Scope 3 Emissions

What are Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions?

Scope 1 Direct GHG emissions that occur from sources that are controlled or owned by MIT, such as fuel combustion in boilers, furnaces, and vehicles

Scope 2 Indirect GHG emissions associated with the purchase of electricity, steam, heat, or cooling

Scope 3 Other indirect GHG emissions that result from activities or assets not owned or controlled by MIT, but that MIT still impacts through its value chain, such as employee travel and commuting or supply chain emissions from purchased goods or services

MIT has committed to:

Achieving net-zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2026

Eliminating all direct campus emissions by 2050

While Scope 3 emissions are the most complex to measure and influence, MIT is committed to include Scope 3 emissions in its greenhouse gas accounting, and is actively pursuing strategies to mitigate Scope 3 impacts as part of its long-term climate goals.

How is MIT assessing its Scope 3 emissions?

MIT has established an institutional goal to formalize Scope 3 accounting in MIT’s Fast Forward: MIT’s Climate Action Plan for the Decade, and to begin mitigating such emissions, starting with air travel. The MIT Campus Scope 3 Dashboard (Kerberos login required) estimates annual emissions using best available data and can help campus users understand MIT’s Scope 3 footprint in order to prioritize feasible reductions.  

More about our methodology

As multiple sources of indirect emissions fall under the category of Scope 3, we have compiled a series of documents to describe the methods MIT has used to estimate Scope 3 emissions. These documents are available here to assist anyone wanting to learn more as well as other institutions seeking to accelerate their efforts to calculate Scope 3 emissions.

Purchased Goods and Services

Business Travel

Waste

Construction and Renovation

View our shared methodology to help prioritize key Scope 3 emission categories within Purchased Goods and Services (developed in collaboration with sustainability and procurement teams at MIT, Harvard, Stanford, and Yale).

How is MIT reducing its Scope 3 emissions? 

The MIT Campus Scope 3 Dashboard (Kerberos login required) can help campus users understand the scale of MIT’s Scope 3 footprint in order to prioritize feasible reductions. 
Some examples include:

Designing out waste by generating cleaner streams of food waste and recycling for feeding circular economies

Promoting re-use of office and lab materials through a free reuse exchange tool called MIT Rheaply (Kerberos login required).

Establishing sustainable purchasing programs with vendors and MIT purchasers to reduce lifecycle GHG impacts

Integrating Scope 3 data into a local climate action plan like the The School of Architecture + Planning.

The MIT Scope 3 Business Travel Dashboard (Kerberos login required) can help campus users to understand the scale of MIT department travel-related Scope 3 footprint and identify opportunities for reduction. 
For example:

Promoting responsible travel by encouraging MIT departments and individuals to assess the necessity of air travel, prioritize virtual collaboration, and consider lower-carbon alternatives such as rail.

Implementing a Travel Offset Program. While offsets are not a substitute for emissions reduction, this program helps mitigate unavoidable emissions as MIT continues to evaluate long-term strategies to reduce business travel-related emissions.