Frequently Asked Questions

Carbon data is a set of information about carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions that have been recorded and reported that allows measuring, quantifying, and tracking carbon emissions of industries, companies and products.
Having access to carbon data is a starting point in the fight against climate change as it can enable climate action. You can’t change what you can’t measure and this is partly why there is such a large discrepancy between the world’s willingness to act and the actions that have actually been taken. Many consumers and businesses simply don’t know which areas of their consumption/operations could be improved to become more eco-conscious and environmentally sustainable.
If carbon data was available and accessible to every consumer and business globally, this would not only help all of us build our individual and collective net-zero roadmaps but would also allow consumers to put pressure on companies that don’t report their emissions and reward those that do. At Connect Earth, we strive to democratise access to carbon data and empower people to make informed choices.
Read more about the carbon data that we provide below.

Greenhouse gases, also known as GHGs, are gaseous compounds that absorb infrared radiation, trap heat in the atmosphere, and contribute to the greenhouse effect. GHGs include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and fluorinated gases among others.
CO2 (carbon dioxide) is a colourless, odourless greenhouse gas released when fossil fuels burn. CO2 is often used as a proxy for all the other gases mentioned above, but in fact, it’s only one of the gases causing global warming.
Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), however, is a way of combining all the GHGs into a single metric, by using their global warming potential values. This allows a much easier comparison of different sources of emissions.

Greenhouse gases and carbon footprint in general are measured in kilograms.
In order to keep the global temperature increase below 2 Celsius degrees (in line with the Paris Agreement), each person should reduce their carbon emissions to 191 kg per month, which is 2.3 tonnes per year.
For reference, 1 tonne of CO2 is equivalent to:

• 3.5 months of eating a meat-heavy diet
• 8 months of eating a vegan diet
• 1 flight from Paris to New York
• 83 train journeys from London to Edinburgh
• 500 cotton T-shirts
• 13,987 hours of streaming on Netflix

Having these numbers in mind, each one of us should aim to be climate positive and actively seek to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Standard classifies a company’s greenhouse gas emissions into three scopes which reflect an organisation’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

• Scope 1 emissions: Direct company emissions from sources that are controlled or owned by the organisation (buildings, on-site energy consumption, company vehicles etc.).
• Scope 2 emissions: Indirect company emissions associated with the purchase of electricity, steam, heat or cooling.
• Scope 3 emissions: Indirect company emissions (not included in scope 2) that occur in the value chain of the reporting company (transport and distribution, business travel, investments, use of sold products etc.). Scope 3 emissions are the biggest contributor to total company emissions for a number of industries, yet simultaneously, they are the hardest to track and calculate.

Learn more about scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3 emissions on our blog.

Businesses see a positive return on investment from developing corporate value chain and product GHG inventories. The GHG standards help companies to:

• Identify and understand risks and opportunities associated with value chain emissions,
• Identify GHG reduction opportunities, set reduction targets and track performance,
• Engage suppliers and other value chain partners in GHG management and sustainability,
• Enhance stakeholder information and corporate reputation through public reporting.
• By following the GHG Protocol, businesses can not only reduce their emissions but also cut costs and meet strategic business objectives.
  Learn about the 5 reasons why your business should embrace the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
  

Sustainable finance or green finance is any structured financial activity that’s been created to ensure a better environmental outcome. Sustainable finance allows the financial system to connect with the economy and its populations by financing its agents while maintaining a growth objective. It has become a powerful movement led by regulators, institutional investors and asset managers globally.
Sustainable banking is a practice where banks’ operations and investment strategies are aimed at pursuing profit while prioritising social and environmental sustainability.
Carbon finance is a branch of sustainable finance that involves the use of financial tools, such as Connect Earth’s API technology, to reduce the impact of greenhouse gases on the environment. Carbon finance gives carbon emissions a price with the aim of reducing the impact greenhouse gas emissions have on the environment.

In simple terms, green financing is a loan or investment that supports environmentally-friendly initiatives. Green banking, on the other hand, refers to mission-driven institutions that embed environmental sustainability into their services and encourage their customers to reduce their carbon footprint through banking activities.

Many consumers and businesses want to act more sustainably but lack access to actionable, high-quality emissions data. With a carbon footprint solution your company can be a catalyst for change and enable your customers to understand how they can reduce their emissions, and as a result, also reduce their financial risk. The first step to reducing emissions is assessing where you are now, and understanding the main emitters in your life/business.
By providing carbon data of each financial transaction, alongside the spending, banks can support and encourage their retail banking clients, corporate clients or retail investors to act sustainably.

Banks and financial institutions can:

• strengthen customer loyalty, build trust and improve brand perception
• increase in digital engagement and digital adoption
• increase in customer acquisition (especially Millennials and Generation Z)

Consumers, on the other hand, can:

• gain awareness towards their climate impact
• track their carbon footprint and monitor its evolution over time
• make a real difference by following personalised recommendations

Learn about why sustainability reporting is on the rise and what your business should know.

We have an expert carbon scientist team, and partner with universities and other research organisations to ensure that our carbon models are the most accurate that they can be. We also ensure they are in line with industry and academic best practices to ensure we follow common standards and protocols like the GHG Protocol.

Our emissions calculation models are based on data from official government data and research, including sources like leading EEIO models, OECD, Eurostat, DEFRA, and many more.

Our methodology is up to date with the latest carbon modeling know-how from industry and academia, meaning you are getting the same quality of emissions data for your spending as governments and climate scientists use.

For any more information or questions on Connect Earth or related matters, please find us here.

