Calculate emissions by using IEA emission factors

Note

This feature is included in Microsoft Sustainability Manager Premium.

In Microsoft Sustainability Manager, you can calculate emissions by using International Energy Agency (IEA) emission factors. When your organization uses IEA emission factors, it gains a better understanding of the carbon footprint of electricity generation and can develop strategies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These reports can also help your organization with regulatory compliance, risk management, and cost reduction.

Sustainability Manager includes IEA factor sets for the years 2015-2022.

Restrictions

You can use the IEA factor library alongside all other emission factor libraries. Use it similarly to how you use other factor libraries in Sustainability Manager. However, IEA license restrictions limit their use in the following ways:

  • You can see the factor names, but the user interface doesn't display factor values.
  • You can't see the factor values, but you can use them in calculations.
  • You can only see the factor values when you download them in PDF format.
  • You can only see in your PDF document the factor values that you used in calculations.

You must read and adhere carefully to the license agreement terms as described in the downloaded PDF with the factor values.

Prerequisites

  • Only an environment administrator can deploy the factors from the Power Platform admin center to Sustainability Manager.

  • Any Sustainability Manager user can use the factors in their calculations.

Deploy the IEA factors library

Follow the instructions in the Load emission factor libraries section to download the IEA emission factors library.

Use the IEA factors library

  1. Ensure that your country/region of interest is available in the IEA emission factors library.

    Note

    IEA country/region names might differ from the ISO 3166 format.

  2. If needed, create custom factor mappings to align your data to the factor name or refer to the factor explicitly in your calculation model.

  3. Create a calculation model that references the library and specific factor.

  4. Create a calculation profile and run it.

  5. To retrieve the factors, export them to PDF.

    Important

    You can only access factor values for auditing or verification by exporting to PDF.

Example: Generate a PDF for Canada

In this example, you already downloaded the IEA emission factors from the Power Platform admin center. You want to generate a PDF for Canada.

Step 1: Verify that Canada is available in the IEA emission factors library

  1. On the navigation pane under Calculations, select Factor libraries.

  2. On the All factor libraries page, select IEA 2021 Emission Factors, rel 2024.

  3. On the IEA 2021 Emission Factors, rel 2024 page, select the Emission factors tab. Canada appears in the list.

  4. To view the emission factor, select Canada.

    Screenshot showing that Canada appears in the IEA emission factor library.

Step 2: Create a custom factor mapping if needed

  1. Go back to the IEA 2021 Emission Factors, rel 2024 page.

  2. Select the Factor mappings tab. Canada already appears in the factor mappings list, so you don't need to create a custom factor mapping.

    Screenshot showing factor mappings for Canada.

Step 3: Create a calculation model

  1. In the navigation pane under Calculations, select Models.

  2. Select New.

  3. For the Source block, enter these values:

    Field Value
    Category name Purchased Electricity by Country/Region
    Module Carbon activities
    Activity data Purchased electricity
    Calculation method IEA 2021 Emission Factors, rel 2024
    Documentation reference https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/data-product/emissions-factors-2023

  4. Add a Report block with these values:

    Field Value
    Category name Report by IEA Factors
    Emission report value Quantity
    Unit Quantity unit
    Emission factor library IEA 2021 Emission Factors, rel 2024
    Emission factor Country/Region

    Screenshot showing the calculation model for the IEA emission factor.

  5. Select Save.

Step 4: Create a calculation profile

  1. In the navigation pane under Calculations, select Calculation profiles.

  2. Select New.

  3. On the Calculation profile set up pane, enter these values:

    Field Value
    Calculation profile name Purchased Electricity by Country/Region
    Module Carbon activities
    Emissions source Purchased electricity
    IPCC Assessment Report version AR6(IEA) (Contains GWP as 1 as IEA provides emission factor values for individual gases in CO₂ equivalent)
    Activity data to include in calculation Set Field to Connection, Operator to Equals, and Value to the data you want to filter it to.
    Calculation model Purchased Electricity by Country

  4. Select the calculation profile, and then select Run calculation. This step can take some time, depending on how many activities it needs to process.

  5. Select Next.

  6. Select Save.

Step 5: Export the emission factors to PDF

  1. On the navigation pane under Calculations, select Factor libraries.

  2. On the All factor libraries page, select IEA 2021 Emission Factors, rel 2024.

  3. On IEA 2021 Emission Factors, rel 2024, select the Emission factors tab.

  4. Select Export to PDF.

    Screenshot showing how to export the emission factors to PDF.

  5. Review the usage terms and view your results.

    Screenshot showing the IEA PDF report.

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