By quantifying Scope 3 emissions from their value chain, organizations can measure their total carbon footprint, including outsourced IT services from cloud and colocation service providers. Organizations can then prioritize their efforts to make impactful carbon reductions.
In this paper, we define Scope 3 emissions and propose an inventory of nine emissions source categories and their data center-specific subcategories for accounting and reporting, including:
- Purchased goods and services
- Capital goods
- Fuel- and Energy-related activities
- Upstream transportation and distribution
- Waste generated in operations
- Business travel
- Employee commuting
- Upstream leased assets
- Downstream leased assets