Cleaning and ESG: Cutting Scope 3 Emissions in Facilities Management

Cleaning rarely appears on a facilities manager's carbon radar. Energy, heating and fleet get the attention. Yet every bottle of ready-to-use cleaner your team buys carries emissions from manufacturing, packaging, road freight and disposal, and all of it lands in your Scope 3 footprint.

That matters more every year. Clients ask for carbon data in tenders. Public sector contracts require Carbon Reduction Plans. New UK reporting standards are pushing Scope 3 further up the boardroom agenda.

The good news: cleaning is one of the easiest Scope 3 categories to tackle. The changes are low-cost, quick to roll out and simple to evidence. This guide explains where cleaning sits in your emissions, why it matters now, and the practical steps to cut it.

What are Scope 3 emissions, and where does cleaning fit?

The GHG Protocol splits an organisation's emissions into three scopes:

• Scope 1: direct emissions from sources you own, such as gas boilers and company vans.
• Scope 2: emissions from the electricity, heat and cooling you buy.
• Scope 3: everything else in your value chain, across 15 categories, from purchased goods to waste.

Scope 3 is usually the biggest slice. CDP research found supply chain emissions are on average 11 times higher than direct emissions, making up more than 70% of the total (Capital Monitor).

Cleaning touches at least three Scope 3 categories:

• Cat. 1: Purchased goods and services. Making the chemicals, plastic bottles, cartons and consumables.
• Cat. 4: Upstream transport and distribution. Trucking heavy, water-based products from factory to warehouse to site.
• Cat. 5: Waste generated in operations. Empty plastic containers, packaging and unused or expired product.

If your cleaning is outsourced, the contractor's emissions also sit in your Scope 3. That gives you leverage: you can set expectations in the contract.

Why Scope 3 matters for facilities managers now

Scope 3 reporting is moving from "nice to have" to a condition of doing business. Three pressures are converging.

1. UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS)

The government has published final UK SRS standards based on the ISSB framework. Scope 1 and 2 disclosures are mandatory. Scope 3 is being introduced on a comply-or-explain basis with transitional relief, but the final standards no longer fix how long that relief lasts (CMS, GRC Report). Large organisations will need supplier data to comply, and that request will flow down to FM teams.

2. Public sector procurement (PPN 006)

Suppliers bidding for central government contracts worth £5 million or more a year must publish a Carbon Reduction Plan (NQA). The rule began as PPN 06/21 and was renamed PPN 006 in February 2025 with no change to requirements (Circular Ecology). Plans cover Scope 1, 2 and five Scope 3 categories, including upstream transport and waste (Green Business Centre), both of which cleaning affects directly.

3. Client and investor expectations

Even where Scope 3 is not legally required, investors and procurement teams increasingly ask for it (SINAI). FM and cleaning contractors that can supply clean, credible data win tenders.

The hidden carbon cost of conventional cleaning chemicals

Most ready-to-use cleaning products are mostly water. That simple fact drives much of their carbon footprint.

• Shipping water. Every litre adds roughly a kilogram of weight to each delivery. More weight means more fuel, more lorries and more Category 4 emissions.
• Single-use plastic. Trigger bottles and 5-litre drums are made from fossil-based plastic, and most are thrown away after one use. That shows up in both Category 1 (making them) and Category 5 (disposing of them).
• Storage space. Bulky stock needs larger cupboards, more frequent deliveries and sometimes off-site storage.
• Over-dosing. Concentrates are lighter to ship, but manual dilution is often guesswork. Too much product wastes chemicals and money; too little means re-cleaning. Either way, you buy more than you need.
• Expired or wasted product. Diluted solutions left in bottles lose effectiveness and get poured away.

None of these show up on an energy bill, which is why cleaning is so often missed. But they are measurable, and they are fixable.

