Carbon footprint software overview

As already described in the two previous wikis, the calculation of the PCF can be very time-consuming and complex. Therefore, there are more and more software tools designed to facilitate this calculation. They are usually connected to the necessary databases and can be manually maintained with the data determined by the user. The calculations run in the background and thus enable an automatic calculation of the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF).

As the number of software solutions for CO₂ accounting is constantly growing, a small selection of different software solutions is briefly presented below. 

Table of contents

1. Sima Pro

SimaPro software has been the world's leading LCA software for 30 years. It is a professional tool for collecting, analysing and monitoring the sustainability data of products and services within a company. SimaPro is available as desktop software with the option to use cloud-based modules. The software is also linked to various databases such as ecoinvent, agri-footprint, the European and Danish input/output database and the US Life Cycle Inventory database. In addition, data can be exported to and extracted from ERP systems and Microsoft Excel(SimaPro, 2021).

2. CCaLC:

The free carbon footprint software CCaLC (Carbon Calculations over the Life Cycle of Industrial Activities) is an Excel-based tool developed by a research group at the University of Manchester. In addition to its own CCaLC database, the ecoinvent database is also connected. The software is mainly used for the calculation and analysis of the auto-bonus footprint(CCaLC, 2021).

3. gaBi:

The GaBi software is a life cycle assessment software that supports application areas such as life cycle costs, life cycle assessment, reporting and life cycle working environment. The GaBi software can be used to map the life cycle of a product and calculate the environmental impacts, costs and social indicators for each step in the product life cycle. The secondary data comes from the GaBi databases, whose life cycle inventory (LCI) data comes from the suppliers' surveys. In addition, the ecoinvent database can also be integrated into GaBi(GaBi Solutions, 2021).

4 Carbon Trust: Footprint Manager

Footprint Manager is a cloud-based reporting tool and enables the calculation and tracking of direct and indirect emissions. Accessible anywhere, anytime, Footprint Manager provides companies with a flexible but consistent platform for CO₂ monitoring and reporting. Data can also be linked to SAP and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to eliminate manual data entry(The Carbon Trust, 2021).

5 Umberto LCA+ 

The LCA software Umberto is one of the leading software solutions in the field of carbon footprint calculation. It enables graphical modelling of the data as well as linking with Microsoft Excel and is connected to the LCI database. In addition, scenario analyses can be used to derive the environmental impacts and evaluate various improvement measures(iPoint, 2021).

6. SAP Product Carbon Footprint Analytics

SAP Product Carbon Footprint Analytics provides insights into the CO₂ emissions of a company's products by plant, profit center, or cost center. The application, which is based on SAP S/4HANA3 and SAP Analytics Cloud4, provides insight into the CO₂ emissions of a product along the entire value chain. This includes production, raw materials, energy consumption, and transportation. Manufacturers can also integrate data from external product databases and third-party solutions to analyze and understand the breakdown of CO₂ emissions(Baur, 2020).