Ensuring that global warming does not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels is widely accepted as the target to mitigate the effects of climate change.
However, cuts of 42% of annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030 are required to reach this goal.
We are all responsible for minimising GHG emissions, including participants in the electronic manufacturing sector. In fact, given the scale of many electronic manufacturers, they play a significant role in driving sustainability.
Scope emissions act as a framework to visualise your different emission sources. OEMs and EMS providers can assess their environmental impact using this framework, which helps identify opportunities to reduce emissions.
This blog explores each scope to help you plan and take targeted action across your supply chain.
Scope 1
Scope 1 emissions are typically the first focus when assessing environmental impact and refer to GHG emissions from sources a company owns or controls. For example, scope 1 emissions may result from company-owned delivery trucks or warehouse equipment used for production, like cleanroom equipment, etching processes, or reflow ovens.
Because manufacturers directly control these emissions, scope 1 is often the easiest to identify and reduce.
Scope 2
Unlike scope 1 emissions, which are the result of your company’s direct activities, scope 2 emissions are indirect GHG emissions from the energy use in your factories. An example of scope 2 emissions is pollution caused by the use of lighting, heating, and cooling in your warehouses. Although the emissions themselves occur at a power plant off-site, they are attributed to your company.
Electronic manufacturing requires high amounts of energy for assembly lines, PCB production, and semiconductor fabrication, so scope 2 is a crucial area for improvement. In many cases, manufacturers are looking to reduce their scope 2 emissions by upgrading to more efficient equipment and switching to renewables. Renewable energy was a key focus and the theme of Earth Day 2025.
Scope 3
In today’s day and age, the global supply chain is vast, complex, and intertwined. This is often why evaluating scope 3 emissions is so tricky. Yet, scope 3 is increasingly coming under the spotlight. These emissions are created indirectly across a company’s entire value chain, both up and downstream.
Scope 3 emissions arise when an OEM or EMS’s activities generate demand elsewhere in the value chain that causes pollution. For example, suppose an EMS produces a product for an OEM. In that case, the emissions generated as part of the production process are counted as scope 3 emissions for the OEM and therefore are also their responsibility.
Scope 3 emissions are increasingly being scrutinised as companies look to report and improve their emissions inline with initiatives like the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in the EU. This process generally involves often involves a manufacturer working with suppliers to ensure they implement best practices, opt for sustainable shipping options, and make their sustainability reporting data readily available.
Scope 4
A relatively new concept, scope 4 emissions are the emissions avoided from what a company does or produces. Sometimes called ‘avoided emissions’, scope 4 emissions are not a formal GHG category, but well worth keeping in mind.
For example, if an OEM designs an energy-efficient product or the device’s function to begin with is sustainability-related, you can calculate the emissions that have been avoided as a result. These emissions are classified as scope 4.
Scope 4 emissions are increasingly used to demonstrate avoided emissions and a positive environmental impact that a company makes.
Make a positive change to your supply chain with Component Sense
Whether society can keep global temperatures below the critical 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold remains to be seen. However, it is important to remember that even if we exceed this, minimising the damage is crucial. Every point of a degree matters. For example, the environmental fallout of a 1.6 increase vs 1.7 is vast.
The role of electronic manufacturers in minimising GHG emissions cannot be overstated, particularly large companies with multiple sites. Each layer of scope emissions should be audited to look for areas of improvement.
For scope 1, replace or upgrade inefficient equipment. For scope 2, conduct energy audits to identify energy waste and implement automated management systems. For scope 3, work closely with suppliers to reduce their scope 1 and 2 emissions. To do this, ask for regular reporting and help them make similar positive changes as you are. These are just some ideas!
At Component Sense, we plant two trees for every order to offset emissions for both the seller and buyer of our stock. We also work with carbon-neutral shipping companies and partner with the global logistics company DSV. This partnership allows us to keep stock local to the supplier and minimise unnecessary shipping where possible.