What are Scope 3 emissions in fashion?
Scope 3 emissions are the indirect greenhouse gas emissions in a company's value chain, such as materials, manufacturing, transport and product use.
In short
Scope 3 emissions are all indirect greenhouse gas emissions that occur in a company's value chain, outside its own operations and purchased energy. For fashion companies they include emissions from growing and processing fibres, dyeing and finishing, garment production, transport, customer use and end of life.
How does it work in practice?
Greenhouse gas accounting splits emissions into three scopes. Scope 1 covers direct emissions such as company vehicles, Scope 2 covers purchased electricity and heat, and Scope 3 covers everything else in the value chain. A fashion brand usually starts by estimating Scope 3 from spend or volumes multiplied by emission factors, then moves towards supplier-specific data.
- Purchased goods: fibres, fabrics, trims and finished garments.
- Transport: inbound and outbound freight.
- Use phase: washing, drying and ironing by consumers.
- End of life: disposal, recycling or resale of products.
Why does it matter for fashion businesses?
Because most of a fashion company's climate impact sits with suppliers, credible climate targets must address Scope 3. Investors, large retail partners and reporting rules increasingly ask for these figures, and wholesale customers may request product or supplier level data for their own reporting.
How is AI changing it?
AI helps classify spend and product data into emission categories, match materials to emission factors and fill data gaps with modelled estimates. Machine learning can also analyse supplier energy data to identify where decarbonisation investments would have the biggest effect. Results remain estimates and should be labelled as such.
Common pitfalls
Relying only on spend-based estimates hides real improvements by suppliers. Double counting, missing upstream tiers and switching methodologies between years also undermine comparability. A practical start is to focus on the largest categories first, usually purchased materials and garments, and to agree a simple data template with key suppliers rather than chasing every category at once.
Frequently asked questions
Why are Scope 3 emissions so high for fashion brands?
Most fashion brands do not own factories or farms, so the energy-intensive steps of fibre production, dyeing and sewing sit with suppliers. These emissions therefore fall into Scope 3 rather than Scope 1 or 2.
How can a fashion brand reduce its Scope 3 emissions?
Common levers include switching to lower impact materials, supporting suppliers with renewable energy and efficiency projects, reducing overproduction and shifting from air to sea freight.