Companies are feeling the pressure to compile a more accurate picture of their Scope 3 greenhouse gas footprint due to rising concerns about the climate crisis; expanded investor demands; increasingly discriminating preferences of consumers; and evolving regulatory pressure. Committing to reduced emissions within a company’s operations and throughout its value chain is a necessary, concrete measure in the fight against the climate crisis. The main drivers for enhanced Scope 3 emissions, however, revolve around investor & consumer requests for transparent, accessible data on an organization’s environmental impact; as well as maintaining compliance with regulatory mandates stemming from various government rulings and established frameworks.
Tools like the Quantis GHG Protocol Scope 3 Evaluator have played a crucial role in helping organizations calculate Scope 3 emissions — indirect emissions that occur in the upstream & downstream activities of a business, including emissions from the use of sold products & services, transportation of goods, and activities related to waste and water use, etc. However, in the ever-evolving landscape of environmental sustainability, technology must advance to offer companies a more sophisticated approach to calculating their GHG inventories with newer tools and methodologies. While the user-friendly Quantis tool has enabled businesses to calculate emissions based on their available data and identify opportunities for operational optimization for years, its time is now at an end.
The Quantis Evaluator contributed significantly to global sustainability efforts during its active years. It empowered companies to start calculating their Scope 3 emissions with the data they had available, set emission reduction targets, and engage in transparent reporting. Through its use, many businesses were able to identify opportunities for operational optimization and implement Scope 3 data collection strategies that aligned with environmental goals.
Bidding farewell to a familiar tool may seem daunting, but it is also a chance to embrace innovation. The transition away from Quantis’s spend-based calculation method will enable companies to refine their Scope 3 methodology and ultimately increase the accuracy of their emissions calculations.
As businesses prepare for the retirement of the Quantis tool, they are looking for tools that can offer enhanced Scope 3 calculation methodologies, data collection & analysis advancements, and updated emission factors. Next-generation solutions harness the power of big data, artificial intelligence, and advanced analytics to provide even more accurate and insightful emissions assessments. By leveraging these capabilities, organizations can gain a more holistic understanding of their emissions and proactively identify areas for improvement.
Benchmark Gensuite® offers a complete package of solutions and capabilities that tames the complexities of Scope 3 and aligns with a company’s current & future Sustainability program needs:
- Collect data & calculate their spend-based / average data emissions using procurement data and EEIO (e.g., Categories 1 & 2), calculate activity-based emissions based on specific inputs and publicly available emission factors, and more
- Collect Scope 3 data directly from their suppliers by creating custom surveys to capture supplier sustainability inputs
- Track custom Product Carbon Footprint attributes for both components & finished products
- Streamline disclosure reporting aligned with global frameworks, such as CDP, GRI, SASB, TCFD, and more
- Automatically submit completed questionnaires to CDP’s Online Response System via a CDP Disclosure API
- Connect business IT systems to automate data collection, turning massive amounts of data into manageable, actionable insights
The retirement of the GHG Protocol Quantis Evaluator is not a dead-end but rather a crossroads. It is an opportunity for organizations to reevaluate their sustainability strategies, set bolder targets, and integrate innovative solutions. If your company is at this crossroads, we would love to connect with you and share more about how our subscribers have achieved a successful transition towards improved Scope 3 Accounting.
