The trend towards net zero is gaining serious traction: half of the world’s 2,000 largest companies are now committed to net zero, following a 40% growth in net-zero targets from June 2022 to October 2023. When companies come down to actually making true on net zero promises, however, the process often turns out to be more complex than expected.
The first step is measuring emissions. Supply chain (scope 3) emissions from purchased goods are especially complicated to estimate: many suppliers haven't calculated or shared their emissions, meaning scope 3 data is hard to access. To estimate emissions, companies must collect their own business activity data and map each activity to the correct emission factor, a task that requires GHG accounting expertise. Only once they’ve understood their carbon footprint can they take effective action towards achieving net zero.
TCCP aims to facilitate this process with a unique approach that combines economy-level data with company activity data, thus speeding up the process. They rely on Climatiq’s emission factor database to achieve this.
“Our goal is to provide the most accessible, fully-featured carbon management platform there is,” says Patrick Gold, director of engineering at The Change Climate Project. Thousands of users of TCCP access their tools for free. Hundreds more pay for an in-depth analysis through TCCP’s platform, many of whom go on to complete the nonprofit’s certification process: after completing their carbon inventory, the companies set carbon reduction targets, and counteract residual emissions with high-quality carbon credits. TCCP has set a goal of one billion tons of carbon accounted for under their certification by 2030.
Challenge: Aggregating reliable carbon data without major resource investment
- Time commitment: The process of calculating a companies’ emissions begins with mapping business data to the necessary emission factors. “Previous to Climatiq, we had been aggregating emission factors for a few years. It was turning out to be problematic, taking months of our time to consolidate and process sources,” explains Gold. “It was just laborious.”
- Cost of expertise: As a non-profit, costs were also a big concern. They were aiming to keep costs low to make the tool accessible to as many companies as possible. Hiring specialists to consolidate emission factors and build an internal solution would have been very expensive, leading to higher overhead and likely increased pricing for their customers.
- Accuracy concerns: Additionally, TCCP had originally developed their methodology using the Exiobase dataset, but after trying to replicate this in-house, they had difficulty reproducing the results. “We weren’t feeling confident about it. That’s when we decided we needed an expert.”
Gold discovered Climatiq through a simple Google search and was impressed by the Data Explorer showing emission factors, and the API documentation for integrating the factors into their solution. After comparing other options, “Climatiq seemed to have the cleanest presentation and most rigorous standards,” says Gold. The inclusion of data from Exiobase, which they had used before, plus the potential to integrate other sources was another key advantage.
Solution: Climatiq ensures trustworthy data while keeping overheads low
The Change Climate Project’s Business Emissions Evaluator—an end-to-end platform for measuring scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions—is built on Climatiq Data. For Gold and the team, the main plus of using Climatiq’s solution is that “you get access to trusted emission factors you don’t have to worry about.” According to Gold, “that’s the hardest part of building a carbon management solution.”
They compared the calculation results pre- and post-Climatiq to verify accuracy and were very happy with the outcome. “It’s a huge relief for our team that we don’t have to worry that our calculations are correct,” says Gold.
Their non-profit status allows them access to Climatiq’s features for free. As such, TCCP can keep its own program fees low, thus helping more companies progress along their carbon management journey. As Gold puts it, “we’re looking to rid the world of carbon emissions, not make a bunch of money.”
Integrating Climatiq has:
- Reclaimed time previously spent consolidating and managing emission factor data
- Ensured precision using emission factors from Climatiq’s scientifically-vetted database
- Guaranteed low pricing for customers compared to alternatives
Results: The Change Climate Project reduces time spent on data ingestion from months to days
Previously, when Gold and his team updated their Exiobase data, it took 1.5 months. Ingesting the data from Climatiq took just three days.
The Change Climate Project's infrastructure is built to import data in batches from the Climatiq database, instead of relying on real-time fetching. The dependability of Climatiq’s data means they no longer need to worry about reliability or accuracy of emission factors used for customers. This saves them significant time in their ingestion process, and also ensures peace of mind.
