# How do we count emissions from warranty replacements and spare parts we send to customers?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/warranty-replacement-parts-emissions-scope-3

Parts you buy and send as replacements are purchased goods in Category 1; if you make them, their production energy is already in your Scope 1 and 2. Freight you pay to ship them is Category 4. Failed parts you take back and scrap go to Category 5 as waste.

## Split the warranty cost by what happened

- Bought-in replacement parts: Category 1, by quantity or spend.
- Parts made in your own plant: already in Scope 1 and 2 through the plant's fuel and electricity; do not add them again.
- Courier or truck freight you pay: Category 4.
- Service engineers' travel: their vehicles if you own them are Scope 1; hired cabs and flights are Category 6.

## Returned and failed parts

- Scrapped returns: Category 5, waste generated in operations.
- Repaired and resold units: the repair energy is in your Scope 1 and 2.

## Use it as a signal

A high warranty rate means extra parts, freight and travel for the same product sold. Tracking warranty emissions next to the failure rate shows the carbon cost of quality problems.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads purchase and service invoices; it uses quantities where the invoice shows them and otherwise gives a spend-based estimate, labelled as spend-based with wider uncertainty.

- [Reverse logistics for customer returns](https://senseible.earth/answers/reverse-logistics-customer-returns-emissions)
- [Courier shipment emissions](https://senseible.earth/answers/courier-shipment-emissions-from-invoices)
- [Mapping expense ledgers to Scope 3](https://senseible.earth/answers/map-expense-ledgers-to-scope-3-categories)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard, Category 1 purchased goods and services](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard), [GHG Protocol Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions (2013)](https://ghgprotocol.org)

Last reviewed 2026-10-20.