Scope 3 emissions account for the majority of most companies' carbon footprints — but they’re the most difficult to track. This guide breaks down the best Scope 3 emissions software in 2025, how to evaluate the right tool, and why leading organizations are using platforms like Pulsora to manage supply chain emissions and drive toward net zero.
Scope 3 emissions are the final frontier for enterprise climate action, but often the hardest to get right. Not only is it hard to track granular purchase info beyond spend; it’s also difficult to identify relevant emissions factors to use.
In 2025, tracking indirect emissions across the value chain isn’t just a reporting checkbox; it’s the key to credible net-zero progress and long-term decarbonization.
Still, most companies struggle with Scope 3 measurement due to poor supplier data and the complexity of accounting using relevant data and methodologies across the 15 different Scope 3 GHG emissions categories.
That’s where Scope 3 software comes in.
The right platform makes supplier engagement, emissions factor tracking, and scenario modeling both possible and scalable.
In this guide, we’ll break down:
- The best Scope 3 software for carbon management in 2025
- What to look for in Scope 3 emissions software
- The most common Scope 3 categories and metrics to track
- How these tools help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and your overall carbon footprint to streamline compliance
💡 How are the best sustainability teams tracking Scope 3 using software? Our practical guide walks you through it step-by-step.
The best Scope 3 software for 2025
These platforms offer the strongest capabilities for managing Scope 3 emissions across large, complex organizations.
1. Pulsora
Pulsora’s scalable carbon management solution combines audit-ready carbon accounting with intelligent supply chain data capture and scenario modeling for distributed organizations.
It supports all 15 Scope 3 categories, offers robust supplier engagement workflows, and uses PulsoraAI to generate and track decarbonization pathways.
Features:
- Cascading hierarchy to reach multiple supplier tiers
- Custom and standard emissions factors
- Audit-ready SBTi and CDP reporting aligned with theGHG Protocol
- Integrated decarbonization scenario planning
Clients of note:
- ASM
- Workday
- Charles Taylor
- Sisecam
👉 Plus, Pulsora’s Carbon tool is native to their larger ESG and sustainability management solutions. See why they top the list of the 24 best ESG reporting solutions for 2025.
2. Sweep
Sweep offers intuitive data collection across teams and suppliers. Its collaborative interface makes Scope 3 tracking scalable for distributed organizations.
Clients of note:
- Royal Canin
- Sanofi
- Swisscom
- Bouygues
3. Sphera
Sphera’s strength lies in detailed life cycle assessments (LCA) and integration with EHS risk systems, making it ideal for manufacturers and other risk-heavy industries needing LCA support.
Clients of note:
- Texaco
- Dow
- Siemens
- Kinder Morgan
4. Watershed
Watershed collects, manages, and reports Scope 3 data for enterprises around the world. However, it lacks automation and data traceability, and they require support from their advisory team to audit and complete calculations.
Clients of note:
- KKR
- Dollar Tree
- Roche
- Etsy
5. Persefoni
Persefoni offers a free AI-driven calculator tool for small enterprises, and carbon-finance integrations. Their scenario modeling and alignment with certain frameworks is useful for regulated sectors or disclosure-heavy use cases.
Clients of note:
- Burlington
- TPG
- Wesco
- RegencyCenters
6. Microsoft
Microsoft’s Cloud for Sustainability enables supplier engagement and emissions tracking using Copilot and other AI capabilities. However, it doesn’t yet have full Scope 3 support and for organizations who don’t already work within the Microsoft ecosystems, it may not make the most sense to purchase.
Clients of note:
- HTC
- Cosmo
- Las Vegas raiders
- Kingfisher
7. Greenly
Greenly provides automatic emissions calculations and gap-filling tools, helping smaller teams ramp up quickly and report accurately. They tend to operate in the mid-market space but have enterprise clients as well.
Clients of note:
- Ubisoft
- Huawei
- Pernod Ricard
- The Fork
8. Plan A
Plan A focuses on decarbonization economics, including modeling scenarios and pricing strategies to inform financial and procurement decisions. However, they lack important GenAI features, scenario and climate risk analyses, as well as having a native ESG solution that can support robust reporting.
Clients of note:
- Payhawk
- Sorare
- Blisce
- KFC
What is Scope 3 software for carbon management?
Scope 3 software refers to platforms built specifically to calculate, track, and manage value chain emissions. These are the indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions not owned or controlled by the reporting company — from upstream suppliers to downstream logistics and product use.
According to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, Scope 3 emissions are broken down into 15 categories, including business travel, employee commuting, purchased goods and services, investments, use of sold products, and end-of-life product treatment.
