Weekly Discussion: Carbon Accounting for Financial Services using Anaplan

tristan.colgate

I'm convinced that Anaplan is the perfect platform for carbon accounting for financial services organisations; it's a process that is both data-hungry and involves complex calculation.

 

Here's what I know on the topic:

• The closest there is to a standard for this is the "Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials" (PCAF).
• There are three scopes of carbon accounting ranging from direct emissions from sources that are owned by the organisation (e.g. company cars) through to indirect emissions. 
• In the case of financial institutions, importantly, indirect emissions includes emissions from companies in which the organisation has an investment.

This is the tricky bit to calculate.  It requires looking at all investments (and this could number in the thousands or more for a financial services organisation) and determining:

1. The asset class (e.g. equities, bonds, loans, real estate etc.)

2. Greenhouse Gas Data relating to the asset.  Where it's not available, using proxy calculations.

3. Calculating an attribution factor (i.e. the proportion of total emissions the lender/ investor should recognise)

4. Using the total emissions and attribution factor to calculate the financed emissions of the organisation.

 

This sounds like the perfect basis for an Anaplan model, integrating with systems of records for investments, and sources of greenhouse gas emissions data.

 

Has anyone attempted this in their organisation?  It would be really interesting to hear about your experiences if you have.