This guide walks through the CCF module in the CarbonChain platform. It follows the same order as the five steps in Guide 3.
Getting started
Select CCF in the left-hand navigation to open the Corporate Carbon Footprints menu. The main areas are:
Organisational Boundary: your entities, assets and emission sources
Data Management: track and manage every data request
Data Submission: where data owners provide their data
Corporate Emissions: dashboards for your results
Reporting: building disclosures for your compliance and stakeholder purposes
Analytics AI: ask questions about your corporate footprint and data
Use the Organisation and Reporting period selectors at the top right to choose the organisation and year you are working on.
1. Organisational Boundary
Creating the organisational boundary is the first step. It is your map of everything in scope for the CCF.
The Organisational Boundary overview
Go to CCF > Organisational Boundary. You’ll see your entities and the assets (e.g. offices, production sites, or vessels) within them.
At the parent-level, you will be able to see which scopes and categories are deemed to be relevant for your corporate footprint calculation.
Across the organisation you can see the relvant emission sources by selecting an entity or asset.
For each emission source data must be collected and you can see the data owner (the person responsible for providing that data) and the current status of their request, for example “Submitted and under review” or “Not sent”.
This gives you one place to review your entire emissions data map at organisation level, and it sets you up for data collection. You can also choose to give data owners access to the organisational boundary.
2. Data Management
Data Management is where you run data collection. Every request here flows from the organisational boundary: each row is a set of data that needs collecting, with its data owner.
The Data Management dashboard
The dashboard
The tiles at the top give you a real-time view of data collection and show where you need to act:
Tile | What it shows |
Total Requests | All data requests for the selected organisation and period |
Not Sent | Requests that haven’t been sent to the data owner yet |
Pending | Sent requests waiting for the data owner to respond |
Overdue | Requests past their deadline |
Submitted | Data the owner has submitted, ready for review |
Reviewed | Submissions reviewed by a CarbonChain carbon expert |
Completion | How much of the data collection is complete |
Managing requests
The table lists each request by Entity, Scope, Emission source, Data owner, Deadline and Status. The Action button changes with the status:
Send: the request hasn’t gone out yet. Select Send, choose a deadline and confirm. The status changes to Pending and the data owner gets an email.
Remind: the request is pending. Select Remind to send the data owner a reminder email.
Review: the data owner has submitted. Select Review to see what they sent.
Use the filters above the table to narrow the list by Status, Scope & category, Data owner or Deadline, or tick Overdue only. Filtering by data owner is a quick way to see everything one person still needs to provide.
WHY THIS HELPS
Without a tool like this, managing dozens of data requests means emails and spreadsheets, and things get lost easily. Data Management keeps every request, reminder and submission in one place.
3. Data Collection
This section shows the experience from the data owner’s side.
Receiving a request
When you send a request, the data owner receives an email asking them to provide the data. They select the button in the email to open their own personal area of the platform (Data Submission).
A typical data request email received by a data owner
Data owners only see what they need: the data they’ve been asked to provide. They don’t see the full Data Management view. Their personal overview shows their progress (for example, 25% complete) and which requests are still outstanding.
Submitting data
The data owner opens a request and chooses one of two options.
Option 1: Upload a document
Upload any file that contains the data, such as a completed CarbonChain template or an electricity bill. Once it has uploaded, submit it for review.
Option 2: Enter the data manually
Add the period with a start and end date. This can be the full year, or a part of it for owners who prefer to submit monthly or quarterly.
Enter the value.
Say whether the data is primary or secondary, and where it came from.
Attach evidence, such as the electricity bill. Regulations like CSRD require evidence to support reported data.
Add any notes, then save the entry.
Saved entries stay in the data owner’s area, so they can build up monthly or quarterly data over time. When everything is ready, they submit it all for review.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
As data is submitted and reviewed, CarbonChain runs it through our emission calculator. Each activity is matched to our emission intensity database to calculate emissions by scope and category. Our carbon experts check and QA the results, then release them to you in the platform.
4. Analytics
Once your results are released, there are several ways to explore them, depending on what you need from the data.
Corporate Emissions dashboard
Go to Corporate Emissions for a general dashboard of your footprint. It shows:
the breakdown by scope and by entity
what is driving your Scope 1 and 2 emissions
what is driving your Scope 3 emissions
year-on-year comparisons
Custom dashboards
You can create more dashboards to suit your analysis or business needs. For example, an ESG dashboard could show total emissions, emissions intensity, product amounts and emissions by product.
Analytics AI
If you can’t find what you need in a dashboard or report, use Analytics AI. You can interrogate your CCF data in plain language, ask specific questions, or ask it to build charts and tables. For example:
EXAMPLE QUESTION
“What were my most emission-intensive products traded last year?”
5. Reporting
Different audiences and regulations need different reports. The Reporting area covers both.
General CCF report aligned to the GHG Protocol
Under Reporting, create a CCF report tied to the GHG Protocol to share with clients, your bank or anyone else. It gives an overview of your emissions broken down by scope and by category.
Regulation-specific reports
Each regulation asks for something slightly different. CSRD requires Scopes 1, 2 and 3 with the Scope 3 categories, while California’s rules have their own requirements. Rather than rebuilding a report every time, you can use a template that feeds your emissions data straight into the format each regulation expects.
Start a new report and select the entity you want it for.
Choose a template, such as CSRD or California SB 253.
Check the summary, which shows the emissions the report will be based on.
Select Generate report, then choose PDF or Excel.
The report appears at the top of your list alongside previous reports. Open or download it from there.
TRY IT YOURSELF
Existing customers can apply for the CCF early access programme, which includes three weeks of full module access with a named carbon specialist. Contact your Customer Success Manager to find out more.