When your organization embarks on its sustainability journey, a crucial initial step involves capturing pertinent data related to organization's operations for estimating and calculating emissions. This captured data undergoes cleaning and normalization processes before being utilized for calculating the organization's emissions. The calculation involves two key types of input data:

Activity data: Quantitative measures of activities leading to greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions, sourced from operations and the supply chain. Examples include the amount of fuel consumed, electricity usage, and the quantity of material purchased.
Emission factor: A factor that transforms activity data into GHG emissions data. Examples include the amount of Co2 emitted per liter of fuel consumed, per kilowatt-hour of power consumption, or per kilogram of material produced.

In essence, emission factors enable organizations to compute the emissions or Co2 equivalents of greenhouse gases emitted due to their business activities.

In this article, learn how IBM Envizi handles emission factors.

To get more information about IBM Envizi or to try it out yourself, start your 14-day IBM Envizi ESG Suite trial. You can also request a personalized IBM Envizi demo.

Developers of emission factors

Emission factors are developed by governments, environmental agencies, organizations, and research institutes through scientific studies. Several well-known emission factor sets include:

International Energy Agency (IEA): Publishes comprehensive annual Electricity and Heating emission factors globally, utilized when country-specific factors are unavailable.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (United States): Releases factors for electricity, mobile combustion, transportation, business travel, product transport, and employee commuting.
Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the UK Government: Publishes GHG emission factors covering Scope 1, 2, and some Scope 3 sources, primarily for the UK but widely used in Europe.
New Zealand Ministry for the Environment: Provides GHG emission factors for Scope 1, 2, and some Scope 3 sources.
Australian Government: Publishes GHG emission factors for Scope 1 and 2 data sources.
Eora’s MRIO (Multi-region Input-Output): Offers a spend-based emission factor set across 66 globally recognized industry sectors.

Supported emission factors in Envizi

IBM Envizi facilitates emissions calculations for all Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 activity data. The platform maintains an emission factor library comprising publicly available and licensed sets, covering Scope 1, Scope 2 (both location and market based), and Scope 3 (including spend-based, average data, and supplier-specific categories).

Managed emission factor sets include well-known ones such as IEA, US eGRID, UK Defra, NGRES, Residual Mix Green-e, Residual Mix AIB, Eora66, USEEIO, NGRES + NGA, and the New Zealand Factor set, among others. For the most up-to-date information, refer to the IBM Envizi knowledge base. The following table provides details about managed emission factors in IBM Envizi as of November, 2023.

Managed Factor Set	Coverage	Data types / Scope	Details
IEA	Applies globally Applies to majority of the countries where managed emission factors are not available in IBM Envizi Location based	Scope 2: electricity and electricity green offset Scope 3: electricity	International Energy Agency Licensed version Envizi has managed this factor set since 2013. Part of Envizi’s default factor set Use only for in-house reporting, and must NOT be distributed or used outside of Envizi Review the emission factors using report - Emission and Energy Factors - PDF Version
Eora66 - MRIO	Applies globally – 188 Countries Scope 3	Scope 3: Spend-based factor set covering 66 summary data types and relates to the US EEIO summary classification	Eora’s Multi-Region Input-Output (MRIO) A globally recognized spend-based emission factor set Envizi is managing this factor from June 2023 IBM Envizi has modified Eora concordance tables to align with Summary categories provided by the US EPA providing coverage of 66 industries / commodities.
US eGRID - Electricity factors	US only (including Puerto Rico) Location based	Scope 2: electricity and electricity green offset Scope 3: electricity	US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) publishes the eGRID database Envizi has managed this factor set since 2008
UK Defra	Applies to Europe for Scope 1 and Scope 2 Location based Global - Air travel and some other Scope 3 factors	Scope 1: fossil fuels, biofuels, refrigerants, passenger and delivery vehicles (distance based) Scope 2: UK electricity, UK electricity for electric vehicles, heat and steam Scope 3: upstream and downstream emissions resulting from Scope 1 and 2 emission sources	UK Government and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs(DEFRA) Envizi has managed this factor set since 2009 Applies mainly to the United Kingdom but many organizations have chosen to apply this factor set across their European sites, particularly with emissions resulting from air travel.
Residual Mix Emission Factors, Green-e	Applies to US eGrid regions Market-based	Scope 2: Market-based electricity	Green-e represents US residual mix factors Envizi has managed this factor set since 2015 Can only be used in the Envizi’s market-based Emissions power report.
Residual Mix Emission Factors, AIB	Australia Market-based	Scope 2 Market-based electricity	Association of Issuing Bodies (AIB) represents most EU countries' residual mix factors Envizi has managed this factor set since 2015 Can only be used in the Envizi’s market-based Emissions power report
NGERS & National Greenhouse Accounts	Applies at the country level for participating EU countries Market-based	Scope 1: fossil fuels, biofuels, refrigerants Scope 2: Australian electricity Scope 3: upstream and downstream emissions resulting from Scope 1 and 2 emission sources, waste (very broad categories, well-to-tank) (upstream and downstream emissions from Scope 3 activities)	Publisher: Australian Government, 2 factor sets 1) Scope 1, 2 factors for National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Act 2) Scope 3 indirect emission factors for National Greenhouse Accounts (NGA) Envizi has managed this factor set since 2009 Envizi managed factor set is a combination of the direct factors from NGER and the indirect factors from the NGA workbooks NGER factors have specific reporting labels, which assist in aligning Envizi’s NGER report outputs to match the input requirements for NGER reporters
New Zealand - Ministry for the Env.	New Zealand only Market-based	Scope 1: fossil fuels, biofuels, refrigerants, passenger and delivery vehicles (distance based) Scope 2: NZ electricity : The yearly average are used in Envizi Scope 3: upstream and downstream emissions resulting from Scope 1 and 2 emission sources, working from home measured in employee/day, travel by vehicle size and distance, freight in tonne.km, water supply and waste water, waste, materials, agriculture and forestry	Publisher: New Zealand Ministry for the Environment Envizi has managed this factor set since 2009
USEEIO Emission Factors	USA only	Scope 3: Spend-based emission factors covering 394 commodities and 66 summary data types	Publisher: US EPA Supply chain GHG Emission factors for US Industries and Commodities Envizi has managed this factor set since 2021 factor set is managed using both raw figures with 2018 USD, and an inflation adjusted version

Application of emission factors in Envizi

As previously explored in this article, emissions are computed for specific activity data by applying the corresponding emission factor.

