5. The Green Datapoints

This section explores and explains the green data points identified during the workshops and incorporated into the mockups, which are considered relevant for supporting the requirements of the CSRD and the GHG Protocol. Additionally, the report will also touch upon existing datapoints, which are deemed feasible in terms of supporting climate reporting. Descriptions of the original datapoints’ functionality can be found in Peppol. No changes have been made in the original usage of existing datapoints. Additionally, this section will focus on the workshop outcomes related to considerations for standardizing and aligning green data points with applicable standards and regulations. The fields are visualized in the chapter “eDocuments and Green Data” (see Mockups).

The importance of Green Datapoints
The green datapoints

Green data points refer to data related to climate-specific aspects. This data is crucial for companies to collect, capture, and share to ensure compliance with sustainability directives or regulations, such as the CSRD. It enables reporting companies to monitor emissions and take concrete actions to identify how and where CO2e emissions must be mitigated within the supply chain in order for reporting companies to reach their Climate reduction targets.

, in this project, are critical to meet the sustainability reporting needs, particularly under the CSRD disclosure requirements, which require all companies subject to the directive to follow the GHG Protocol, when accounting for their CO2e emissions. The datapoints chosen in this project enable companies to report on scope 3, category 1 “Purchased goods and services”, and provides businesses with accurate climate related data. Moreover, the datapoints within this project support the transition toward automated and standardized climate reporting across the Nordic Countries.

5.1 Categorization of Data

Out of 60 initially identified datapoints, 16 were prioritized based on their alignment with Scope 3, Category 1 reporting requirements and their practical applicability. Five out of 16 datapoints are new datapoints, which do not exist in current electronic documents and standards used across the Nordic Countries to facilitate electronic document exchange. Accordingly, the identified datapoints needed to support the reporting requirements of scope 3, category 1, have been divided into five datapoint-groups: Product information, Product identifiers, Product measurement & units, Emission factors and Ecolabels. Whereas the new datapoints were grouped into the groups, “Product Measurement & Units” and “Emission Factors”. Therefore, the following sub-sections will touch upon the datapoint-groups, their respective datapoints and their relevance, use and functionality.

5.1.1 Product information

Use of datapoints in relation to climate reporting:
The datapoint-group “Product information”, provides the user of the eDocument with the most essential information about a specific product. The datapoints within this datapoint-group can assist and enhance transparency and traceability associated with emission data. This also includes verifying quality and trustworthiness of provided emission data. The datapoints identified within this group, can be identified as “supporting information” enhancing decision making, but also to find additional/supporting information to assist the users/recipients’ ESG reporting. Additionally, the datapoints can help the user, to estimate the CO2e impact of the specific product, if emission factor information has not been provided. This can include information regarding the material, product origin or the year it was produced, to retrieve the appropriate average industry emission factor for calculating the product's or material's CO2e impact. Thus, enhancing the accuracy of climate reporting for individual products. The 6 identified datapoints already exist in the Peppol Framework today.

Below, the 6 datapoints are elaborated. The identified datapoints play a crucial role in supporting the accuracy of climate reporting:

Producer information: This datapoint identifies the producer and the geographical location of the production, enabling the use of location-specific emission factors.
Production timestamp: Indicates when the product was created, ensuring emission factors correspond to the correct production period.
Product datasheet: This datapoint contains a link to more detailed information of all components in a product that a supplier wishes to share – e.g. a Bill of Material (BOM).
Material origin: Identifies the country or region the material(s) originates from.
Unit price: Represents the monetary value (cost) for a specific product or service.

5.1.2 Product identifiers

Use of datapoint in relation to Product Information:
The datapoint group “Product Identifiers” is a subgroup of the datapoint group “Product Information.” The “Product Identifiers” group helps recipients/buyers recognize and track products purchased over time and across systems. The datapoints included in “Product Identifiers” enable recipients/buyers to create an overview and sort products acquired from suppliers. Furthermore, the datapoints in this group allow all relevant datapoints to be linked to each product, enabling recipients/buyers to access all datapoints associated with a specific product, at the same time. Including the datapoints in this group improves the structuring and organization of product-related data, making it more accessible and better suited to assist ESG managers with climate reporting.

