End-to-End Decarbonization Platform
Factsheet
What are the benefits of a platform approach over traditional carbon accounting?
Companies have historically relied upon consulting-led approaches for emissions measurement, using spreadsheets, or other in-house tools. This is time consuming, often imprecise, and prone to introducing calculation errors. Moreover, this approach cannot scale to handle the many hundreds of thousands of lines of business data that large enterprises need to process for comprehensive Scope 3 measurement.
Terrascope's advantage is in facilitating Company and Product emissions measurement and reporting through its technology-enabled approach to carbon accounting. With the capability to facilitate the secure management of huge volumes of business data, alongside the ability to provide AI assistance to automate the process of data ingestion, cleaning, and structuring, our platform can enable carbon accounting at scale.
Challenges with carbon measurement & management
Manual processes are a significant barrier to action and unable to scale
Unifying data
It can be tedious to coordinate data collection across multiple systems, set tasks for data owners and manage non-standardized data formats
Selecting emission factors
The task of maintaining and validating emission factors is confusing due to the vast number of options available - each with different versions, boundary conditions and granularity
Extracting insights
Identifying insights from the emissions data into what really drives year-on-year changes and preparing reports for diverse internal & external stakeholders is hugely time-consuming
Comparing scenarios
Decarbonization planning is often hindered by a lack of knowledge of abatement options, how they stack-up against each other, and the relative costs and feasibility to implement at scale
Platform solutions like Terrascope enable companies to manage, analyze and action on their carbon data with transparency & confidence
Create consistency
and repeatability of measurement across years
Address incomplete data
by filling the gaps with AI-generated estimations, imputations and extrapolations
Provide a clear audit trail
with traceability on all sources of data and its transformations
Reduce the burden
of gathering, checking, updating and reporting data, so companies can focus on decarbonization action
Frequently Asked Questions
What is carbon accounting?
Carbon accounting involves quantifying and tracking greenhouse gas emissions produced or mitigated from a specific entity or activity. It helps organisations to measure their carbon footprint, identify emission sources, and assess environmental impacts.
In general, emissions are calculated by matching business activity data (such as the amount of goods purchased) by an “emissions factor,” or a proxy for the average emissions generated by that activity given. Methods for creating the proxy can vary widely in their accuracy, granularity and boundaries so it is important to understand why one emission factor is a better match than another, given the nature of the business activity you are trying to measure.
Why is carbon data important for companies?
Environmental responsibility: An accurate and comprehensive carbon footprint enables organisations to quantify their environmental impact, which is foundational to any decarbonisation effort.
Compliance and reporting: Regulators around the world are starting to mandate that companies report on emissions data, and increasingly report on Scope 3. A robust carbon footprint helps future proof against more stringent compliance and reporting.
Reputation and stakeholder engagement: With a granular carbon footprint and decarbonisation plan, organisations can enhance their reputation and strengthen relationships with stakeholders and investors.
Revenue opportunities from green lines of business: With company and product level emissions data, enterprises are able to accelerate innovation on low carbon products and open up new market segments.
What are Scope 3 emissions?
Scope 3 emissions refer to indirect emissions generated by an enterprise’s value chain. The GHG Protocol has identified 15 categories of upstream and downstream activities that are included in Scope 3 emissions. This category of emissions contribute to about 80% of a typical company’s overall emissions and close to 100% for financial services firms. Cutting emissions across all scopes, especially Scope 3, has significant benefits as regulators, investors, and consumers push towards a net zero economy.
What are the typical steps in the carbon accounting and decarbonization journey?
1. Define corporate ambition and mission towards decarbonization, in light of the regulatory and competitive landscape
2. Identify relevant accounting standards and guidance relevant to corporate ambition
3. Figure out the most material emissions categories to measure, what data is needed, and collect it from internal and external sources
4. Process and unify the activity data
5. Emissions calculation
6. Extract measurement insights for internal sharing
7. Prepare reports for external stakeholders and set reduction targets in alignment with international frameworks/standards
8. Plan emission reduction based on targets, mitigation potential and cost of various strategies
9. Execute decarbonisation plans, track progress, improve accounting and reporting processes, and iterate decarbonisation strategies as required
10. Continue on the data journey to improve the quality and granularity of emissions data, incrementally filling data gaps
What is the future of carbon accounting?
With increasing awareness of climate change, there will be a growing demand for accurate and comprehensive carbon accounting practices. Decarbonisation platforms like Terrascope will enhance precision and efficiency in data collection. Integrating carbon accounting into business strategies is likely to become standard practice, fostering sustainability and driving innovation. Collaborative global efforts will lead to standardised frameworks, making carbon accounting a pivotal tool in the fight against climate change.
What are the drawbacks of using Excel for carbon measurement and reporting?
It is indeed noted that many organisations tend to produce sleek reports that obscure actual numbers and outcomes, thereby making it difficult for stakeholders. Regrettably, these reports are primarily used as marketing tools and may inadvertently involve greenwashing practices. On the other hand, Excel spreadsheets, although effective for presenting data, tend to lack visual appeal, potentially reducing their effectiveness as disclosure tools.
Ultimately, it’s not about how the report looks like (whether in a Word document or an Excel sheet), but rather what goes into the report.
Our suggestion is to incorporate an index page at the end of the report, clearly indicating the included information, its location, and any omitted details (be transparent)
When it comes to presenting quantitative metrics like greenhouse gas emissions, we recommend using a clear table format complemented by graphs for clarity.
The end-to-end decarbonization platform built for enterprise
Complete a comprehensive Scope 1, 2, 3 footprint and identify decarbonization opportunities in weeks instead of months