Adding an Investment Card
Continia Sustainability includes a default feature for investment emissions, allowing companies to include a wide range of emissions associated with investments made throughout the reporting year. This category, as outlined by the GHG Protocol, applies to both public and private investors, as well as financial service providers, such as banks, including those with non-profit motives.
Scope
The allocation of the emissions for this category depends on how the company defines its organizational boundaries and the type of investment itself. The GHG Protocol identifies four main types:
- Equity investments
- Debt Investments
- Project Finance
- Managed investments and client services
The emissions related to investment could then either be accounted for in Scope 1 and 2 or Scope 3, Category 15. For further information, refer to the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard – Category 15.
To gather the data
Companies have two methods at their disposal for collecting and recording investment data:
- Investment-specific method - this approach entails gathering scope 1 and scope 2 emissions directly from the investee company and then allocating these emissions based on the proportion of investment. The emissions are determined by the investor's ownership stake in the investee company. If scope 3 emissions are substantial compared to other sources, investors should also include these emissions in their calculations.
- Average-data method - in this method, revenue data is combined with Environmentally Extended Input-Output (EEIO) data to estimate scope 1 and scope 2 emissions from the investee company. The emissions are then allocated based on the share of investment. The reporting company should collect information on:
- The sector(s) in which the investee company operates.
- The revenue of the investee company (if it operates in multiple sectors, revenue data should be collected for each sector).
- The investor’s proportional share of equity in the investee.
To add an investment card
Once you've established protocols for gathering data to track emissions from investments, you can integrate investment cards. These cards offer flexibility in categorizing investment activities with the desired granularity. For example, you can create broad categories encompassing all emissions related to different types of investments (e.g., renewable energy projects, infrastructure development) or you can delve into specific investment parameters such as duration, financial contribution, and project type.
Providing detailed information through investment cards facilitates a comprehensive assessment and enables proactive measures to optimize investment decisions, choose more sustainable projects, and reduce emissions associated with investment activities.
To add an investment card:
Use the
icon, enter Investments, and select the related link.On the action bar, select New.
On the Investment Card, you can now enter information for, for example, the account type and the Emission Factor Set that you want to connect your data to. Make sure to select the correct investment category in the Type field. By specifying the investment type as proposed by the GHG protocol (equity, debt, project), the system can allocate the associated emissions.
Once in use, the card also shows you the total accumulated carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions balance, the last data modified, and so on. For more information on how to fill out these fields, refer to The Fields on the Environmental Account Card article.
After adding the relevant categories of investments, the main page will provide an overview of the types and emissions balance, among other details. This page can be particularly useful for analyzing how various item types or suppliers impact your company’s footprint and help you better manage each of them.