What is upstream distribution?
Upstream distribution refers to emissions that arise from the transportation and distribution of goods and materials, where a charge is made to the business for the transportation but it does not directly operate or own the vehicles or facilities involved.
Upstream distribution falls under Greenhouse Gas protocol scope 3.4 (Upstream transportation and distribution) and includes indirect emissions from transportation and distribution services. Scope 3.4 covers:
Fuel use in road freight, air cargo, shipping, and rail transport.
Energy consumption and refrigerant leakage from temporary storage in third-party warehouses or distribution centres.
Third-party logistics providers moving goods between your own sites or between suppliers and your operations.
Note: Transport emissions that occur before your direct suppliers (e.g., mining of raw materials) fall under Scope 3.1 – Purchased Goods and Services.
What you’ll need to get started
Mode of transport
Weight of goods transported
Distance goods transported (measured in kilometres)
Total warehousing costs including VAT or any other tax.
Choosing the right option
The options available will depend on whether you have connected your accounting software and the data you have available.
If you have connected your financial accounting platform
If you have connected your financial accounting platform
There are a number of possible scenarios when completing this module. Follow the steps that best describes your situation:
1. Your business did not pay any transport or warehousing costs to a third party in this period
Select “I don’t have these emissions” from the module’s front page. This confirms that your business didn’t pay for third party transport or warehousing during the selected quarter.
The module will be marked as complete and a 0kg CO₂e footprint will be applied for this quarter.
2. If you know the mode of transport, the weight of goods and the transport distance
When asked “Do you have details like how far goods were shipped or how much they weighed?”, select “Yes”. Enter the mode of transport, the total weight of transported goods (in tonnes or kilograms), and the total transport distance (in kilometres).
3. If you don’t know how far goods were shipped or how much they weighed
When asked “Do you have details like how far goods were shipped or how much they weighed?”, select “No”. This confirms your company doesn't have shipping weight or distance details. Your upstream distribution footprint will be based only on spend data from your accounting platform.
If you have not connected a financial accounting platform or if the date range for this module is prior to your integration start date
If you have not connected a financial accounting platform or if the date range for this module is prior to your integration start date
There are a number of possible scenarios when completing this module. Follow the steps that best describes your situation:
1. Your business did not pay any transport or warehousing costs to a third party in this period
Select “I don’t have these emissions” from the module’s front page. This confirms that your business didn’t pay for third party transport or warehousing during the selected quarter.
The module will be marked as complete and a 0kg CO₂e footprint will be applied for this quarter.
2. If you know the mode of transport and the transport distance
Choose “Yes, and I can provide shipping details”. Enter the mode of transport. Then choose “Weight of shipped goods and transport distance” if you have the weight (in tonnes or kilograms).
If you do not have the weight, choose “Total transport distance”. Entering the weight and transport distance is recommended for the highest quality calculation.
Make sure you add usage data to account for your business's entire spend and usage within this category for this quarter. You can add this as one item or choose “Add another" and add multiple items of the same or different categories.
Repeat this process for all categories that you have detail of how much you've bought or used by choosing “Add another" and providing the data for each activity.
3. If you know the mode of transport and the total cost of transport, but not the transport distance or weight
Select “Yes, and I can provide shipping details”. Select the mode of transport, then under “What details can you provide?”, select “Total cost of transport”.
Enter the amount paid including VAT or any other taxes. Make sure you do not add cost details for any activities for which you've already provided the usage data (the amount used or bought).
Make sure the data you add between usage and cost accounts for your business's entire spend and usage within this category for this quarter. You can add this as one item or choose “Add another" and add multiple items of the same or different categories.
Find out more:
See Section 7.3.1.1 of our Carbon Reduction Actions Guide