Emission factors
The built-in library, your own factors, suppliers' factors, global warming potentials and the factor service.
An emission factor says how many kg CO₂e one unit of something causes - a litre of diesel, a kWh of electricity, a passenger-km on a flight, a dollar spent on freight.
The library
Open Emission factors. Every business gets a library from free public sources:
- UK Government conversion factors (DESNZ) - fuels, travel, freight, waste, water, heat.
- US EPA - the US electricity grid.
- India's Central Electricity Authority (CEA) - the Indian grid.
- IPCC - warming potentials of refrigerants (R-134a, R-410A, R-32, R-404A...).
- Spend averages - rounded kg CO₂e per US dollar for purchases when nothing better is known.
Each factor shows its scope, unit, source and year. Search by words, filter by kind. The code (for example elec_in, fuel_diesel_l) is what imports and the API use.
Global warming potentials
Settings > Preferences chooses IPCC AR5 (most reports today) or AR6 (newest). It changes refrigerants mostly. New and changed lines use the choice; read your sources again to update their lines.
Your own factors (Standard and up)
- New factor - for your electricity contract, a material you buy a lot of, a hotel chain you use.
- Copy to change on any library factor makes your own copy to edit.
- Turn off a factor you no longer want in the lists. Lines that used it keep their value.
Suppliers' own factors
When a supplier answers your data request and you accept it, a factor "Supplier - name (own figures)" is made and their spend counts with it. See Suppliers and commuting.
The factor service (Professional)
Add your own Climatiq key in Settings > AI & factor service. Then Emission factors > Search the factor service finds thousands more factors - materials, country grids, hotel nights - and adds the one you pick to your factors.