The datapoints described in the following section are designed to help recipients uniquely identify purchased products and their associated datapoints, such as those outlined in the previous section. To achieve this, the use of standardized product identifiers and precise measurements becomes essential. For example, the "United Nations Standard Products and Services Code” (UNSPSC) product code standard can serve as a classification system to organize products and their related data in a structured and systematic way. The UNSPSC offers a stable framework that allows for seamless addition of new products without breaking the structure (United Nations, 2023). It is an internationally recognized and widely accepted standard and free to use. Implementing such a product code standard ensures accuracy, consistency, and interoperability in both the data exchange process and the interpretation of the exchanged data. Furthermore, using a standard like UNSPSC enhances the effectiveness of GHG Protocol calculation methods by providing accurate and standardized product identifiers.

The selected datapoints, combined with a product code standard, used to identify the products are:

Code Type: This datapoints allows the supplier (creator) to choose from a predefined list of “Product Code standard”.
Product Code: This datapoint allows the supplier to enter the product code that uniquely identifies a product (goods and services) according to the selected product code standard (e.g. UNSPSC).
Product Type: This datapoint is used to display the title of the product according to the product code standard and product code entered.

These datapoints can be provided in the eCatalogue but can also be provided in the eInvoice and Despatch Advice. Ideally, it could be copied from the eCatalogue and transferred automatically to the other relevant eDocuments. This would minimize the need for manual creation and input into other eDocuments.

5.1.3 Products measurements and Units:

Use of datapoints in relation to climate reporting:
The datapoint-group “Products measurements and Units” refers to information about a product’s “physical properties”, such as size, weight and quantity. This information ensures clarity of the physical dimensions and will assist an ESG manager in calculating the CO2e impact, correctly. This is important information to gather, as suppliers or manufacturers use different measurement methods for their products. Hence, some product’s Unit of Measurements might need to be converted to the Unit of Measurement for the Emission factor, used to calculate the CO2e emissions. The datapoints within this group are best suited for the eCatalogue and eInvoice.

When an ESG manager needs to quantify the CO2e emissions associated with purchased products, it is necessary to know the unit in which the products are measured. For example, is the product measured in kilograms, or in liters? Therefore, the “identifiers” evaluated in the section above is not sufficient information, if the receiver does not know the correct measurements of the purchased product. Therefore, it is recommended to use measurement figures that relate to a single unit, for each sold product. The datapoints to support this, are as follows:

Measurement: Refers to the quantity of products delivered or purchased. The measurements of products can in most cases be retrieved from the ”product master data system”.
Unit: Refers to the type of unit in which the product is measured and ensures the correct CO2e values can be calculated according to the given CO2e emission factor(s).

Furthermore, the datapoint “Unit of measurement” could be automatically populated if the unit of measurement has been linked to a product code, such as UNSPSC. Unit and Measurement can be implemented in both the eCatalogue and eInvoice.

5.1.4 Emissionfactors:

Use of datapoints in relation to climate reporting:
The datapoint-group “Emission factors” refers to information concerning the CO2e emissions for a product. This information assists the ESG manager in calculating or retrieving the CO2e emissions for a specific product. Also, it creates transparency in how e.g. the CO2e emissions have been estimated and validity in the ESG report. These datapoints are crucial, when considering companies must undergo “limited assurance” (cf. the AS-IS and TO-BE sections), to comply with CSRD. The datapoints are best suited for both the eCatalogue and eInvoice. The datapoints are needed for ESRS Disclosure Requirements, E1-6 – Gross Scopes 1, 2, 3 and Total GHG emissions.

