What are upstream emissions?

Upstream emissions are like the "hidden helpers" that help your favorite toy come to life, you might not see them working, but they're there doing important stuff behind the scenes.

Imagine you love playing with a toy car. That car didn’t just appear in your hands out of nowhere. It came from a factory, and before it got to the factory, people had to dig up special materials like plastic or metal. Those materials needed energy to be made, sometimes even burned fuels like coal or oil. The pollution from burning those fuels is what we call upstream emissions.

• When you play with your toy car, it's the final step in a big chain of events.
• Before that, there was digging, making, and burning, all happening far away from where you are.
• Those steps create pollution, even though you don’t see them right there.

So, upstream emissions are like the "work done before your toy is ready", not in front of you, but still very important!