Emission factor selection process

Consider a scenario where a U.S.-based organization purchases electricity from the grid for its day-to-day operations, where activity data = the electricity consumed. The following steps are typically followed to determine the applicable emission factor:

Check whether emission factors are provided by the supplier or provider.
If not, look for available emission factors published for regions, countries, continents, and globally in sequence.

Beyond the steps outlined, organizations may have additional criteria to consider, such as selecting custom or standard factors, factor publishing date, or effective date. When operations span multiple regions or continents, finding the applicable emission factor can be a complex and error-prone process. IBM Envizi streamlines this by automating the process and applying the Factor Selection Algorithm (FSA).

Operation of the emission factor selection in Envizi

Assuming data is loaded into accounts/meters and normalized as monthly data, IBM Envizi applies the Factor Selection Algorithm (FSA), filtering through all available emission factors based on the following criteria:

Data type: The type of activity data (e.g., electricity, natural gas).
Subtype: Subcategorization linking factors to accounts.
Factor Set: A collection of emission factors.
Region: The applicable region for the emission factor, considering city, state, country, and global levels.
Effective and Published Dates: Organizations can apply factors based on effective or published dates, depending on preference.

Here is a visual representation of the process.

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Illustration of the Factor Selection Algorithm

Let's examine how IBM Envizi applies emission factors with three examples using the same Account and Data Type but different Locations and Dates:

Example 1
Example 2
- Location: London Centre, UK
- Date of Activity: Dec 2022
- Applied Factor: Managed DEFRA
- Effective from: Jan 2022
Example 3
- Location: London Centre, UK
- Date of Activity: July 2023
- Applied Factor: Managed DEFRA
- Effective from: Jan 2023

Between examples 1 and 2, the locations differ, so the emission factor that is applied is based on location. Between examples 2 and 3, where the locations are the same but the date of activity differs:

Despite the identical locations, the DEFRA emission factor is applied for both instances.
The versions of the DEFRA emission factor differ due to the variance in the date of activity.
In example 2, the DEFRA-2022 factor set is applied, effective from Jan 2022 to Dec 2022.
In example 3, the DEFRA-2023 factor set is applied, effective from Jan 2023.

You can also view values of Total Co2e and the emission factor source.

Factor publishing dates

For simplicity, only Factor Effective dates are covered in this article, not publishing dates. For more information on how effective and published date logic works together in IBM Envizi, refer to Factor Published Date Logic.

Maintenance of emission factor sets in Envizi

IBM Envizi product team ensures the appropriateness and correctness of emission factor sets through the following steps:

Ensuring the availability of the most current and up-to-date emission factors in the system.
Conducting regular audits and reviews to maintain data integrity.
Setting review dates for all emission factors that require frequent updates.
Preventing emission factor conflicts during the updating of emission factor sets.
Creating a special list of emission factors based on organization requests.
Conducting variance analysis on emission factors to identify those that fall outside the thresholds of data types.

Custom emission factors

IBM Envizi provides a standard set of emission factors with the platform. However, if your organization has defined custom emission factors, Envizi allows you to create them within the platform. Once created, these custom emission factors take precedence over Envizi’s default set of managed emission factors.

Creating a new custom emission factor

To create a new custom emission factor in Envizi, navigate to Admin -> Configuration -> Custom Factors.

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Provide the following inputs:

Region: Specify the city/state/region for which the custom factor should be applied.
Data Type: Choose the data type from the list.
Factor Set: Use the default setting; no updates are necessary.
Name: Provide a unique name to represent the custom factor.
Total CO2e: Enter the emissions in CO2e.
Effective from: Specify the date from which this custom factor is applied.
Effective to: Set the end date for the custom factor to be applied.

Viewing the new custom emission factor

After it is created, you can view the custom emission factors from the same page at Admin -> Configuration -> Custom Factors.

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Here is an example of custom emission factors created in the system. In the following screenshot, you can see custom emission factors that are created for each month for the same region and data type.

Now, let's take a look at how these emission factors are applied in IBM Envizi. The custom emission factor would be applied to an account with the following details:

Data type: Natural Gas
*Location: New South Wales, Australia.

Examples of custom emission factors

Below is a screenshot of the account’s monthly data summary. For the month of March22, the custom factor set NSW_NG_Custom Factor-March22 is applied. Note the effective dates.

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Next, look at another monthly data record where you can see that a different custom factor applied: Envizi-CF-NSW-April22.

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Summary and next steps

This article explored emission factors, highlighting well-known factor sets. It delved into IBM Envizi's use of the Factor Selection Algorithm (FSA) to identify suitable emission factors, their management in Envizi, and the platform's support for organizations in developing and applying custom emission factors to the organization's activity data.

To get more information about IBM Envizi or to try it out yourself, start your 14-day IBM Envizi ESG Suite trial. You can also request a personalized IBM Envizi demo.

Emission factors management in IBM Envizi

Emission factors management in IBM Envizi