Carbon accounting

What emissions does carbon accounting cover?

For transport and logistics companies, their emissions are primarily the scope 1 emissions emitted from the transport journeys they carry out. However it also includes other emissions from their activities, such as the emissions from electricity used by storage facilities (scope 2 emissions) or the emissions from employees' commutes to work (scope 3 emissions).

What is carbon accounting software?

Carbon accounting software is used to calculate, analyze, and report on CO2 emissions of a company’s operations. This helps companies to accurately report on their carbon emissions, take action to reduce their footprint, offer more sustainable options to their clients, and comply with regulations like the CSRD.

What are the benefits of carbon accounting software?

The benefits of carbon accounting software are:

• Gain a competitive edge in tenders by scoring well against ESG criteria and outperforming your competitors.
• Retain existing clients by providing transparent emissions data and sharing data in a standardized format to support their own sustainability reporting.
• Reduce your costs by identifying inefficient transport journeys or practices and making more informed investment decisions.
• Easily comply with sustainability regulations that are mandatory for your company, as well as helping you to follow voluntary sustainability standards.
• Access green financing and attract investors by showcasing your sustainability credentials in transparent reports and dashboards.
• Minimize your carbon footprint by identifying smart, cost-effective ways to lower your emissions over time.

How to decide which carbon accounting software is best for you?

Consider the following factors when deciding which software is best for your needs:

• Usability: get a demo of the software to check if it is user-friendly for internal teams.
• Data accuracy: look into how data is inputted into the software and whether it is primary data from transport legs (most accurate) or estimates.
• Suitability for your operations: check that it calculates emissions for all your modes of transportation (road, sea, air, etc.) and gives the granularity you need (e.g. emissions per transport leg).
• Reporting capabilities: check that the software enables automated and customizable reports and dashboards, easy sharing of reports with individual clients, and report formats that comply with sustainability regulations like the EU’s CSRD.
• Data-driven insights: evaluate whether the software analyzes your data to provide insights on how to optimize your transport routes and reduce emissions across different scenarios.
• Compliance with industry standards: confirm that that software uses calculation methodologies that align with industry standards, including the GLEC Framework and ISO 14083.
• Ease of integration: double check that the software can integrate with your existing systems and workflows and can be scaled up over time.
• Transparent pricing: review the software’s pricing models and how pricing varies based on volume so that you find a package that works best for your activities.