Many software solutions offer Scope 3 capabilities as part of broader carbon accounting software, but the best tools go further: they integrate supplier data, offer deeper and more granular visibility to stakeholders, and support both calculation and reduction strategies to support your decarbonization initiatives.
💡 See also: The 15 best carbon accounting software tools in 2025
What to look for in Scope 3 emissions software
Not all platforms are built to handle the complexity of Scope 3. When evaluating solutions, prioritize the following:
Full Scope 1, 2, and 3 coverage
Scope 3 can’t be managed in isolation. Choose a platform that integrates all Scopes for emissions reporting and for unified GHG inventory management and scenario planning.
Category-level tracking and emissions factor control
Ensure the tool supports all 15 Scope 3 categories and allows you to adjust emissions factors using standard or custom data at the activity level.
The platform should have robust AI and automation driven emissions factor management tools to ensure that users don’t have to select individual factors but instead can promote consistency by selecting EF datasets for use by facility or region.
Supplier engagement tools
The best Scope 3 software platforms go beyond basic data requests — they’re built to support end-to-end supplier collaboration.
Look for tools that help you prioritize high-impact suppliers for engagement based on emissions relevance, spend, or geography. Top solutions provide benchmarking dashboards to compare supplier performance, automated outreach with reminders to reduce manual follow-ups, and frictionless access with simplified login options.
To ensure supplier participation and data quality, leading platforms also offer embedded training modules and guidance resources for suppliers who may lack GHG reporting experience, helping build capacity across your value chain.
Intelligent gap-filling and estimation
Because primary emissions data is often incomplete, especially across global supply chains, Scope 3 software should offer intelligent gap-filling capabilities to ensure reporting continuity. They use hybrid calculation methods, including spend-based estimations, proxy activity data, and emissions factor databases (like EPA or DEFRA) to fill in missing values.
The best tools clearly flag estimated data, maintain full audit trails, and allow for easy replacement with actual supplier or activity-level inputs as your data maturity improves. This functionality is essential for producing a comprehensive, accurate, and standards-aligned emissions inventory even when perfect data isn’t available.
Standards alignment (GHG Protocol, CSRD, SBTi, etc.)
Audit-readiness is a must. Choose software that aligns with key frameworks and outputs reporting packages for the CSRD, CDP, SBTi, and CA SB 253, and the NY Climate Bill, among others.
Integration and scalability
Enterprise-grade Scope 3 software should seamlessly connect with your existing systems — including ERP, procurement, utility, and supply chain platforms — to centralize emissions data and eliminate silos.
But integration is only part of the story.
As regulations evolve, emissions boundaries shift, and sustainability programs mature, your software needs to keep up. Look for platforms that can scale from a single pilot facility to global operations, accommodate increasing data volume and granularity, and adapt to new frameworks or disclosure requirements.
Future-proof tools will offer flexible data models, open APIs, and regular updates to support your sustainability journey over time — not just your immediate needs.
Decarbonization tools
Scope 3 data is only valuable if it drives meaningful action.
Leading platforms go beyond measurement to offer decarbonization tools like emissions hotspot analysis, scenario modeling, and SBTi-aligned reduction planning. Users can simulate the impact of supplier changes, material substitutions, or localized sourcing strategies, then benchmark progress over time.
Some platforms also include internal carbon pricing models, marginal abatement cost curves, and AI-powered recommendations to help prioritize the most cost-effective interventions across the value chain.
Why you need a platform that manages Scope 1, 2, and 3
Scope 3 is only one piece of the puzzle. Fragmented systems create duplicate efforts, inconsistent methodologies, and reporting blind spots.
Integrated platforms that track across all emissions sources solve for:
- Data consistency across all emissions scopes and categories
- Auditability via traceable calculations and centralized records
- Strategic modeling, including decarbonization planning that spans facilities and suppliers and supports tracking SBTi goals
- Efficiency through unified data collection workflows and approvals
- Visibility through analytics dashboards for benchmarking and hotspots as well as streamlined reporting workflows
Net zero can’t happen without end-to-end emissions visibility. Choosing a tool that spans all three scopes avoids rework and ensures accountability at every level of your organization.
How Scope 3 software helps with emissions reduction
While calculating emissions is foundational, reduction is the ultimate goal. Scope 3 software supports this through:
Hotspot analysis
Identify which suppliers, geographies, or product lines drive the most GHG emissions. Benchmarking and normalizing these values on an intensity basis can support uncovering low hanging fruit for decarbonization.
