Chemical products can represent a major share of Scope 3 for some very specific companies (cosmetics, food, animal food, etc …). They embed upstream emissions from raw material extraction, processing, manufacturing, and inbound transport that are not visible in site energy bills.

Understanding these impacts helps prioritize suppliers, materials, and design choices that meaningfully reduce your footprint and costs over time.
​Activity-based data vs. monetary data

Spend-based (monetary) estimates apply average emission factors per euro spent. They are fast but can be misleading when prices vary by quality, region, or market conditions.

Activity-based data uses physical quantities and specifications, such as kilograms of steel grade, liters of chemical, or number of units, matched to specific emission factors. This captures real differences between materials, suppliers, and technologies and enables credible reduction tracking.

In practice: ask for product-level volumes and, when possible, material composition, grade, and supplier process (e.g. renewable electricity usage, transport mode).
​What is included

Upstream life cycle stages until your organization receives and uses the product: raw material extraction, cultivation or mining, intermediate processing, manufacturing, packaging, and inbound transport to your site or first use.

For consumables or short-lived items, include typical use-phase emissions if inherent to the product function at your site, and end-of-life when disposal is your responsibility.
**What is not included (by default) **

Downstream use-phase by your customers, unless the purchased product becomes part of a sold product under a separate category.

Capital goods, unless this module specifically targets them. Those are typically treated in a dedicated Capital Goods module.
​Industry specifics

Food and agriculture: emissions are dominated by farming practices, fertilizer use, land-use change, cold-chain logistics, and spoilage. Physical data such as kilograms per commodity and origin is key; spend varies widely and can bias results.

Manufacturing and construction: materials like steel, aluminum, cement, plastics, and glass drive impacts. Grades, recycled content, and production routes (e.g., EAF vs. BF-BOF steel) materially change footprints.

Chemicals and pharmaceuticals: process energy, solvent recovery, and yield losses are critical. Batch-level volumes and process routes improve accuracy over generic spend factors.

Retail and e-commerce: product mix and packaging dominate; granularity at SKU or category with weights and materials gives far better insight than revenue alone.
​Bottom line
Collecting activity-based quantities and specifications for purchased products enables precise matching to emission factors, reflects supplier performance, and unlocks targeted reduction actions that spend-based methods cannot reveal.

Purpose: Describe the specific data required for the GHG study, including types, and format.

Granularity: Identify the level of detail needed for data (e.g., product category, product description, purchase volumes).

Measurement: Define the units and what should be measured (e.g., weight in KG, volume in liters, or other applicable units).Example Data Format:-Granularity: A detailed inventory is required for each product purchased during the year. This should include product descriptions, categories, and any available subcategories.

Measured Values: Indicate the total purchased volumes (e.g., in KG) for each product.Important Note: Refer to the Data Collection Guide for more details.General information

A name that makes sense in AT LEAST ONE of these columns (the more the better):

Internal ID

Name

Main Chemical

Chemical Family

Raw Material OR Manufactured Product

Unitary Weight

Quantity (=1 if your unitary weight is the total weight)

Unit (only mass unit: kg, mt, short ton, LBS). If you include other units we will need to make hypothesis about the items (less precise)
List of optional data:

CAS Number

Comment

Entity

Unit Price

Currency

Entity country

Business Unit

Supplier