Depending on the selection of the subphase, various options are available for recording and balancing consumption data:
Add own activity button
Option to record individual activities. This allows a high degree of flexibility when mapping processes. The following options are available:
- Own emission factor
- Manual entry of a specific emission factor, e.g. from supplier data
- You can enter your own emission factor including unit here. The source of the emission factor should also be specified to ensure traceability and transparency. It is also possible to record individual gases (e.g. CO2, CH4, N2O) separately.
- Direct input of CO2e values
- Direct input of already calculated CO2e emissions, e.g. from reports
- Here it is possible to enter the CO2 equivalents in g, kg, t, lbs or short-ton directly. In addition, the source from which the calculated emission quantity originates must be specified. The quantity of individual gases can also be shown separately here.
- Activity based emission factor search
- Search and selection of an emission factor based on a specific activity
- The Climate Hub offers the option of searching for emission factors via the external climatiq database and applying them directly. Around 156,000 emission factors from 43 different databases are currently (as of June 2025) available there.
- Details on how to carry out the search, how to transfer emission factors and further information on the external database can be found in this article.
- Spend based emission factor search
- Search and selection of an emission factor based on cost data
- With these spend-based emission factors, currency conversions and inflation adjustments are automatically taken into account. This cancels out temporal and regional deviations between the factor and the actual activity.
- How the factors are researched and adopted, the underlying methodology and a practical example can be found in the Procedure section of this article.
- Record electricity consumption
- Recording electricity consumption with automatic assignment of suitable emission factors
- It is possible to specify electricity consumption separately for certain sub-phases. The various options are listed below. It should be noted that an individual emission factor from the electricity provider is the most reliable data source. If this is not available, a regional or country-specific electricity mix or green electricity can be used as an alternative.
- When selecting Electricity-mix or 100% green electricity, the year and the country or region must be specified. Based on this information, a suitable emission factor is determined - for the direct emissions and for the upstream chain (analogous to CCF Scope 2 electricity). The upstream chain includes well-to-tank, transmission and distribution and well-to-tank of transmission and distribution. In the Climate Hub, everything is summarised and displayed as a total factor and a total value in kg CO2e for the sake of clarity.
- If Individual CO2e factor is selected, a separate emission factor (direct factor) must also be entered and optionally assigned a source. In this case, the direct emissions are calculated using the individual factor. The upstream chain is still determined based on the specified year and country/region. Here too, a total factor and total value in kg CO2e are displayed.
- The fourth option is to specify self-generated electricity from renewable energies. For this, only the electricity consumption and the corresponding unit must be recorded. The emission factor for electricity consumption and for the upstream supply chain (upstream chain) is set at 0 g/kg in both cases, as electricity generation from renewable sources does not cause any direct CO2 emissions by definition.
Dropdown selection of predefined activities (coming soon)
Going forward, predefined standard activities with stored emission factors are available in the dropdown. The stored emission factor is automatically applied to the entered consumption value. This is quick and easy - ideal for frequent use cases and saves time when researching suitable emission factors.
If provided by the source, emission factors for upstream processes (upstream emissions) are stored for certain activities. If such data is available, it is automatically taken into account and added to the total emissions value.
Further information
For all emission sources, users can enter their consumption values in the Input column and select the relevant unit. The emissions are calculated automatically. For quick orientation, the total sum of all emissions of the respective subphase is displayed in the top right-hand corner. This enables an initial assessment of the climate-relevant effects.
Going forward, the emission factor used, including the source, will also be shown transparently in the PDF report for all added activities.