The California Air Resources Board (CARB) proposed limiting companies' initial, mandatory Scope 3 (indirect value chain) emissions disclosures to five of 15 categories under the state's corporate climate reporting law. CARB presented the proposal July 22 during a public workshop on the California Corporate Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, created under SB 253.
The five categories are purchased goods and services, fuel and energy related activities, waste generated during operations, business travel, and employee commuting. CARB said the categories already have "some of the most established data sources and mature quantification methods." CARB did not specify mandatory reporting requirements for the remaining 10 Scope 3 categories but proposed that companies report on those categories voluntarily. Scope 3 reporting begins in 2027.
Scope 3 emissions are harder for companies to measure than Scope 1 (direct) or Scope 2 (indirect, energy-related) because they cover indirect emissions across a company's entire value chain. They include suppliers, business travel, and employee commuting, rather than emissions from sources that the company owns or directly controls.
