Scope 3 Emissions (Transportation)

Scope 3 emissions are the greenhouse gas emissions that occur across a company's upstream and downstream value chain – everything outside the company's own operations (Scope 1) and purchased energy (Scope 2). For most shippers, transportation is the dominant Scope 3 category, often representing 30–50% or more of total Scope 3 emissions. Every truck, train, ship, and plane carrying your freight generates emissions that roll up into your company's carbon footprint.

What makes Scope 3 transportation emissions challenging is that the shipper doesn't own the trucks or control the fuel. You're relying on carrier-reported data, emissions factors, and estimation methodologies to calculate the footprint. The GHG Protocol and frameworks like the Global Logistics Emissions Council (GLEC) provide standardized approaches, but the data inputs – distance, mode, load factor, fuel type, vehicle class – need to come from actual shipment records. Generic industry averages produce unreliable numbers that don't support meaningful reduction targets.

The reporting pressure is accelerating. The SEC's climate disclosure rules, the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and California's SB 253 all require or will require Scope 3 reporting for companies above certain thresholds. Major retailers and CPG companies are also pushing Scope 3 requirements upstream to their suppliers and logistics providers. Shippers who can't produce credible transportation emissions data risk losing shelf space, contracts, and investor confidence.

Accurate Scope 3 measurement starts with shipment-level data – knowing the origin, destination, mode, carrier, and weight of every load. Shippers who centralize this data in a TMS or logistics platform are far better positioned to calculate emissions, identify reduction opportunities (consolidation, mode shift, carrier selection), and report with confidence. Those still managing freight through spreadsheets and disconnected carrier portals face a data assembly problem before they can even begin calculating.