Demand for climate reporting is snowballing. Over US$67 trillion in market capitalisation voluntarily disclose their emissions, and 50,000 companies will be required to report their emissions by the EU CSRD.

Companies of all shapes and sizes want to take control of their carbon footprint, including your customers. This means we have to make carbon accounting accessible — to everyone.

But how?

Making carbon accounting accessible using spend-based calculations

Spend-based calculations are the most accessible way to measure emissions. Spend data is readily available — every company tracks its finances, and we can enrich this data to calculate emissions.

This means that when spend management providers and banks partner with Lune, end-users can track their finances and emissions through their provider.

Traditionally with this method, the emitting activity is often lost behind merchant category codes (MCCs). Payment companies use these codes to classify merchants and businesses by the type of goods or services provided. 

This means, the emissions of £754.36 spent on a business trip is calculated, regardless of what items are bought.

It’s a start. And while it’s accepted by the GHG Protocol (the international standard for carbon accounting) as a method for calculating emissions, it lacks the granularity needed to drive meaningful decarbonisation.

Only granular, accurate emissions tracking can inform effective emission reduction — and end-users, keen to take climate action, value this detail.

How does it work?

Mo is sales rep at ACME Construction. They have just booked a business trip to London via booking.com.

1. Mo submits their invoice to their expense management provider. The invoice data is extracted using OCR, and then all the information is sent to Lune via an API.
2. Lune automatically identifies line-item data, uses AI to match each item with the most relevant emission factor, and then calculates the emissions.
3. These accurate calculations are then returned to Mo’s expense management provider.
4. Lune also amalgamates these calculations so they can be used for ESG reporting and compliance with the EU CSRD, for example.

Stand out in a crowded market with emission reporting

With Lune’s new emissions intelligence, accounting, spend management, and banking platforms can differentiate themselves in a crowded market using carbon accounting. By effortlessly offering more accurate emission tracking they can empower their end-users to report a more holistic and accurate carbon footprint. Which in turn grows product stickiness and unlocks a new revenue stream.  

Case study: 200+ Payhawk clients adopt new emission reporting feature in 6 months

It’s a quick win, for you and the planet. To learn more about embedding emissions tracking into your platform, request a demo.