What is Scope 3 Category 13 Emissions?
Category 13 covers emissions from operating assets owned by the reporting company (as a lessor) and leased to other entities during the reporting year that aren't included in Scope 1 or Scope 2. This category applies to lessors (companies receiving payments from lessees). Companies that operate leased assets (lessees) should refer to Category 8 (Upstream leased assets).
Leased assets might be part of a company's Scope 1 or Scope 2 emissions, depending on the lease type and the company's consolidation approach for defining organizational boundaries. If a company leases an asset for only part of the reporting year, it should account for emissions during the time the asset was leased.
In some cases, companies may not find it useful to differentiate between products sold to customers (Category 11) and products leased to customers (Category 13). A company may treat products leased to customers like sold products by accounting for total expected lifetime emissions from all relevant products leased during the reporting year. Companies should report emissions from leased products in Category 11 (Use of sold products), instead of Category 13 (Downstream leased assets), to avoid double counting between categories.
Scope 3 emissions from downstream leased assets include the Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions of lessees, depending on their consolidation approach.
What Data is Needed to Count the Emissions?
To calculate Downstream Leased Assets emissions, you will need the following data:
List of leased assets: Identify all the assets owned by your company and leased to other entities during the reporting year.
Type of leases and consolidation approach: Determine the types of leases (e.g., operating leases, finance leases) and the consolidation approach your company and the lessees use to define their organizational boundaries. This information will help you understand which emissions are included in Scope 1 and Scope 2 and which are included in Scope 3.
Operational data: Obtain data on energy consumption and resource use of the leased assets, such as electricity, fuel, heating, and cooling, for the period during which the assets were leased to other entities.
Emission factors: Acquire accurate emission factors for different types of energy consumption and resources used by the leased assets. This data can be sourced from governmental or industry-specific guidelines or from organizations like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the World Resources Institute (WRI).
Lessees' emissions data: Collect Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions data from the lessees, depending on their consolidation approach. This information may be available through public reports or direct communication with lessees.
Once you have collected this data, you can calculate your company's emissions from downstream leased assets by applying the relevant emission factors to the energy consumption and resource use data. Add up the emissions associated with the leased assets during the time they were leased to other entities to determine the total emissions from downstream leased assets for Scope 3.
What Method is Available to Count the Emissions?
These methods are listed in order of how specific the calculation is to the individual kind of leased assets. However, companies need not always use the most specific method as a first preference.
Asset-specific method, which involves collecting asset-specific (e.g., site-specific) fuel and energy use data and process and fugitive emissions data or scope 1 and scope 2 emissions data from individual leased assets
Lessee-specific method, which involves collecting the scope 1 and scope 2 emissions from lessee(s) and allocating emissions to the relevant leased asset(s)
Average data method, which involves estimating emissions for each leased asset, or groups of leased assets, based on average data, such as average emissions per asset type or floor space.
Companies may also calculate the life cycle emissions associated with manufacturing or constructing leased assets.
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