The datapoints outlined in this section support the GHG protocols’ Supplier Specific, Hybrid and Average-data calculation method. In general, emission factors can either be product-specific or derived from industry-average values provided by the seller (supplier). The datapoints suggested below aim to create validity and transparency for the emission factors provided in the eDocuments. The datapoints are as follows:

CO2e Factor in kg per Unit Sold: refers to a field in which a supplier (creator) can enter their calculated “Emission factor” in kg CO2e per unit sold. Kilograms was selected due to being the most common used unit, concerning the value provided for CO2e.
CO2e source Information (Specific/General): This datapoint specifies the source of the CO2e calculation. The "Specific" option indicates that the supplier has provided a supplier-specific emission factor, while the "General" option indicates that the supplier has used an industry-average emission factor. The industry-average emission factor is calculated by a third party and considers emissions from hundreds or thousands of products, within that industry, for that type of product.
URL to the CO2e Calculation Source: This datapoint refers to a field where a link can be entered. The link enables the recipient to identify the calculation method used and provides detailed information about the emission factor, thereby enhancing transparency.

5.1.5 Ecolabels:

Use of datapoints in relation to climate reporting:
The datapoint-group “Ecolabels” refers to information of recognized and approved certificates/labels for products there have been purchased. This information certifies the sustainability claims of the supplier's products, thereby legitimizing them and building trust among the product's users.

Ecolabels are labels, typically placed on product packaging to help consumers, businesses, and institutional procurement specialists to quickly and easily identify products that meet specific environmental, health, safety, social, and ethical performance criterions, and can therefore be considered "environmentally friendly”.

Ecolabels can be used in eCatalogues and eInvoices, therefore the following datapoints are recommended to be used across eDocuments, to legitimize and build trust among the products users:

Ecolabel: For this datapoint, suppliers should provide the name of the Ecolabel obtained for the product, such as the “Nordic Swan” label.
Ecolabel Code: Refers to a code that identifies the ecolabel using an open, free standard, such as the Peppol Framework.
URL to the Ecolabel: This datapoint allows for the supplier to provide a link to a digital version of the Ecolabel, for the specific product. This allows the recipient to access detailed information about the certification. Thereby, it ensures transparency and create trust towards the recipient in relation to the products’ sustainability claims.

5.1.6 Alignment with CSRD, GHG Protocol, and interoperability frameworks:

Why it is important to align with CSRD, GHG Protocol and interoperability framework:

This section dives into how the identified green datapoints relate and align with the CSRD, GHG Protocol and interoperability framework(s). The result of aligning these, will streamline the data exchanged, in relation to CSRD reporting requirements and create interoperability across the borders and companies. Focusing on the practical application of the datapoints, such as “product identifies” or “Emission factors” illustrates the compliance benefits for users using electronic documents, if the suggested datapoints, are implemented in the necessary documents. Aligning the datapoints with an interoperability framework, which relies on data standards, means that the datapoints suggested will be applicable here and now, but also in a long-term perspective.

The proposed datapoints to be implemented in the eInvoice and eCatalogue mockups intend to assist all users, especially within companies that do not have the opportunity or ability to share and collect climate data in an efficient manner. In many cases, companies are unable to share supplier-specific emission factors or Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) for specific products because conducting LCAs can be costly, and finding relevant industry-average emission factors can be challenging. Especially for SMEs with limited resources. Therefore, the recommended fields not only provide information related to the datapoint-group "emission factors" but also offer supporting information if no data for emission factors have been provided. By including supporting datapoints in eDocuments, such as product information datapoints, recipients can independently identify industry-average emissions factor to support their CO2e emission calculations, if the supplier has not provided emission factor-related datapoints in the respective eDocument(s). The datapoints recommended have been assessed and aligned with the ESRS E1 Standard, the GHG Protocol and the interoperability framework, Peppol, with the intention to standardize the data according to their specifications and requirements (see appendix 3). This alignment streamlines the data collection and enables automatic transfer. Additionally, it allows the datapoints to be seamlessly integrated into the sustainability report and analytical systems for further investigation.

5.1.7 The datapoints in relation to the GHG protocol

The following subsection examines the green datapoints usability in relation to the recommended calculation methods in the GHG Protocol.

