A 30-second silent film: where supply chain emissions sit, the sectors Carbon3 covers, the free Data Hub, and one supplier project co-financed by many companies.
- Eight supply chains account for more than half of global emissions.
- Carbon3 provides insetting for all industries: maritime, aviation, chemicals, steel and agriculture.
- The free Carbon3 Data Hub maps about 25,000 companies and their public climate data.
- One supplier project can be co-financed by many companies at once.
- Net zero runs through value chains.
- Look up any company at carbon3.net/data
Cutting supply chain emissions can generate revenue, not only cost money.
Insetting means a supplier’s customers share the cost of its upgrade. Independent verifiers and registries issue inset credits per tonne saved, and the funders can sell them to recover cost or keep them for reporting.
Most of a company’s emissions sit in its supply chain, yet only 15% of companies have a target for them (CDP and BCG, 2024).
Video sources: World Economic Forum and BCG (2021); Carbon3 Data Hub. Visuals are schematic and illustrative.
The problem
The emissions sit with suppliers. Paying to cut them usually returns nothing.
In retail, upstream Scope 3 averaged 92 times Scope 1 and 2 across CDP disclosers in 2023.
Only 15% of all disclosers had an upstream target. A supplier that invests in cleaner fuel or heat carries the cost alone, while its customers share the benefit.
Why Scope 3 mattersSource: CDP and BCG, 2024 (2023 disclosures)
How it works
One supplier reduces emissions, and everyone who helped pay gets their fair share of inset credits.
Carbon3 provides the infrastructure so organizations can do this themselves, and records every credit. Independent verifiers check the tonnes, and verifiers and registries issue the credits.
- Money
- Emissions reduction
- Credits
Funders pay
They pay the extra cost of cleaner fuel.
- Owner A50% of cost
- Owner B30% of cost
- Lender20% of cost
The ship switches fuel
Emissions fall
A verifier checks the tonnes saved.
Old fuel
New fuel
Checked
Funders get credits
Each checked tonne is one credit.
- Owner A50% of credits
- Owner B30% of credits
- Lender20% of credits
1 inset credit = 1 tonne of emissions reductions. Carbon3 records each credit’s holder, so no tonne counts twice.
(Illustrative. Claim treatment depends on the applicable reporting framework.)
Who it is for
Value chain stakeholders benefit financially when emissions get cut.
Industrial suppliers
Add a second source of revenue from reductions that customers co-fund.
Reduction projects are often funded by the supplier alone.
For industrial suppliersCorporate buyers
Share a supplier’s upgrade cost, and sell any credits not needed.
Most of the footprint sits with suppliers.
For corporate buyersInvestors and lenders
Finance reductions and hold credits to sell or retire.
Transition exposure is difficult to evidence.
For investors and lenders
Sectors
Insetting works where a few suppliers carry most of the emissions.
Illustrative project types. Each sector page shows who reduces emissions and who can co-fund.
All sectors
Insets and offsets
An inset reduces emissions inside the buyer’s own value chain.
An offset pays for a project somewhere else and leaves the buyer’s inventory unchanged. An inset funds a supplier the buyer already relies on, so it can lower the buyer’s Scope 3 once the supplier’s lower emissions reach the buyer’s data. Claim treatment depends on the applicable reporting framework.
Insets and offsets comparedOffset
- Project
- Outside the buyer’s value chain
- Buyer’s inventory
- Unchanged
Inset
- Project
- At the buyer’s supplier
- Buyer’s inventory
- Can be lower
Trust and method
Every tonne is checked by a verifier and claimed only once.
Claim treatment depends on the applicable reporting framework.
How credits are verifiedIndependent verification
A verifier, never Carbon3, checks each reduction against a verification report written to recognized standards.
Issued by registries, recorded by Carbon3
Independent verifiers and registries issue the inset credits. Carbon3 records each credit’s holder, so no tonne counts twice.
Recognized standards
The GHG Protocol for carbon accounting, SBTi guidance for targets, and ISO 14064 for validation and verification.
Public data with sources
Data Hub figures link to the company filings they come from, and climate targets come from the SBTi registry.
The Data Hub
Public emissions data, company by company, with every source linked.
The free Carbon3 Data Hub covers 25,948 companies, with 3,554 emissions reports from 1,751 of them and 7,438 climate targets from the SBTi registry.
Compare up to three companies side by side, or see where a company sits in its industry. The figures come from company filings and the SBTi registry, and the Data Hub is free.
Each figure links to the filing or registry it comes from. Anyone can look up a supplier before planning a project, with no account.
Explore the Data Hub
Live counts as of November 7, 2026. Prepared demonstration accounts are not counted.
Screenshots of carbon3.net/data, November 2026.
Questions
Answers to the questions leaders ask first.
What is an inset credit?
An inset credit is a tradable record of one verified tonne of CO₂ equivalent (tCO₂e) reduced inside a company’s own supply chain. It stays tied to the supplier and the project, and its issuance names the verification report behind it.
How is an inset different from an offset?
An offset buys a reduction from a project outside a company’s business. An inset funds emissions reductions at its own suppliers, so the reduction relates to its own Scope 3 footprint.
Who verifies the reductions, and who issues the credits?
An independent verifier, never Carbon3, checks the tonnes against a verification report. Independent verifiers and registries issue the inset credits, and Carbon3 records each credit and its holder.
Which standards does Carbon3 build on?
The GHG Protocol for carbon accounting, SBTi guidance for targets, and ISO 14064 for validation and verification. Whether a credit counts toward a target depends on the standard and the company reporting it.
Do retired inset credits count in a Scope 3 inventory?
The supplier’s lower emissions can lower the buyer’s Scope 3 once they reach the buyer’s data, and the retired credit is the record of the tonnes funded. Claim treatment depends on the applicable reporting framework.
Who can take part?
Suppliers and project developers, companies that co-fund supply-chain projects, investors and lenders, and the advisors who support them.
How is Carbon3 paid?
Listing a project and using the Data Hub are free. Fees apply to marketplace activity: selling and retiring credits. Costs depend on project complexity, verification requirements and transaction volume.
Cutting supplier emissions can generate revenue for companies and lower national emissions without new public spending.
Tell us about a supplier or a project, and we will reply.
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