GHG Scopes 1–3 Case Study for Manufacturing | DEISO

Illustrative GHG Inventory for a Packaged Food Manufacturing Plant in Germany

This illustrative case study demonstrates how DEISO structures a full greenhouse gas inventory across Scopes 1, 2, and 3 for a manufacturing organization. The scenario highlights value-chain hotspots, category-level Scope 3 screening, and indexed reduction pathways to show how emissions data can be translated into strategic action.

Case Positioning

This is an illustrative technical case study designed to demonstrate how DEISO structures a full GHG inventory across Scopes 1, 2, and 3 using a realistic industrial scenario. It does not represent a real client engagement or confidential company dataset.

Scenario Overview

• Country: Germany
• Industry: Packaged Food Manufacturing
• Facility Type: Processed foods production plant with national retail and export channels
• Operational Boundary: One manufacturing site, purchased electricity, and full upstream and downstream value-chain screening
• Reporting Basis: Annual inventory
• Methodological Reference: GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard

Business Context

The illustrative company needed to establish a full corporate GHG baseline, identify major emission hotspots, understand the contribution of upstream purchased materials, assess distribution and end-of-life impacts, and build a practical foundation for target setting and reduction planning.

The organization had already measured utility consumption and fuel usage internally, but lacked a structured and decision-oriented view of value-chain emissions, especially across all Scope 3 categories.

DEISO Technical Approach

DEISO’s methodological workflow for this type of project includes:

• Organizational and operational boundary setting
• Activity data mapping across all relevant scopes
• Emission factor selection by geography and activity type
• Category-level Scope 3 screening
• Materiality review and hotspot identification
• Indexed scenario modeling for reduction pathways

Illustrative Results Summary

Total Corporate Emissions

• Total annual footprint: 148,600 tCO2e
• Baseline index: 100

Emissions by Scope

• Scope 1: 12,400 tCO2e (8.3%)
• Scope 2: 9,800 tCO2e (6.6%)
• Scope 3: 126,400 tCO2e (85.1%)

Primary Hotspot

Purchased goods and services represent the dominant emissions category, driven mainly by agricultural raw materials, packaging inputs, and ingredient processing.

Key Findings

Value-Chain Dominance

Scope 3 dominates the inventory, accounting for more than four-fifths of the total footprint. This indicates that procurement decisions, supplier characteristics, product logistics, consumer use assumptions, and end-of-life treatment have greater strategic importance than direct site emissions alone.

Upstream Hotspots

The largest upstream drivers are purchased goods and services, upstream transportation and distribution, capital goods, and fuel- and energy-related activities. These categories point to supplier engagement, lower-carbon sourcing, packaging optimization, and logistics redesign as major areas for intervention.

Downstream Hotspots

On the downstream side, transportation and distribution, use of sold products, and end-of-life treatment are the most significant contributors. This reinforces the importance of distribution strategy, product design, packaging recovery, and realistic use-phase assumptions in corporate carbon management.

Strategic Implications

This type of GHG inventory provides more than a compliance-oriented baseline. It creates a strategic management framework for prioritizing supplier engagement, identifying operational and value-chain hotspots, structuring reduction programs, and improving disclosure readiness for customers, investors, and regulatory stakeholders.

The results also show that organizations with relatively modest Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions may still carry substantial climate exposure through Scope 3. For manufacturing businesses, this often means that decarbonization strategy must extend beyond internal energy management into procurement, transport, packaging, and product lifecycle design.

Illustrative Reduction Pathways

• Lower-carbon material sourcing and supplier transition programs
• Renewable electricity procurement and electricity decarbonization
• Freight optimization, route redesign, and modal shift
• Packaging redesign and end-of-life improvement measures
• Process heat efficiency upgrades and thermal energy optimization

Combined illustrative reduction modeling showed substantial improvement potential, reducing the carbon performance index from 100 to 77 under a staged intervention scenario.

Conclusion

This illustrative case demonstrates how a comprehensive Scope 1–3 inventory can reveal the true carbon structure of a manufacturing organization. By combining direct emissions, purchased energy, and full value-chain screening, DEISO helps organizations move from fragmented data toward a clear, prioritized, and decision-ready emissions strategy.