Scope 3 Category 11: Use of Sold Products
Category 11 (use of sold products) covers the emissions generated when customers use what you sell. For automotive, appliance, electronics, fuel, and building product companies, Category 11 typically represents the largest single source of Scope 3 emissions — and the greatest opportunity for impact through product design.
Category 11 (use of sold products) covers the emissions generated when customers use what you sell. Category 11 covers the direct use-phase emissions from sold products — the GHG emissions generated by your customers when they use your products during their lifetime.
What Category 11 covers and how to calculate it
Category 11 covers the direct use-phase emissions from sold products — the GHG emissions generated by your customers when they use your products during their lifetime.
For direct-use products that consume energy: cars (fuel combustion or electricity consumption), appliances (electricity consumption), HVAC systems, industrial machinery, electronic devices. Calculate as: units sold × lifetime energy consumption per unit × emission factor for the energy source.
For products that contain or form GHGs: fossil fuels (the combustion emissions when customers burn the fuel), refrigerants and gases (leakage during product use), aerosols containing GHGs. Calculate as: quantity sold × GHG content × emission factor.
For indirect-use products: products that do not themselves consume energy but enable energy consumption by customers — building materials that affect building energy efficiency, packaging that affects refrigeration requirements. These require a more complex allocation methodology and are often excluded from Category 11 with disclosure of the omission rationale.
Lifetime assumption: Category 11 calculation requires assumptions about product lifetime and usage patterns. A car sold in 2025 with a 15-year lifetime and 15,000 km annual driving produces different Category 11 emissions than the same car driven 30,000 km per year. Document your lifetime assumptions and usage pattern basis clearly.
Category 11 for fossil fuel companies
For oil and gas companies, Category 11 is the combustion emissions from fuels sold to customers — overwhelmingly the largest emission category. A company selling 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent per year has Category 11 emissions of approximately 400–450 Mt CO2e — larger than many countries' national emission inventories.
The GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard provides specific guidance for fossil fuel combustion products: use the fuel-specific combustion emission factors (CO2, CH4, N2O) and calculate based on the energy content of fuels sold.
Controversy around Category 11 for fossil fuels: some oil and gas companies have historically excluded Category 11 from their GHG inventories, arguing that customer combustion decisions are outside their control and responsibility. This position is increasingly untenable — ESRS E1-6 requires disclosure of all material Scope 3 categories, and Category 11 is material for any fossil fuel company. SBTi requires fossil fuel companies to include Category 11 in their target boundary.
Reducing Category 11 — product design levers
Category 11 reduction strategy requires product-level intervention — you cannot reduce customer use-phase emissions through operational changes in your own facilities. The primary levers are:
Product efficiency: Design products that consume less energy per unit of function — more efficient engines, better insulation, lower-power electronics, higher-efficiency HVAC. Report energy efficiency improvements as a percentage reduction in Category 11 emissions per unit sold.
Electrification: Shift from fossil-fuel-powered to electric products — EV sales replacing ICE vehicle sales, heat pump sales replacing gas boiler sales. As the electricity grid decarbonises, electrified product Category 11 emissions automatically decline without further product changes.
Product lifetime extension: Longer-lived products spread Category 11 emissions over more years but total lifetime emissions depend on whether efficiency improvements in future products outweigh the savings from extension. Repair, refurbishment, and remanufacturing programmes can extend product life while maintaining performance.
Fuel switching enablement: For products that can use multiple fuels (vehicles, industrial burners), design for compatibility with lower-carbon fuels (biogas, hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel). Category 11 emissions decline as customers switch to cleaner fuels even if your product design is unchanged.
Frequently asked questions
Do we calculate Category 11 for products sold in previous years that are still in use?
The GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard uses a sales-year approach — calculate Category 11 based on the lifetime emissions of products sold in the current reporting year. You do not recalculate for previously sold products. This avoids double-counting with prior year calculations while capturing the full lifecycle impact of current year sales.
How do we handle Category 11 for products used in both high and low-carbon electricity markets?
Use a market-weighted average grid emission factor based on the geographic distribution of your product sales. A UK company selling appliances primarily in the UK uses UK grid factors; a global company selling in 50 countries uses a weighted average of national grid factors. Disclose the methodology and the emission factor assumptions used.
Is Category 11 relevant for B2B companies that sell intermediate goods?
Only if your intermediate goods directly use energy or emit GHGs during processing by your customer (Category 10 — processing of sold products) or during the end-customer's use (Category 11 via the product your customer makes). A steel producer's steel is incorporated into buildings and vehicles — the steel itself does not use energy in the customer's hands, so Category 11 is typically not applicable. Category 10 (customer processing) is more likely to be material.