# What do upstream and downstream mean for my business's carbon?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/upstream-and-downstream-back-door-and-front-door

Upstream is what comes in through your back door: the goods and services you buy. Downstream is what goes out of your front door once you sell. The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol sorts Scope 3 into 8 upstream and 7 downstream categories.

## The standard's two definitions

- Upstream emissions: indirect greenhouse gas emissions from purchased or acquired goods and services.
- Downstream emissions: indirect emissions from sold goods and services. They also include emissions from products that are distributed but not sold.

## The eight upstream categories

1. Purchased goods and services
2. Capital goods, such as machines
3. Fuel- and energy-related activities not already in Scope 1 or Scope 2
4. Upstream transportation and distribution
5. Waste generated in operations
6. Business travel
7. Employee commuting
8. Upstream leased assets

## The seven downstream categories

1. Downstream transportation and distribution
2. Processing of sold products
3. Use of sold products
4. End-of-life treatment of sold products
5. Downstream leased assets
6. Franchises
7. Investments

## Which side your buyer is asking about

The Scope 3 Standard, the GHG Protocol rulebook for a company's wider supply chain, says upstream emissions apply for all types of purchased products. Whether the downstream categories apply depends on whether the products sold are final or intermediate products. A buyer who asks you for data is usually looking at its own upstream side, because you are something it buys. That is my reading, not a quote.

## Example: sorting a bakery's list

- Flour and sugar bought: upstream, category 1, purchased goods and services.
- A new oven: upstream, category 2, capital goods.
- Staff travelling to work: upstream, category 7, employee commuting.
- Waste carted away: upstream, category 5, waste generated in operations.
- Bread wrappers that customers throw away: downstream, category 12, end-of-life treatment of sold products.

Our sorting of example items, using the category names in the standard's list.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into records, so the quantities behind each figure are on file. Senseible fills the Scope 1 and 2 part of your answer from your bills. Supplier footprints are handled in a separate supplier trail.

- [Which Scope 3 categories are mandatory?](https://senseible.earth/answers/which-scope-3-categories-are-mandatory)
- [Scope 3 formulas by category](https://senseible.earth/answers/scope-3-formula-summary-by-category)
- [Who reports freight under FOB, CIF or ex-works?](https://senseible.earth/answers/incoterms-freight-scope-3-category-4-or-9)
- [Scope 1, 2 and 3 explained with a kitchen](https://senseible.earth/answers/scope-1-2-3-explained-with-a-home-kitchen)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard (Chapter 5 and glossary)](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard)

Last reviewed 2026-11-07. Definitions and the list of 15 categories are from the GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard (Table 5.3 and glossary). The bakery sorting is ours.