Scenario modeling
Forecast carbon reductions based on switching materials, localizing suppliers, or improving logistics. With advanced scenario modeling, sustainability teams can have confidence in their corporate decarbonization plans and know that their work is making a real impact.
Target tracking
Align reductions to science-based targets and monitor progress in real time. This is a key point of overlap for risk and compliance teams with sustainability teams especially if goals and targets have been announced publicly.
Supplier insights
Scope 3 software helps procurement and sustainability teams identify high-impact suppliers, benchmark emissions performance, and prioritize engagement based on risk or spend.
Leading Scope 3 emissions software makes collaboration easier with automated data requests, simplified logins, and built-in dashboards to track supplier progress. Many also include training resources to support suppliers without GHG reporting experience. Together, these tools enable more effective, scalable partnerships to drive measurable emissions reductions across the value chain.
How Scope 3 software supports corporate sustainability reporting
Meeting both mandatory regulatory requirements and voluntary ESG reporting requirements, from CDP to CA SB 253, means Scope 3 emissions are no longer optional in disclosures.
But even more importantly than meeting reporting standards, having access to Scope 3 data can give enterprises an idea of their environmental impact. Investors, regulators, and consumers alike all expect companies to have and be working toward meeting sustainability goals, and they respond in kind with their wallets. In fact, 78% of consumers demand sustainability when purchasing goods and services.
Modern Scope 3 emissions software automates and strengthens corporate sustainability reporting and better sustainability management by:
- Pre-integration with ESG data management, papping scopes and categories directly to disclosure requirements
- Exporting audit-ready documentation (emission factors, calculation methods, activity data)
- Enabling real-time updates as data changes
- Providing transparency and traceability down to the facility or supplier level so that you can comply with reporting requirements for any level of jurisdiction
How it helps manage supply chain emissions
Scope 3 is, at its core, a supply chain problem. Software helps organizations identify and prioritize high-impact suppliers and send data requests and integrate responses automatically.
Software scores supplier performance and tracks optimization opportunities and improvements, creating shared emissions inventories or collaborative reduction plans.
Advanced Scope 3 platforms turn your supply chain from a data gap into a decarbonization lever.
Scope 3 software isn’t just for reporting — it’s for results
The most impactful companies aren’t just measuring Scope 3 emissions — they’re managing them.
From supplier data pipelines to SBTi-aligned targets, Scope 3 software platforms are evolving from reporting tools into strategy engines. They help sustainability teams move beyond compliance and into continuous improvement.
If you’re still trying to wrangle spreadsheets or looking to expand beyond tracking Scopes 1 and 2, 2025 is the year to upgrade.
Pulsora is the top pick for enterprises looking to unify emissions data, reduce friction with suppliers, and drive measurable climate outcomes across all 3 scopes. With automated calculations, embedded analytics, and future-proof compliance capabilities, it’s more than a tool — it’s a platform for climate action.
Explore Pulsora’s Scope 3 solutions by requesting a personalized demo today.
FAQ: Scope 3 emissions software
What are the 15 Scope 3 categories?
The GHG Protocol defines 15 categories, including purchased goods and services, capital goods, fuel-related activities, transportation, waste, business travel, employee commuting, use of sold products, and end-of-life treatment. These categories cover all corporate activities not included in Scope 1 (direct emissions) or Scope 2 (indirect emissions from the purchase of energy).
Why is Scope 3 the hardest to measure?
Scope 3 emissions occur outside your organization’s direct control — often requiring supplier collaboration, proxy data, and estimation methodologies. Your Scope 3 is someone else’s Scope 1 but without data traceability. This complexity makes accurate data collection and tracking more difficult without software.
What is Category 3 in Scope 3 emissions?
Category 3 refers to upstream emissions from fuel- and energy-related activities not already counted in Scope 1 or 2 — such as extraction, production, and transmission losses.
These are typically calculated separately since they relate to the emissions associated with energy that didn’t make it to the point of consumption.
💡 Want to know more about Scope 3 emissions? Check out our complete guide for beginners.
Is there a standard for calculating Scope 3 emissions?
Yes. The GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard is the most widely used and globally accepted framework for consistent, transparent Scope 3 accounting across sectors.
The SBTi Framework is also extremely useful for navigating target setting across GHG emissions including for Scope 3. For Financed emissions, PCAF (partnership for carbon accounting financials) is the de factor standard for calculation and was developed in alignment with the GHG Protocol.
How can Scope 3 software reduce a company’s carbon footprint?
By identifying emissions hotspots, modeling reduction scenarios, and enabling supplier engagement, Scope 3 software transforms carbon data into action — helping companies hit reduction targets faster.
