The Open Sustainability Index offers numerous use cases, but we’d like to address two concrete and practical examples of how you can use the data to improve your climate strategies:
- Improve your carbon accounting by replacing industry-wide averages with more precise, supplier-specific emissions factors.
- Evaluate suppliers based on emission intensities, science-based targets, and emission reduction trends.
Supplier evaluation
Let’s start with supplier evaluations. If your company has set science-based targets or emissions reductions targets, you know how crucial it is to ensure your supply chain aligns with them. Without suppliers in line with your targets, meeting those targets becomes challenging, if not impossible.
Select suppliers by science-based targets
Determine which suppliers have committed to science-based targets, who has set targets, and their actual targets. That is rather tricky to track manually. Manually tracking this is rather tricky, but with Open Sustainability Index’s API, you can match your suppliers with their science-based targets and monitor which, and what share, of your suppliers have set targets.
For instance, you might want to list all companies commited to a near-term target within the construction industry. Set the industry to to Construction and near-term to committed. The URL for that API call looks like this:
https://api.opensustainabilityindex.org/v1/companies?api-key=demo&limit=99&offset=0&industry=Construction&near-term=committedAnd returns the following JSON response:
{
"data": [
{
"company_name": "Bonava AB",
"industry": "Construction",
"commitment_type": null,
"status": null,
"commitment_deadline": null,
"total_reported_emission_scope_1_2_3": 362217,
"revenue": 13269,
"hq_country_move": "Sweden",
"year": 2023,
"currency": "SEK",
"emission_intensity": 289.48,
"targets": [
{
"target_type": "Absolute",
"target_scope": "1+2",
"target_year": 2030,
"target": "Near-term"
},
{
"target_type": "Intensity",
"target_scope": "3",
"target_year": 2030,
"target": "Near-term"
}
]
},
{
"company_name": "Resona Utveckling AB",
"industry": "Construction",
"commitment_type": null,
"status": null,
"commitment_deadline": null,
"total_reported_emission_scope_1_2_3": 3119,
"revenue": null,
"hq_country_move": "Sweden",
"year": 2022,
"currency": null,
"emission_intensity": null,
"targets": [
{
"target_type": "Absolute",
"target_scope": "1+2",
"target_year": 2030,
"target": "Near-term"
}
]
},
{
"company_name": "Skanska AB",
"industry": "Construction",
"commitment_type": null,
"status": null,
"commitment_deadline": null,
"total_reported_emission_scope_1_2_3": 1176000,
"revenue": 167168,
"hq_country_move": "Sweden",
"year": 2023,
"currency": "SEK",
"emission_intensity": 74.6,
"targets": [
{
"target_type": "Absolute",
"target_scope": "3",
"target_year": 2045,
"target": "Long-term pre-CNZS"
},
{
"target_type": "Absolute",
"target_scope": "1+2",
"target_year": 2030,
"target": "Near-term"
},
{
"target_type": "Absolute",
"target_scope": "1+2",
"target_year": 2045,
"target": "Long-term pre-CNZS"
},
{
"target_type": "Absolute",
"target_scope": "3",
"target_year": 2030,
"target": "Near-term"
}
]
}
],
"error": null
}Select suppliers by emission intensity (tCO₂e / $)
In any given sector, you cah compare and select suppliers based on their carbon footprint relative to their net revenue to understand emissions in relation to spend, and select ones with lower emissions. You can search for suppliers in specific sectors and receive emissions intensities for each company in return.
If you want to see companies in the industry “Transportation and storage” sorted by emission intensity you can just change sort to emission_intensity and industry to Transportation%20and%20storage, creating this URL:
https://api.opensustainabilityindex.org/v1/companies?api-key=demo&sort=emission_intensity&order=asc&industry=Transportation%20and%20storageWhich will give this JSON response:
{
"data": [
{
"company_name": "TUIfly Nordic AB",
"industry": "Transportation and storage",
"commitment_type": null,
"status": null,
"commitment_deadline": null,
"total_reported_emission_scope_1_2_3": 6656.19,
"revenue": 20666,
"hq_country_move": "Sweden",
"year": 2023,
"currency": "EUR",
"emission_intensity": 0.3,
"targets": [
{
"target_type": null,
"target_scope": null,
"target_year": null,
"target": null
}
]
},
{
"company_name": "CTT Systems",
"industry": "Transportation and storage",
"commitment_type": null,
"status": null,
"commitment_deadline": null,
"total_reported_emission_scope_1_2_3": 126,
"revenue": 23,
"hq_country_move": "Portugal",
"year": 2022,
"currency": "USD",
"emission_intensity": 5.5,
"targets": [
{
"target_type": null,
"target_scope": null,
"target_year": null,
"target": null
}
]
},
{
"company_name": "Nobina AB",
"industry": "Transportation and storage",
"commitment_type": "Standard",
"status": "Target set",
"commitment_deadline": "30/09/2023",
"total_reported_emission_scope_1_2_3": 180298,
"revenue": 12979,
"hq_country_move": "Sweden",
"year": 2022,
"currency": "SEK",
"emission_intensity": 14,
"targets": [
{
"target_type": "Absolute",
"target_scope": "1+2",
"target_year": 2030,
"target": "Near-term"
},
{
"target_type": "Intensity",
"target_scope": "1+2+3",
"target_year": 2030,
"target": "Near-term"
}
]
},
{
"company_name": "Japan Post Holdings",
"industry": "Transportation and storage",
"commitment_type": null,
"status": null,
"commitment_deadline": null,
"total_reported_emission_scope_1_2_3": 2276059,
"revenue": 103580,
"hq_country_move": "Japan",
"year": 2021,
"currency": "USD",
"emission_intensity": 21.97,
"targets": [