Category-level data:
We collect category-level data through Environmentally-Extended Input-Output Analysis (EEIO) using the latest version of the EXIOBASE database. EXIOBASE is one of the most extensive EEIO models available and enables us to track greenhouse gas emissions throughout global supply chains.
Corporate emissions data:
We collect the latest reports that companies have published, containing emissions data. These may be sustainability reports, ESG reports, CSR reports, and others. We also collect data by companies reporting into Connect Hub.

We calculate the carbon footprint of your purchases using ‘emissions factors’ that are specific to the category and region of your purchase.

The calculation that takes place is we multiply the transaction spend amount by the emissions factor relevant to the category of the transaction to estimate the carbon footprint.

Transaction Amount X Category ‘Emissions Factor ‘

Here’s an example of how this works:

1. You go to the supermarket and spend £20
2. We multiply this by the emissions factor of groceries in your specific country (e.g 2.22 kg CO2e/ £)
3. This gives the resulting carbon footprint estimate of 9 kg of CO2e

Note however, that the emissions from this could vary greatly from spending the same £20 amount at a bakery, for example, which could equate to 6 kg of CO2e. This is why it’s just an “estimate” of the emissions. Nonetheless, the methodology used is the same used widely in industry and academia for carbon footprinting.

Whilst our calculations ensure your estimated emissions are as accurate as possible by categorising the merchant, the CO2 amounts you see in the app are estimates, because we can’t see exactly what products you have purchased.

The information used to calculate and provide you with the emissions estimates for your transactions is only being used for this specific purpose of informational insights.

This data is not used for anything other than helping you learn about your carbon footprint. The carbon footprint information or any other inputs used are only used for carbon insights and are not sold to any other external third parties.

Please read our privacy policy for more information on data processing and usage: https://connect.earth/privacy-policy/

As a UK-based company following data compliance standards like GDPR and SOC2, Connect Earth takes data privacy and ownership very seriously and is audited yearly for data privacy and security. Our SOC2 Type 2 certification is a testament to our strong internal data processes.

Category-level data:
Country coverage of the EXIOBASE database accounts for about 90% of the global gross domestic product.
We are currently covering 49 countries (32 in Europe, 5 in the Americas, 8 in Asia & Pacific, 2 in Africa and 2 in the Middle East).
Corporate emissions data:
Our corporate emissions data covers companies headquartered in nearly 100 countries. The most common countries are the USA and the UK which make up 28% and 12% of our dataset, respectively.

The estimates shown in the app provide a general and approximate indication of the environmental impact associated with your spending. While we strive for accuracy by using industry-standard emission factors and reliable data sources, it’s important to understand that these estimates are based on broad assumptions and may not account for variations in specific product choices or supply chains.

The accuracy of the estimates depends on the quality of the underlying data and the comprehensiveness of industry averages. For most users, the app provides a valuable and insightful tool to understand the environmental implications of their spending patterns. However, it’s crucial to interpret the estimates as informed approximations rather than precise measurements.

As technology and data sources improve, we continuously work to enhance the accuracy of our estimates to improve your carbon insights. Your feedback and any additional information you provide can contribute to refining our models and making the estimates more reliable over time. Our goal is to empower you with useful insights to make more sustainable choices while recognising the inherent limitations of estimations in the current state of environmental analysis tools.

The simple answer is that we don’t know exactly what was bought in a transaction. However, an approximate industry-standard carbon footprint estimate can be made using the transaction category.

In our analysis, we categorise transactions according to the merchant they were made with. This is because neither we, nor your bank, can see which specific products were included in a transaction. So, we use industry averages for merchants to estimate the environmental impact of your spending, based on the typical environmental impact of products and services in that industry.

For example, if you made a purchase at a grocery store, we would make an estimate based on the environmental impact of a typical basket of groceries purchased in your country. This includes many things such as the manufacturing, packaging, and transportation within that industry. This way, we can provide you with an overall estimate of the carbon footprint related to your spending habits without requiring detailed information about each specific item you purchased.

By using the merchant type to make estimates, we aim to offer a simple and accessible way for you to understand and reduce your carbon footprint based on your spending patterns.

Education & recommendations:
Knowing our individual carbon footprint is only the beginning of the journey to make our consumer behaviour more environmentally sustainable. It’s even more important that we start to act on this knowledge. Through our Connect Insights solution, we empower consumers to analyse, learn and improve their consumption habits based on their carbon data.
On top of that, our spend-data analysis provides customers with personalised recommendations that take user’s profile and spending history into account.

Carbon offsets:
Our clients have the opportunity to leverage our technical partnership with Patch.io and integrate an offsetting feature. This allows users to immediately act on the information they receive in their digital banking app. We do not monetise carbon offsets but this closes the emissions loop and empowers users to take immediate action.

We own a proprietary database on thousands of companies’ scope 1, 2, 3 emissions as well as other metrics. This database is used by Green FinTechs to create and build their own products. Our vision is to empower the green ecosystem to act on climate change through new inventions and we want to support them.

The integration is only API-based. The API integration is easy and accompanied by a well-detailed API documentation that makes the process a lot easier.

The integration takes anywhere between 2-6 weeks, depending on the technology and resource capacity of our customers.

Basic access: free for 1,000 API calls per month; including support via email.
You can test our API for free today.
Premium access: custom API calls, access to real company data & emission factors, MTLS authentication and front-end SDK.
If you’re interested in learning more, book a call with us.

We do not store any user data nor do we require access to user data (such as personal information, account details, etc.). We fully comply with banks’ and financial institutions’ legal and compliance requirements in terms of data security.

Alongside measurement and reduction, carbon removal plays an important role in the decarbonization of our economy. Through our partnership with Patch, our clients may view and make spot and multi-year purchases of carbon credits from a global network of vetted developers, or build carbon removal capabilities directly into products and services.