the parent's target must cover it too.

## What C1 says

- Submit targets at parent or group level, not subsidiary level.
- The parent includes the emissions of all subsidiaries inside its boundary.
- If both parent and subsidiary set targets, the subsidiary is still counted in the parent's target when it falls inside the parent's boundary.
- Brands, licensees, regions and business divisions are not accepted as separate targets unless they sit outside the parent's consolidation approach (footnote 3).

## When your own target still makes sense

- Your group has no target and your buyers want one from you.
- A buyer asks for a target in your legal entity's name, not the group's.
- You sit outside the parent's boundary, for example a joint venture the parent does not control under its chosen approach.

## When the group sets one later

Under SBTi Commitment and Target Statuses V2.1, once the parent publishes group targets that include you, the parent can ask for your own target to be marked Legacy, and your separate commitment can be removed at your request. Your emissions then count inside the group target.

## What to send a buyer

1. The SBTi dashboard entry of whichever entity holds the target.
2. A short letter from the group confirming your entity is inside its boundary and which approach it uses.
3. Your own Scope 1 and 2 for the latest year, because the buyer still needs your share, not the group's total.

## Example: how much of you sits in the group target

- Your Scope 1+2: 3,000 t CO2e
- Group uses operational control and runs your plant: 3,000 t inside the group target
- Group uses equity share and owns 51%: 3,000 x 0.51 = 1,530 t inside

Example company. The group's chosen approach decides the share.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible builds Scope 1 and 2 for your legal entity from its own bills and fuel invoices, which is the figure a buyer or your group needs whatever level the target sits at. It does not set, submit or validate SBTi targets; SBTi Services validates them.

- [Why your SBTi target is marked "Legacy"](https://senseible.earth/answers/sbti-legacy-target-status-subsidiary)
- [Check a company's SBTi target](https://senseible.earth/answers/check-if-supplier-has-sbti-target)
- [Operational control vs equity share](https://senseible.earth/answers/operational-control-vs-equity-share)
- [Scope 3 supplier evidence](https://senseible.earth/scope-3-supplier-evidence)

Sources: [SBTi, Corporate Near-Term Criteria V5.3.1 (final, April 2026, in effect from 14 April 2026): C1 and footnotes 2 to 4](https://files.sciencebasedtargets.org/production/files/SBTi-criteria.pdf), [SBTi, Commitment and Target Statuses, Version 2.1 (October 2026): Legacy and Commitment removed](https://files.sciencebasedtargets.org/production/files/SBTi-Commitment-and-Target-Statuses.pdf), [GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, chapter 3: setting organisational boundaries](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard)

Last reviewed 2026-11-01.