Flexible Scope 3 Categorization for Purchased Products

Accurate Scope 3 reporting depends on correctly attributing emissions to the right GHG categories. To support more precise and compliant corporate carbon footprint calculations, SAP Sustainability Footprint Management now enables flexible categorization of purchased product footprints as Scope 3.1 or Scope 3.2. 

This enhancement gives sustainability teams greater control over how purchased products are reflected in Scope 3 emissions, improving transparency, accuracy, and alignment with reporting standards.

Why Scope 3 categorization matters 

Purchased products can represent both operational goods and services as well as capital goods, each of which belongs to a different Scope 3 category under the GHG Protocol. Assigning all purchased products to a single category can lead to inaccuracies and limit the quality of sustainability insights. 

With the new capability, organizations can now: 

• Distinguish between Scope 3.1 - Purchased Goods and Services and Scope 3.2 - Capital Goods 
• Improve the accuracy of Scope 3 reporting 
• Strengthen compliance with sustainability and regulatory frameworks 
• Enable more meaningful analysis of procurement-related emissions 

New flexibility in the Manage Purchased Product Footprints app 

Previously, all purchased products derived from business transactions were automatically categorized as Scope 3.1. With this update, the Manage Purchased Product Footprints app now allows you to assign the appropriate GHG category to each product or product group. 

You can perform this assignment through multiple methods: 

• Manually in the user interface 
• By importing a data file 
• When releasing footprints mapped using AI 
• When manually mapping emission factors to purchased products 

This granular control ensures that emissions are attributed to the correct Scope 3 category from the start. 

Default behavior for existing footprints 

To ensure continuity and avoid disruption: 

• All existing purchased product and product group footprints are categorized as Scope 3.1 by default 
• Supplier-specific product footprints released from the Manage Supplier Footprints app are also categorized as Scope 3.1 by default, and this assignment cannot be changed 

This approach maintains consistency while allowing flexibility for newly assigned or updated purchased product footprints. 

Enhanced analysis in the Footprint Overview app 

The Footprint Overview app has also been enhanced to support analysis of Scope 3.2 - Capital Goods.

You can now: 

• Analyze Scope 3.2 emissions across all purchased products 
• Gain better visibility into capital goods–related emissions 
• Support strategic decisions related to investments and long-term assets