{
"target_type": null,
"target_scope": null,
"target_year": null,
"target": null
}
]
},
{
"company_name": "PostNord AB",
"industry": "Transportation and storage",
"commitment_type": null,
"status": null,
"commitment_deadline": null,
"total_reported_emission_scope_1_2_3": 484781,
"revenue": 39301,
"hq_country_move": "Sweden",
"year": 2023,
"currency": "SEK",
"emission_intensity": 130.81,
"targets": [
{
"target_type": "Absolute",
"target_scope": "1+2",
"target_year": 2030,
"target": "Near-term"
},
{
"target_type": "Intensity",
"target_scope": "3",
"target_year": 2030,
"target": "Near-term"
}
]
},
{
"company_name": "Ahréns Åkeri AB",
"industry": "Transportation and storage",
"commitment_type": null,
"status": null,
"commitment_deadline": null,
"total_reported_emission_scope_1_2_3": 5094.8,
"revenue": 235,
"hq_country_move": "Sweden",
"year": 2023,
"currency": "SEK",
"emission_intensity": 230.3,
"targets": [
{
"target_type": null,
"target_scope": null,
"target_year": null,
"target": null
}
]
},
{
"company_name": "FedEx",
"industry": "Transportation and storage",
"commitment_type": null,
"status": null,
"commitment_deadline": null,
"total_reported_emission_scope_1_2_3": 22247332,
"revenue": 92620,
"hq_country_move": "United States",
"year": 2022,
"currency": "USD",
"emission_intensity": 240.2,
"targets": [
{
"target_type": null,
"target_scope": null,
"target_year": null,
"target": null
}
]
},
{
"company_name": "United Parcel Service",
"industry": "Transportation and storage",
"commitment_type": null,
"status": null,
"commitment_deadline": null,
"total_reported_emission_scope_1_2_3": 33159000,
"revenue": 98550,
"hq_country_move": "United States",
"year": 2022,
"currency": "USD",
"emission_intensity": 336.47,
"targets": [
{
"target_type": null,
"target_scope": null,
"target_year": null,
"target": null
}
]
},
{
"company_name": "Deutsche Post",
"industry": "Transportation and storage",
"commitment_type": null,
"status": null,
"commitment_deadline": null,
"total_reported_emission_scope_1_2_3": 36460000,
"revenue": 96470,
"hq_country_move": "Germany",
"year": 2022,
"currency": "USD",
"emission_intensity": 377.94,
"targets": [
{
"target_type": null,
"target_scope": null,
"target_year": null,
"target": null
}
]
},
{
"company_name": "Union Pacific",
"industry": "Transportation and storage",
"commitment_type": null,
"status": null,
"commitment_deadline": null,
"total_reported_emission_scope_1_2_3": 15316383,
"revenue": 25070,
"hq_country_move": "United States",
"year": 2022,
"currency": "USD",
"emission_intensity": 610.94,
"targets": [
{
"target_type": null,
"target_scope": null,
"target_year": null,
"target": null
}
]
},
{
"company_name": "World Courier Sweden AB",
"industry": "Transportation and storage",
"commitment_type": null,
"status": null,
"commitment_deadline": null,
"total_reported_emission_scope_1_2_3": 147662236,
"revenue": 230000,
"hq_country_move": "Sweden",
"year": 2022,
"currency": "USD",
"emission_intensity": 642.01,
"targets": [
{
"target_type": null,
"target_scope": null,
"target_year": null,
"target": null
}
]
},
{
"company_name": "SAS",
"industry": "Transportation and storage",
"commitment_type": null,
"status": null,
"commitment_deadline": null,
"total_reported_emission_scope_1_2_3": 3098100,
"revenue": 42000,
"hq_country_move": "Sweden",
"year": 2023,
"currency": "SEK",
"emission_intensity": 782.23,
"targets": [
{
"target_type": null,
"target_scope": null,
"target_year": null,
"target": null
}
]
},
{
"company_name": "Møller-Maersk",
"industry": "Transportation and storage",
"commitment_type": null,
"status": null,
"commitment_deadline": null,
"total_reported_emission_scope_1_2_3": 77957000,
"revenue": 76610,
"hq_country_move": "Denmark",
"year": 2022,
"currency": "USD",
"emission_intensity": 1017.58,
"targets": [
{
"target_type": null,
"target_scope": null,
"target_year": null,
"target": null
}
]
}
],
"error": null
}Stay on track
Easily analyze if your suppliers are on track with your emissions reduction targets. Match your suppliers with their targets to see if their targets align with yours and the trajectory towards their emissions reduction targets. Identify which suppliers are enabling you to reach your targets faster.
Improve your Carbon Accounting
Covering the full extent of Scope 3 in carbon accounting is challenging but necessary to understand your value chain. Relying on industry averages for emissions accounting, especially within procurement, is both frustrating and doesn’t provide a clear call to action other than spending less in a given sector. That, we know, is neither optimal nor actionable.
Supplier specific cradle-to-gate* emissions factors
With OSI, you can move away from industry averages and match purchases with supplier-specific cradle-to-gate emissions factors. This improves carbon accounting, especially when you don’t have an even more specific emissions factor, such as a product-specific one.
*Cradle-to-gate emission factors include emissions from Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 upstream emissions, according to the GHG Protocol.
Platforms
Are you developing a carbon accounting platform? Then you’re familiar with the challenge: relying on industry-average emissions factors for Scope 3 calculations, particularly in categories 1 (purchaes of products & services) and 2 (purchases of capital goods).
Integrating with Open Sustainability Index will enable you to provide supplier-specific cradle-to-gate emission factors to all your customers, empowering them to better understand their value chain and make more informed decisions and take action.