European Union directive will require corporate carbon accounting

As a deadline nears for large companies doing business in the European Union (EU) to report their greenhouse gas emissions, an increasing number of technology vendors are launching carbon-tracking tools.

The regulation known as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will take effect in June 2024, requiring some 50,000 companies doing business within the European Union (EU) to report annually on their past and present greenhouse gas emissions. The directive is an expansion of an existing rule called the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD), which affects some 11,000 companies.

Beginning in 12 months, those affected will be companies based in the EU that meet two of three conditions: $43 million in revenue, $21 million in assets, or 250 and more employees. In addition, non-EU companies that have revenue over $160 million in the EU will also have to comply, according to Normative.io, a Swedish company that provides carbon accounting software.

But whether they’re affected by CSRD or are simply trying to follow their own internal environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals, many companies struggle to produce clear, accurate environmental reporting. So providers are starting to design tools that track the environmental impact of logistics.

For example, this week the parcel carrier FedEx Corp. launched a tool that tracks emissions information for each package moving through its network. Likewise, supply chain visibility provider FourKites provides a Sustainability Hub, which allows users to track, analyze, and report on the environmental impact of their supply chain logistics operations. And Shippeo, a provider of multimodal shipment visibility, provides a CO2 emissions calculator that gives information on carbon emissions and other greenhouse gasses from supply chain transport and distribution for shippers, logistics service providers, and carriers. 

And on Thursday, nShift, a British vendor of parcel delivery management and shipment software, launched a similar product called Emissions Tracker. nShift says its new solution helps e-commerce companies and warehouses calculate, record, and analyze greenhouse gas emissions for every shipment, so they can comply with environmental reporting requirements or pinpoint opportunities for emissions reduction. The tool works through a single portal, eliminating the need to access multiple systems and reports from different carriers.

"Transport is responsible for a quarter of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions,” Mattias Gredenhag, CTO at nShift , said in a release. “New regulations will require companies to be more on top of their sustainability efforts than ever before. For retailers, e-commerce businesses, and warehouses, this means having real data on their emissions readily available.”