How to Reduce Time Spent on Carbon Reporting

Carbon emissions reporting has traditionally been an extremely time-consuming process due to the sheer amount of data that needs to be collected and processed. This data invariably comes in many different formats, creating the need to convert it all into a standard format – often a laborious and manual process.

Exactly how much data is involved, depends on a number of factors:

• The industry you operate in

• How many sites you are reporting on

• The breadth and depth of your Scope 1, 2, and 3 accounting commitments

These are things you can’t really change. The biggest factor you can change, is how you extract data for carbon reporting purposes. Many organizations, including consultants, still rely on outdated processes, such as using spreadsheets to manually collect and standardize data. This is not only time-consuming but also prone to error.

Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be this way.  

With the rise of automation in carbon accounting, organizations now have a smarter and faster way to extract data and compile emissions results. With the right technology, it’s possible to reduce the time spent on the process by up to 70% whilst also significantly increasing data accuracy.  

In this article, we’ll explore where you’re likely to be spending too much time on your carbon accounting and reporting — and how technology can help make the process far more efficient.

Where you’re spending the most time on carbon reporting

To save time on your carbon reporting, it’s helpful to break down some key phases involved in the carbon accounting process and evaluate the time they each take:

1. Data discovery

This first step involves identifying your organization’s relevant emissions sources, and who can provide the activity data you need to account for those sources. Data discovery doesn’t just happen once, it needs to be undertaken systematically for every new reporting period, because your emissions sources change over time and those changes need to be accounted for. Depending on the extent of your emissions reporting by scope and category, this could mean engaging with multiple individuals, teams, departments, or even third-party organizations, about the details of these data collection requirements. This makes this step a complex and potentially time-consuming task to manage, as well as time intensive for all the data contributors involved.  

2. Data collection and quality checks

Next, you need to gather the data from all the sources identified in Step 1. If you are already accounting for your emissions, in this phase it is likely that one or several people are responsible for manually keying data into templates of some kind. This is complex because all the original data is stored in different formats, such as .pdf’s, spreadsheets, accounting systems, or even paper records. This is almost always a time-consuming and error-prone process, which typically requires careful manual reviews to identify mistakes and data gaps, as well as additional communication time with data contributors to correct issues in preparation for step 3. Sometimes this step is undertaken by third-party consultants instead of within your business, but it’s important to remember that it’s still time intensive for them, which contributes to the timelines and costs of their services to you.

3. Data processing  

Now it’s time to calculate your emissions. This involves identifying and applying the best emission factors, and often some unit conversions, to convert the raw data you collected in step 2 — such as energy consumption, fuel usage, purchased goods and services, and so on — into accurate greenhouse gas emissions data. You’ll also need to ensure that your emissions are properly categorized between scopes and categories at this stage. These calculations are often undertaken by third-party experts, and while you might not have visibility into the details of this work, it’s usually time intensive and manual in its nature, contributing to time project timeline and delays to results.

4. Data estimation

Lastly, you need to review the data you have collected and processed to identify any gaps or missing information. You can then apply different estimation methodologies to account for these gaps as accurately as possible. Similarly to step 3, this may be undertaken within your business, but it’s often handled in part by third-party experts, involving manual reviews and communication back-and-forth to rectify data gaps where possible.

With these four steps completed, you have the emissions results you need to feed into the carbon reporting process. It’s likely you set out with knowledge of which emissions reporting frameworks you’re going to be reporting to - each has its nuances of what details need to be included. Besides your carbon reporting data, you’ll likely to need to include information about your organizational boundaries, certain emission metrics, historical emissions data, and the methodologies you used. Throughout this process, you’ll generally need to ensure that your emissions accounts, including all the original activity data, are visible and auditable, which will depend to some extent on how organized your carbon accounting process was.

While carbon reporting is not without its challenges, particularly in the face of growing and evolving emissions reporting pressures, the carbon accounting process contains several stages with the potential to become a perpetual time sink every year. And with the right technology, this is where the greatest time and cost savings can be made.  

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How to accelerate carbon accounting data management workflows

The carbon accounting process is crucial to get right, as the efficiency of this process dictates the quality and efficiency of your reporting. But does it have to be such a drain on time and resources? With the right technology, the answer is a resounding no.

By leveraging the latest AI-powered automation, organizations can streamline their carbon accounting data management workflows, resulting in huge time and cost savings, as well as increased data accuracy and mitigated risk of non-compliance.

Ideagen Carbon Accounting is a solution which simplifies the whole carbon accounting process by guiding you, and each data contributor, seamlessly through each phase from start to finish. Our platform eliminates manual work throughout, because it:

• Systematically identifies your relevant emissions sources  

• Shows every data contributor what data is required from them

• Uses AI to automatically extract key data from any file type in any language

• Performs the quality and completeness checks you’d expect of expert consultants

• Flags data issues and models unavoidable data gaps instantly

• Provides complete audit-ready emissions accounts

Together, these capabilities cut out most of the manual work involved in your carbon accounting process and give you the peace of mind you need about getting results on time. With an easy-to-use interface, you always have complete, real-time, visibility into your progress towards report-ready results.

Not only can this save you countless hours and free up internal resources, but it also enables you to find more efficient ways to hit your carbon reduction targets.  

Efficiency and accuracy can go hand-in-hand  

With manual carbon accounting, there’s an unavoidable trade-off between speed and accuracy. The faster people work, the more likely they are to slip up and make errors, leading to inaccurate data that can undermine the credibility of your results and expose your business to misreporting risks.

But with reliable automation, which emphasizes quality control, there are no trade-offs to worry about. You can get trusted results rapidly. And by removing the risk of human error, companies that automate at least part of their carbon reporting process are more likely to measure their emissions comprehensively.  

Therefore, by investing in the right technology, you can make your carbon accounting workflows smarter, faster and more accurate — all while increasing the long-term transparency and auditability of your accounting and reports.  

Automated carbon accounting is possible  

If you want to streamline your carbon accounting and reporting workflows, investing in technology that removes the need to manually input data and allows you to automate the process is the answer.  

Ideagen’s Carbon Reporting software uses the most advanced AI automation available, enabling organizations to save time and money, increase accuracy, and play their part in tackling the climate crisis.  

To see how our Carbon Accounting software can transform your carbon accounting workflows, book a demo today!  

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