Your Buyer Sent a Scope 3 Request — Now What?

Your buyer needs carbon data from their supply chain, and your farm is part of that chain. The questionnaire asks about emission categories you've never heard of, activity data you've never tracked, and methodologies you couldn't explain.

Scope 3 requests are becoming standard for suppliers to large food companies. Here's what's actually being asked and how agricultural operations can respond.

What Scope 3 Actually Means

Carbon emissions are categorized into three “scopes”:

Scope 1 covers direct emissions from sources you own or control. For farms, this is significant and unique: livestock methane from enteric fermentation, nitrous oxide from fertilizer application, diesel for tractors and harvesters, heating for barns and greenhouses, and manure management emissions.

Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from purchased electricity—powering milking parlors, grain dryers, irrigation pumps, cold storage, and farm buildings.

Scope 3 is everything else in the value chain. Upstream: fertilizer manufacturing, feed production, seed, pesticide manufacturing. Downstream: transport to processor, processing, packaging, retail, consumer.

Here's the key: when your buyer reports their emissions, your farm's operations fall into their Scope 3. They can't complete their carbon report without data from suppliers like you.

Why Agricultural Emissions Are Different

This is critical to understand: agriculture is fundamentally different from manufacturing when it comes to carbon accounting. In a factory, almost all Scope 1 emissions come from burning fuel. On a farm, biological processes often dominate.

A 200-head dairy operation might have Scope 1 that looks like this:

• Enteric fermentation (cattle methane): ~70% of total
• Fertilizer N2O from soils: ~15%
• Diesel for machinery: ~10%
• Manure management: ~5%

Compare that to a manufacturer where Scope 1 is almost entirely fuel combustion. The calculation methods, emission factors, and data requirements are completely different for agricultural operations.

What Buyers Typically Want

Total emissions in CO2 equivalent (CO2e). The headline number. How many tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent are associated with what you produce for them?

Activity data. Even if you can't calculate emissions yourself, buyers will often accept raw data: livestock numbers by type, hectares by crop, fertilizer tonnes applied, diesel litres consumed, electricity kWh. They can apply emission factors themselves.

Methodology explanation. How did you arrive at these numbers? What's included and excluded?

Year-over-year comparison. If you've been tracking, they want to see trends.

The Honest Starting Point

If you've never tracked carbon emissions, start with what you know:

Livestock numbers. Your herd/flock records are legally required. These feed directly into methane calculations using IPCC default factors.

Fertilizer records. Your spray logs and purchase invoices show how much nitrogen you applied. This drives N2O calculations.

Fuel consumption. Diesel receipts from your fuel supplier or farm accounts. This is your machinery Scope 1.

Electricity bills. Your utility records show kWh consumed. This is your Scope 2.

With just these four inputs, you can provide a reasonable first estimate that covers the vast majority of your farm's emissions.

A Quick Calculation Example

For a 200-head dairy farm in Western Europe:

• 200 dairy cows × 128 kg CH4/head/year (IPCC default) = 25.6 tonnes CH4 = ~718 tonnes CO2e from enteric fermentation
• 50,000 litres diesel × 2.7 kg CO2e/litre = ~135 tonnes CO2e from machinery
• 80 tonnes synthetic N fertilizer × ~6.2 kg CO2e/kg N (direct + indirect N2O) = ~496 tonnes CO2e from soils
• 120,000 kWh electricity × 0.4 kg CO2e/kWh = ~48 tonnes CO2e (Scope 2)

Total: roughly 1,400 tonnes CO2e. That's a defensible first estimate built from data you already have.

What If You Can't Calculate Full Emissions?

Provide activity data and let them calculate. Send your livestock numbers, hectares by crop, fertilizer kg applied, diesel litres. Sophisticated buyers have systems to apply IPCC or national inventory emission factors.

Use IPCC Tier 1 defaults. Published emission factors exist for every livestock type and region. They're not perfect for your specific operation, but they're accepted methodology.

Calculate what you can, acknowledge what you can't. “We have measured our Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Scope 3 calculations (purchased feed, fertilizer manufacturing) are in development.” Honest and shows a path forward.

Common Agricultural Scope 3 Mistakes

Ignoring livestock methane. It's biological, not energy-based, but it's still Scope 1. For ruminant operations, it's typically the single largest emission source.

Forgetting fertilizer N2O. Nitrous oxide from applied nitrogen is a major source that many farms overlook. It's 265 times more potent than CO2 per tonne.

Double-counting with your processor. Your Scope 1 emissions become the processor's Scope 3. Make sure the boundary is clear—your data covers farm gate, not beyond.

Using outdated emission factors. Grid electricity gets cleaner over time. IPCC factors get updated. Use current factors for current reporting.

The Competitive Reality

Farms that can provide carbon data have an advantage. Not because buyers prefer the lowest-emission supplier, but because they make their buyers' compliance easier.

When a food processor is choosing between two similar farms, one that provides clean carbon data and one that doesn't respond, the choice is straightforward. The compliant farm reduces their workload. The non-responsive farm creates it.

You don't need the lowest carbon footprint. You need a credible number, clearly documented, delivered on time. That's the bar. Many of your neighbouring farms won't clear it.