Scope 3 Category 15, known as Investments includes the emissions associated with your company’s investments or financing activities that are not already included in your Scope 1 and 2 emissions. This includes both for-profit and not-for-profit financing activities. Emissions from investments includes all the Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions of investees, weighted by the percentage equity held in each investee by your company.
Emissions from your investees may be included in your scope 1 or scope 2 emissions depending on the approach used to define organizational boundaries. For example, if the equity-share approach is used, emissions from equity investments will be included in scope 1 and scope 2. However, if the the operational control approach is used, your scope 1 and 2 emissions inventory would only include investments under your control, with emissions from your remaining investments falling within Scope 3, Category 15.
Below is an example demonstrating how emissions from Investments would be accounted for under different approaches to setting organizational boundaries:
| Reporting Company’s approach to setting organizational boundaries | Investee Scope 1 & 2 emissions (tCO2e) | Equity held by the reporting company | Party with operational and financial control | Reporting Company’s Scope 1 & 2 emissions from the investment (tCO2e) | Reporting Company’s Scope 3 emissions from the investment (tCO2e) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operational Control | 23,500 | 25% | Investee has operational control |
Reporting company has financial control | 0
(Emissions are accounted for under scope 3 as the reporting company does not have operational control of the investee) | 5,875
(Investee’s scope 1 and 2 emissions are weighted by equity and included in scope 3) | | Financial Control | 23,500 | 25% | Investee has operational control
Reporting company has financial control | 23,500
(All emissions fall under scope 1 and 2 as the reporting company has full financial control of the investee) | 0
(All emissions are accounted for in scope 1 and 2) | | Equity-Share | 23,500 | 25% | Investee has operational control
Reporting company has financial control | 5,875
(Scope 1 and 2 emissions are weighted by equity) | 0
(All emissions are accounted for in scope 1 and 2) |
You can learn more about setting your organizational boundaries from your Unravel Carbon Sustainability Consultant, or under chapter 3 of the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard.
With that, follow our guide below on how to get started with measuring your Scope 3, Category 15 emissions!
Go to Unravel Carbon and login.
Click on “Measure” and “Upload data” in the sidebar
Unravel Carbon’s Financed Emissions Module is used for calculating Scope 3 emissions from Equity investments. This includes the scope 1 and scope 2 emissions from any subsidiaries, associate companies, portfolio companies and joint ventures in which your company has a share of equity.
During onboarding, your Sustainability Consultant will create Unravel Carbon accounts for each investee that should be included in your scope 3 emissions. This will allow each investee to upload their scope 1 and 2 emissions data directly to Unravel Carbon via their own account. After the investee has uploaded the data, your scope 3 emissions from the investment will automatically be added to your emissions inventory and Portfolio Module.