Transforming Carbon Accounting from Static Reports to Dynamic Capability: Celonis Launches Product Carbon Footprint App

The need for a scalable, automated Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) solution is increasing due to regulatory and market pressures. That’s why Celonis announced the PCF App at this year’s Celosphere, our annual user conference.

The new application is a scalable and automated solution built on the Celonis platform for calculating, analyzing, and reducing the carbon footprint of individual products. Developed in co-innovation with global industry leaders like Andritz and AkzoNobel, the PCF App moves carbon accounting beyond manual, one-off reports into a dynamic, continuous process, leveraging a company’s enterprise data across the entire product lifecycle. AkzoNobel aims to eliminate >90% of manual effort of PCF calculations, improve data quality and unlock actionable insights to drive meaningful decarbonization.

Regulatory and Market Drivers Demand Granular, Product-Level Data

Companies can no longer rely on high-level, corporate-wide carbon accounting; the imperative is now to measure, manage, and reduce emissions at the individual product level.

Key drivers for verifiable carbon data include:

• EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) & Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM): These regulations directly or indirectly push companies to exchange verifiable, product-related carbon emission data for disclosure or tax compliance.
• Digital Product Passport (DPP): This digital record is set to become mandatory for an increasing number of products, accurate, product-related carbon emission data is a cornerstone for compliance.
• Corporate Net-Zero Targets: Companies are setting ambitious commitments that necessitate stringent measurement and reduction efforts across their value chain.

Concrete business impact also arises in supply chains:

• Supply Chains as the Pressure Point: The demand for verifiable data hits the supply chain hardest because up to 75% of a company's total emissions are found in purchased materials and upstream activities (Scope 3 emissions).
• Mandatory Supplier Compliance: To achieve their Net-Zero goals and satisfy regulatory demands, companies now demand verifiable PCF data directly from their suppliers.

Dynamic PCF Calculation: The Celonis Solution

The Celonis PCF App addresses this critical challenge by automating the calculation process and providing actionable, accurate insights. It works by integrating two key inputs:

• Activity data is automatically pulled and contextualized from a company's ERP systems and supply chain data via the Celonis platform.
• Emissions Factors are automatically sourced from external providers like Climatiq and Sigreen or directly requested from suppliers, ensuring granularity and accuracy.

Key Features for driving scale and accuracy include:

• Automated Data Ingestion: The PCF App automatically pulls relevant transaction and product data from ERP systems to eliminate manual effort and provide a complete view of a product’s lifecycle.
• AI-Powered Emission Factors: Free text matching is used to automatically suggest and map appropriate emission factors from various secondary data sources, increasing efficiency and calculation accuracy.
• Dynamic PCF Calculation: PCFs are calculated at various levels of aggregation, from the full product portfolio down to a specific component, continuously updating with new transactional data.
• Actionable Insights & What-if Scenario Simulation: Emission hotspots are identified along the supply chain to investigate 'what-if' scenarios—such as modeling the impact of switching suppliers or transport methods—to drive targeted decarbonization efforts.

A future of process-first sustainability

For the modern enterprise, carbon accounting must be integrated into the continuous operation of the business. With the Celonis PCF App, organizations can improve operational efficiency by automating a time-consuming, manual process by up to 80%, easily meet mandatory reporting requirements like CSRD and provide the verifiable data required for initiatives like the Digital Product Passport (DPP). This allows them to use verified PCF data as a differentiator to drive value and shift from a reactive "pull approach" to actively promoting PCF transparency. Ultimately, the app helps drive strategic decarbonization by enabling teams to identify and act on specific emission hotspots within the supply chain.

The PCF app is part of the Sustainability Solution Suite which enables companies to accurately track, report and reduce carbon emissions and increase regulatory compliance with various regulations like EUDR, CBAM, CSDDD–all on the Celonis Process Intelligence platform.

For more information, watch the on-demand webinar: Celonis for Sustainability: Trace carbon emissions across your processes and products with Andritz.