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SAP EHS Environment Management provides flexibility to collect, calculate and aggregate data in many ways. This enables customers in various industries and regulatory jurisdictions to fulfill their requirements. However, for interoperability it is helpful to have a standardized way to model data.
This document describes a recommended methodology to create an inventory of your greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions so that it is consumable by greenhouse gas related functionality. It comprises the creation and use of EHS locations, compliance requirements, compliance scenarios, and new standard data classifiers in your EHS system.
The functionality that supports this method will be added to this document by their availability.
The data structure outlined below follows best practices from the GHG protocol standard.
Content:
You need to create the following entities in your SAP EHS Environment Management system to manage greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions:
Figure 1 illustrates a simple example containing one plant with one activity emitting GHG gases.
In Environment Management locations specify where emissions are emitted.
The hierarchy for GHG emissions should consist of minimum locations representing the company, countries, and plants.
The assignment of the location properties (like company code, org, unit, cost center, etc.) should be driven by the logic of the required report output. You must ensure the assignment is maintained for the levels of the location hierarchy that will be queried for the GHG emissions calculations.
On top of the location hierarchy is a location for the company, that is assigned to the company code. Underneath the company there are locations for each country with the company code and country assigned. Plants and sites with the company code, country code and the plant id assigned are below their country of location.
Depending on your needs, you can also assign further location properties like org unit or cost center and have more levels in your hierarchy.
Assign emissions to their most specific location to enable detailed analysis:
The calculation of GHG emissions should be set up according to regulatory requirements. For example, regulation “Title 40 Part 98: Mandatory GHG Reporting” for the United States of America. These regulations contain regulatory lists with tables for global warming potentials, average high heating values, general emission factors, and equations. Using the compliance requirements will optimize the setup of the calculations for your emission data, and it will allow you to reuse the setup (emission factors and equations) for multiple scenarios.
If you have no specific regulatory requirements, it is recommended to:
It is recommended to create a compliance scenario for each GHG relevant activity. The compliance scenario will allow you to link all relevant objects for the emission calculation and to centralize the setup of all needed activities. Within the compliance scenario:
You create a data collection for either manual or automated collection of the source values, and a calculation to calculate the CO2 equivalent.
Build up the calculations based on your regulatory requirements or based on standard equations. Use emission factors and global warming potentials from the compliance requirement (regulation or company policy). Make sure to use the right units of measure.
If data needs to be maintained on a more granular level than plant, aggregate data to the plant level for consumption.
In case data is already pre-calculated, create data collection activities for CO2 equivalents only.
Find the list of standard data classifiers for the use with GHG emissions in “Appendix A: Data Classifiers”. These classifiers need to be created exactly with the given ID. You only need to create the data classifiers that are relevant for your use case.
All values from calculation results, data collections or aggregations that shall be recognized as GHG emissions need to follow these rules:
Data from activities that do not comply with these rules are ignored by GHG related applications.
The following information can be specified using additional pre-defined data classifiers:
You will find the list of pre-defined classifiers in the Appendix. Which classifiers are supported depends on the respective consuming application.
More information can be given using custom classifiers that need configuration in the consuming applications, for example:
Instead of creating one calculation for the CO2 equivalent, you provide calculations of the CO2 equivalents for each specific gas.
To be able to distinguish the different classes, you need to create a classifier for each GHG gas, as shown in the following example:
Note: If you have a calculation summing up the CO2 equivalents for all gases, it must not have any GHG classifier to avoid double counting.
If the specific GHG gases should be reported, use the following settings for the calculations:
Example:
Creating Activities for Offset Offset can be maintained as data collections on the appropriate location level. In most cases the country where the offset was realized.
The following settings shall be made:
If GHG emissions are maintained in a deep location hierarchy, aggregation on plant / site level can be useful. Especially, if data is calculated with a different periodicity than used for GHG reporting.
There are two options:
You need to create one aggregation using a distinct classifier for each activity, for example “Office Heating”. As aggregations require that classifiers be explicitly set to “No” or “Yes” for all activities of child locations with the same subject, periodicity, and unit of measure, this might be a significant effort if there are many kinds of activities.
For all activities that should be aggregated:
Assign a custom classifier for the type of GHG activity:
Note (*): Location aggregation activities use data classifiers to select data for aggregation. These classifiers must be different from the classifiers used for GHG activities. Using the same classifiers leads to double counting of the aggregation result and the aggregated data.
