Glossary›Emissions accounting and measurement›Use of sold products (Category 11)
Glossary term
Cluster D · D44
Tier 1
Use of sold products (Category 11)
Definition
Category 11 covers the emissions generated when customers use the products a company sold during the reporting year, counted across each product’s full expected lifetime and recognised in the year of sale. Direct use-phase emissions, from products that consume fuel or electricity or contain greenhouse gases, are required. Indirect use-phase emissions are optional.
· Appendix B, Scope 3 measured per the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard · first disclosed in the second reporting period
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In practice
For a manufacturer of anything that burns fuel, draws power or leaks refrigerant, Category 11 is usually the largest number in the inventory by a wide margin, and it is frequently larger than every other category combined. It is also the category with the most judgement in it, because it is entirely forward-looking.
Three assumptions drive the answer and each is a disclosure in its own right.
Assumption
What it decides
Expected product lifetime
How many years of use-phase emissions are recognised in the year of sale.
Expected intensity of use per year
How much energy or fuel the product draws in each of those years.
Emissions profile of the energy consumed over that lifetime
A product sold in 2027 that draws grid electricity for fifteen years will be drawing progressively cleaner electricity as the grid decarbonises. Applying today’s grid factor across all fifteen years overstates the figure; applying a projected decarbonisation pathway understates it relative to peers who did not. Both approaches are used. Neither is wrong. Only the undisclosed choice is wrong.
The recognition rule is the other trap. Full lifetime emissions of all products sold this year land in this year’s number. Like capital goods, the category does not amortise. A strong sales year raises reported emissions, which is a genuinely awkward disclosure for a growing business and needs an intensity metric alongside it to be intelligible.
What the assurer does with it
The assurer agrees the units-sold population to revenue and to the sales system, by product line, which is the completeness test and is available because the sales ledger is audited.
They then focus almost entirely on the assumption set rather than the arithmetic. They will ask for the source of the lifetime assumption, the source of the usage intensity assumption, and whether either has been benchmarked to warranty data, product manuals, industry studies or the company’s own service records.
They accept assumptions sourced to a documented engineering or market basis and applied consistently. They reject a lifetime assumption with no stated source, a change in any of the three assumptions between years without restatement of the comparative, and a units-sold figure that cannot be reconciled to revenue. The most common finding is a company excluding indirect use-phase emissions (which is permitted) without saying it has done so, which is not.
Commonly confused with
Category 12, end-of-life treatment of sold products, which covers disposal rather than use. And the emissions of making the product, which are the company’s own Scope 1, Scope 2 and Category 1.
Timing and relief
The standard Scope 3 position applies. Scope 3, and therefore this category, may be omitted from an entity’s first annual reporting period under AASB S2 Appendix C paragraph C4(b), and under paragraph C5 the entity may keep relying on that relief when presenting the relieved year as comparative information in later periods. Group 1 first discloses Scope 3 for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2026, Group 2 from 1 July 2027 and Group 3 from 1 July 2028.
Sources
1
Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard, full text
GHG Protocol
2
3
Review status
Review required
Last reviewed
15 September 2026
Editorial pass, unsigned
Reviewer required
Carbon accounting specialist and registered company auditor
Next scheduled review
1 July 2027
Part of
Cluster D, Emissions accounting and measurement
49 terms from the head term carbon accounting down to individual Scope 3 categories and the mechanics of factors, boundaries and data quality. The largest cluster in the glossary.
Related terms
The disclosure that carries the three forward-looking assumptions
What makes a rising Category 11 in a growth year intelligible
What happens when an assumption changes between periods
Related questions
How do we work out which Scope 3 categories are material for us?
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You screen all fifteen GHG Protocol categories, estimate each roughly off accounts payable spend, and document why you included or excluded each one. The screen is the deliverable as much as the answer, because the practitioner will test the reasoning behind an exclusion at least as hard as the numbers behind an inclusion. Expect the answer to be concentrated in a handful of categories.
Can we estimate Scope 3 and still pass assurance?
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Yes. Estimates are expected in Scope 3 and are not a problem for assurance in themselves, because what fails is an undocumented estimate. The practitioner tests whether the method is appropriate and disclosed, the inputs are traceable, the application is consistent, and the estimation uncertainty is described honestly.
Do we have to report Scope 3 in year one?
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No. AASB S2 gives first-time reporters relief from disclosing Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions in their first annual reporting period, and Scope 3 is required from the second year. Taking the relief in year one is normal, but the supplier data work needs to start in year one anyway.
Other terms in this cluster
Use of sold products (Category 11)