Scope 3 Emissions: Challenges and Opportunities for Food Producers

A company’s carbon emissions fall into three categories, known as ‘scopes.’ Scope 1 emissions come directly from a company’s operations. Scope 2 emissions result from purchased electricity and energy use. Scope 3 emissions, however, stem from upstream and downstream activities, such as sourcing raw materials, transporting goods, and consumer product usage.

In the food industry, Scope 1 and 2 emissions account for less than 15% of total emissions. Nearly 90% fall under Scope 3 due to supply and distribution chains. Within Scope 3, the most critical category is “Purchased Goods and Services.” This category covers emissions from sourcing and producing raw materials and ingredients, making up 77% of Scope 3 emissions and 67% of total emissions across all three scopes. CDP. (n.d.)

To create a successful sustainable value chain, food companies must prioritize addressing Scope 3 emissions. By adopting effective strategies, they not only reduce emissions, but also improve brand reputation, and enhance resilience against regulatory changes. Proactively managing Scope 3 emissions benefits both the environment and long-term business success.

Scope 3 Emissions: Opportunities for the Food Sector

Food producers can explore several strategies to cut Scope 3 emissions while boosting efficiency and sustainability across their supply chains. These opportunities include:

Sustainable sourcing: By partnering with suppliers who practice regenerative agriculture and low-emission farming, companies can significantly reduce emissions at the source.

Optimized logistics: Investing in low-carbon transportation, such as electric or biofuel-powered vehicles, helps cut emissions from distribution networks

Food waste reduction: Reducing waste from production to consumer helps lower emissions tied to storage, production, and disposal

Renewable energy adoption: Encouraging suppliers to shift to renewable energy sources like solar or wind can reduce emissions from feed production

Collaboration and transparency: Collaborating with suppliers to track and report emissions promotes accountability and drives sustainability.

Despite these opportunities, many companies are still focusing more on Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Scope 3, however, remains a significant challenge. But why is it so difficult to manage?

Scope 3 Emissions: Challenges

Measuring and tracking Scope 3 emissions is difficult due to their complexity. These emissions span multiple suppliers, production processes, and logistics networks, making data collection difficult. Many businesses struggle to measure these emissions accurately, making reductions harder to implement.

Another major obstacle is the lack of supplier data. Since emissions reporting is still evolving, many suppliers have yet to track or disclose their emissions. Without reliable data, businesses cannot fully assess their environmental impact, make credible sustainability claims, or build trust with customers and investors. Addressing these gaps requires stronger collaboration with suppliers and industry-wide transparency initiatives.

How Opteinics can support food producers in managing Scope 3 emissions?

Data input

At Opteinics, we believe in continuous improvement. While primary data is essential for accurate results, we recognize that it isn’t always readily available. To bridge this gap, we provide secondary default data for most parameters, sourced from scientific studies, government reports, industry literature, and reliable third-party databases, except for key parameters where primary data is necessary.

Users with access to primary data can input it into the platform for more precise emissions tracking. If primary data is unavailable, our comprehensive, customizable secondary data will still deliver reliable results.

Dynamic hotspot visualizations for actionable supply chain insights

Opteinics provides an intuitive and flexible approach to visualizing results, enabling users to assess environmental impacts at varying levels of detail. This allows for the identification of key contributors to emissions and resource use, performance comparisons across the value chain, and data-driven decision-making to enhance sustainability.