Reflecting upon the data availability from a reporting company’s point of view, the GHG Protocol endorses four calculation methods to calculate products CO2e emissions, within scope 3, category 1, “Purchased goods and services” (Barrow, Buckley, Clummis, & Draucker, 2013). The calculation methods can be assessed in figure 9:

Calculation methods	Description of data needed
Supplier-specific method	The reporting company collects supplier-specific data, specific to that product.
Hybrid method	The reporting company collects a combination of supplier-specific activity data and secondary/average data to fill gaps.
Average-data method	The reporting company collects data on e.g. the weight, or other relevant units of the acquired products and gathers industry-average emission factors from external databases or sources to estimate the CO2e emissions.
Spend-based method	The reporting company estimates their emissions by collecting data on the economic value for the purchased products and multiplies it by relevant average data (secondary data).

Figure 9: Provides an overview of the four calculation methods recommended by the GHG Protocol for scope 3, category 1 calculations, and a short description of the type of data needed for each method – based on “Technical Guidance for Calculating Scope 3 Emissions” (WRI & wbcsd, 2013)

The following text will consider all four calculation methods with respect to the datapoints identified in this project, starting with the “spend-based” method. This is the least precise calculation method, as seen in figure 9, in terms of estimating CO2e emissions for a product or service. Through the spend-based method, CO2e emissions are estimated by multiplying the product's price by an emission factor. In this regard, while prices can indicate the CO2e emissions - e.g., higher-priced products may have longer lifespans or eco-friendly materials – applying this method often provides a misleading picture. For instance, in cases where the same emission factor has been applied to both an older and a newer version of a product, despite price differences, it often shows the product with the higher price has greater CO2e emissions. Therefore, this method should only be used as a last resort when no other data is available. Supporting datapoints like “Product Type,” “Amount Ordered,” and “Unit of Measurement” can help improve accuracy by enabling access to more precise emission factors from external databases.

Regarding the Supplier-Specific calculation method, the most accurate and reliable approach, suppliers are required to provide specific CO2e figures for every purchase. The datapoints required for this method include "CO2e factor in kg per unit sold" and confirmation that the datapoint "CO2e source information" is set to "specific”. Yet, if the specific CO2 emission factors are not known, available or only account for some of the products’ life cycle, the reporting company can make use of the average data or hybrid calculation method. Using the average-data method, requires that the supplier has filled out the datapoints: “Unit of Measurement”, “Product Type” and “Material Origin”. This allows the reporting company to accurately identify the appropriate industry-average emission factor to calculate the CO2e emissions of the product.

Regarding the hybrid-method, it requires that the datapoints within the "Product Information" and "Product Measurement and Units" datapoint-groups are filled out. More specifically, the data needed is data such as mass, volume of the material used in the product, disposal, waste information etc. This enables the reporting company to identify appropriate secondary emission factors or fill out the gaps to calculate the full CO2e emissions of the acquired product.

5.2 Recommendations

The most important factor to support climate reporting is high-quality and reliable data. Therefore, concluding on the above section ”The Green Datapoints”, assigning a unique code to each product ensures stability and structure, facilitating international use.

To enhance the reliability it is also recommended to link ”Unit of Measurement” to a product code list, such as UNSPSC. Implementing an international product code standard which includes both goods and services, would potentially assist sustainability reporting and enhance search functionalities of datapoints associated with each product, relevant to climate reporting. Hence, making climate reporting more efficient. However, the product code standard must be neutral and free to use, to become appealing. Furthermore, the UNSPSC is also recommended to be implemented, as it is often used in the Peppol Framework to classify products in electronic invoices and electronic procurement. Additionally, since the standards are not maintained by the same organization, there would be a need to create a new working-group responsible of connecting the standards and maintaining the continuous updates. There needs to be a maintenance process that clearly stipulates responsibilities. Additionally, it can be concluded that the green datapoints presented, can be used in association with the four calculation methods recommended by the GHG Protocol. This makes the datapoints recommended in the above section relevant for all reporting companies that need to report on their CO2e emissions within scope 3, category 1 “Purchased goods and services”. Additionally, it can also be concluded that the Ecolabel datapoint-group can be used to verify and legitimatize product’s sustainability claims, hence, avoid greenwashing of products sustainability claims.