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Thought Leadership · Apr 18, 2026 · 7 min read

The Future of Scope 3 Is Market Infrastructure

The first phase of Scope 3 was measurement and target-setting. The next phase is market infrastructure that can move capital into hard-to-abate supply chains.

The first phase of Scope 3 was measurement

The first phase of Scope 3 was about inventories, categories, supplier surveys, emissions factors, and target-setting.

That work was necessary. Companies needed to understand where emissions were coming from before they could act.

From measurement to market infrastructure

Old questionNew question
What are our Scope 3 emissions?Which industrial systems are driving them?
Which suppliers should we engage?Which upstream producers need demand signals?
What emissions factor should we use?How can we support lower-carbon production?
What is our target?What market mechanisms can help us implement it?

Why infrastructure matters

Without infrastructure, markets rely on one-off contracts, PDFs, spreadsheets, and ambiguous claims. That may work briefly, but it does not scale.

Market infrastructure creates repeatability: issuance rules, transfer records, retirement workflows, documentation, and trust.

S3 Markets view

S3 Markets is building the trust layer for commodity EACs: the infrastructure for verified production, certificate issuance, controlled transfer, retirement, and documentation.

The future of Scope 3 will not be solved by measurement alone. It will require functioning markets that connect buyer demand to low-carbon industrial supply.

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