AI makes it possible: For the first time, the Simple platform relies on an activity-based calculation of CO₂ emissions rather than the common practice of estimating greenhouse-gas emissions based on the monetary value of purchased goods and services. This makes Scope-3 emissions measurable with precision, efficiency, and at low cost for the first time. It is based on scientifically robust Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) data, which the AI automatically extracts from invoices, quotations, and delivery notes. As a result, organisations have not only data for reporting, but also data to compare suppliers’ sustainability and to make informed procurement decisions in real time.
Figures on CO₂ equivalents and emissions collected and published by companies and institutions today often rely on rough estimates, averages and systemically questionable industry standards.
Access to accurate, current and scientifically sound data presents many companies with major financial, technical and substantive challenges. The collection of so-called Scope-3 data – the indirect greenhouse-gas emissions generated along a company’s supply and value chain – is particularly complex, time-consuming and costly. Yet these supply-chain emissions can account for up to 90 per cent of a company’s total emissions.
In the absence of available data, important management decisions, as well as legal and political requirements around CO₂e emissions, are often based on theoretical values and unrealistic assumptions, or are not recorded at all.
These problems are now solved by the new AI software platform ‘Simple’, developed by the Swedish-Austrian technology company of the same name (https://itssimple.com) and, following a successful test phase, recently presented publicly together with finance and sustainability experts.
The Simple AI software enables companies to collect their CO₂e emissions cost-effectively and even in real time, based on realistic and scientifically sound data.
Simple not only facilitates and accelerates compliance with statutory reporting obligations. With AI support, companies can, for the first time, automatically determine the CO₂e footprint of planned purchases or investments in advance, or compare quotations in terms of sustainability and environmental impact.
Mattias Brodendal, founder of Simple, says: ‘Anyone wishing to make strategically sound decisions needs reliable and precise data quickly. When it comes to greenhouse gases, that is the biggest challenge that many companies, institutions and political decision-makers are failing at today. The calculation of CO₂e emissions is often based on inaccurate estimates that usually rely on industry averages and use the price of a product or service as the basis.’
Lower prices, less CO₂e — the absurd ‘spend-based method’ has had its day thanks to AI
Those who negotiate better in procurement or secure higher discounts by purchasing larger quantities today often also reduce the reported CO₂e emissions of a product or their company, at least on paper. This is because many industries and auditing firms still apply the so-called ‘spend-based calculation method’, in which greenhouse-gas emissions are simply estimated based on the financial value of purchased goods and services. However, this approach is neither accurate nor effective in climate policy terms, nor is it resource efficient.
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