Once significant, it falls inside the assurance scope

Classifying an emissions-intensive activity as significant leads on to assurance.

The assurance scope

C7.1 in section 2.5 of the standard sets the third-party assurance scope for the target base year inventory.

Assurance shall cover the target base year Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions, low-carbon electricity calculations, emissions from significant emissions-intensive activities, and other metrics used in target setting. (printed p.26)

The level is limited assurance at minimum, and the provider must be an accredited independent third party working to an internationally recognised assurance standard.

It is not an obligation on every company. As the section's intent states, assurance is required for category A companies and strongly recommended for category B companies.

Two recommendations on the target side

Section 3.4, on Scope 3 targets, carries EIA-related recommendations (printed p.41).

R15.2 Companies are recommended to prioritise alignment of tier-1 suppliers whose principal activity falls under one or more EIAs. For a shipper, that sentence points at their carriers.

R15.3 Companies are recommended to set separate targets for significant EIAs. Where the same EIA spans several categories, these may be combined into one target provided a consistent metric is applied across all of them.

That conditional clause is the practical heart of it

Tying upstream transport and downstream transport into one target means holding the same ruler against both directions.

Inbound freight happens in a supplier's vehicles and outbound freight in the customer side's. One target only stands if the two can be counted in the same unit.

Getting assurance requires a number to report, reporting requires quantification, and quantification requires the best data available. That data comes out of journeys already made.

※ Citations are printed page numbers in SBTi's Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0 (June 2026).

This article expands one section of LCS international standards analysis 3, Transport Is an Activity the Standard Names. The full report works from SBTi's Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0 itself as its primary source with printed page numbers given, and does not write down what the standard does not say.