7 practical ways to cut cleaning-related Scope 3 emissions

1. Audit what you buy. List every cleaning product, its pack size, how often it is delivered and where the empties go. This becomes your baseline.
2. Stop shipping water. Switch from ready-to-use products to concentrates or pre-dosed, water-soluble formats that are mixed on site with tap water.
3. Take the guesswork out of dosing. Pre-measured doses mean every bottle is mixed correctly, cutting waste and re-cleaning.
4. Reuse, don't replace. Use durable, refillable trigger bottles and colour-code them by task to avoid cross-contamination.
5. Consolidate deliveries. Lighter, more compact stock means fewer, smaller deliveries. Agree a delivery schedule with your supplier.
6. Choose certified products. Look for independent certifications such as the EU Ecolabel. They provide evidence for your report and protect you from greenwashing claims.
7. Write it into contracts. If cleaning is outsourced, require contractors to report product volumes, packaging and delivery data each quarter.

How to measure and report cleaning emissions

Most organisations start with spend-based estimates: multiplying what you spend on cleaning products by an industry emission factor. It is quick, but it is crude, and it rewards spending less rather than buying better.

To show real reductions, move towards activity data: actual weights, volumes and distances. Ask your cleaning supplier for:

• Product volumes and weight shipped per year. Calculates manufacturing and transport impact (Cat. 1 and Cat. 4).
• Packaging type and weight per unit. Quantifies plastic and cardboard footprint (Cat. 1 and Cat. 5).
• Number of deliveries and distance travelled. Measures transport emissions (Cat. 4).
• Product carbon footprint or LCA data, if available. Replaces estimates with supplier-specific figures (Cat. 1).
• Certifications held, for example the EU Ecolabel. Evidence for your report and tender responses.

Convert the data using the UK Government's greenhouse gas conversion factors, which are updated every year. Record where each number came from, so your figures stand up to audit.

How soluCLEAN helps you cut Scope 3 emissions

soluCLEAN was designed around one idea: why ship water? Our concentrated cleaning chemicals come pre-dosed in water-soluble film. Your team simply follows four steps: Fill. Add. Shake. Go!

Here is how that maps to your Scope 3 report:

• Lighter deliveries, lower transport emissions. No water in the box means a fraction of the weight and volume per delivery.
• Less plastic waste. Durable, reusable Bottle4Life trigger bottles replace single-use plastic.
• No over-dosing. Every sachet is a precise dose, so you only use what you need.
• Certified credentials. soluCLEAN products carry the EU Ecolabel, giving you independent evidence for reports and tenders.
• Safer for your team. No spills, no mixing, no heavy drums to lift.

For a 20-site estate, moving from ready-to-use products to concentrates saves around 430kg of plastic, 2.5 cubic metres of waste and 2.8 tonnes of CO2 in a single year. You can put your own numbers in with our savings calculator.

See the difference for yourself. Request your free soluCLEAN trial kit and start building cleaner, lower-carbon data for your next ESG report.

Frequently asked questions

Are cleaning products Scope 1, 2 or 3?

Scope 3. The emissions from making, packaging, transporting and disposing of cleaning products happen in your value chain, mainly in Categories 1, 4 and 5.

Is Scope 3 reporting mandatory in the UK?

Not yet for most organisations. Under UK SRS, Scope 3 is introduced on a comply-or-explain basis with transitional relief. But public sector suppliers under PPN 006 must already report a subset of Scope 3, and many clients ask for it in tenders.

What is the easiest way for facilities managers to reduce Scope 3 emissions?

Start with high-volume consumables like cleaning chemicals. Switching to concentrated or pre-dosed products cuts transport weight, packaging and waste quickly and at low cost.

What data should I ask my cleaning supplier for?

Product volumes and weights, packaging type, delivery frequency and distance, and any certifications or product carbon footprint data.

What is PPN 006?

The UK Government procurement rule, formerly PPN 06/21, that requires suppliers bidding for central government contracts of £5 million or more a year to publish a Carbon Reduction Plan.