For locations of type Plant or Site:
Data classifiers for Greenhouse Gas Management are not part of the SAP standard delivery. They are available as example content in the GitHub repository for Environment Management examples (https://github.com/SAP-samples/ehs-environment-management-samples), sub folder greenhouse-gas-management/classifiers. You can import them to your S/4HANA system using the Data Migration Cockpit.
Please note that classifier names are always in English and must not be changed, but you can add translations for descriptions in your desired language.
Use exactly one data classifier per GHG activity out of this list:
This is an example of how to set up a calculation for reporting individual gases. Each gas is identified by a classifier. There is no pre-defined set of classifiers as they depend on your individual needs.
This document describes a recommended methodology to create an inventory of your greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions so that it is consumable by greenhouse gas related functionality. It comprises the creation and use of EHS locations, compliance requirements, compliance scenarios, and new standard data classifiers in your EHS system.
The functionality that supports this method will be added to this document by their availability.
The data structure outlined below follows best practices from the GHG protocol standard.
Content:
- Preparing Environment Management for GHG Management
- Overview
- Creating the Location Hierarchy
- Creating Compliance Requirements
- Creating Compliance Scenarios
- Creating Standard Data Classifiers
- Creating Activities for GHG Emissions
- Providing Additional Information for GHG Emissions
- Reporting Contribution to CO2 Equivalent by Specific GHG Gases
- Reporting Specific GHG Gases
- Using Aggregations
- Appendix A: Data Classifiers
- Main Data Classifiers
- Data Classifiers for Carbon Origin
- Data Classifiers for Scope 1 Source Categories
- Data Classifiers for Scope 2 Energy Carriers
- Data Classifiers for Scope 3 Sub Categories
- Appendix B: Using Classifiers for Individual Gases
- Appendix C: Change Log
Preparing Environment Management for GHG Management
Overview
You need to create the following entities in your SAP EHS Environment Management system to manage greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions:
- A hierarchy of locations for your company including locations for countries and plants
- Compliance requirements with regulatory lists of global warming potentials (GWPs), emission factors and if needed equations.
- Compliance scenarios for your plants with activities for their GHG emissions.
- Data classifiers for use with GHG activities.
- Activities to collect source data, calculate and aggregate GHG emissions.
Figure 1 illustrates a simple example containing one plant with one activity emitting GHG gases.
Figure 1
Creating the Location Hierarchy
In Environment Management locations specify where emissions are emitted.
The hierarchy for GHG emissions should consist of minimum locations representing the company, countries, and plants.
The assignment of the location properties (like company code, org, unit, cost center, etc.) should be driven by the logic of the required report output. You must ensure the assignment is maintained for the levels of the location hierarchy that will be queried for the GHG emissions calculations.
On top of the location hierarchy is a location for the company, that is assigned to the company code. Underneath the company there are locations for each country with the company code and country assigned. Plants and sites with the company code, country code and the plant id assigned are below their country of location.
Depending on your needs, you can also assign further location properties like org unit or cost center and have more levels in your hierarchy.
Assign emissions to their most specific location to enable detailed analysis:
| Level | Location Type | Assigned Corporate Entities | Usage |
| 1 | Company | Company Code | Emissions not assignable to a specific country only |
| 2 | Country | Company Code, Country | Emissions not assignable to a specific plant / site only |
| 3 | Plant / Site | Company Code, Country, Plant Id (Optional: Org Unit, Address, Cost Center) | Emissions assignable to a plant / site or aggregated from below |
| 4 | Other (Equipment, etc.) | - | Emissions to be aggregated by a plant / site |
Creating Compliance Requirements
The calculation of GHG emissions should be set up according to regulatory requirements. For example, regulation “Title 40 Part 98: Mandatory GHG Reporting” for the United States of America. These regulations contain regulatory lists with tables for global warming potentials, average high heating values, general emission factors, and equations. Using the compliance requirements will optimize the setup of the calculations for your emission data, and it will allow you to reuse the setup (emission factors and equations) for multiple scenarios.
If you have no specific regulatory requirements, it is recommended to:
- Create a compliance requirement of type Policy containing your emission factors for either CO2 equivalents or for the individual GHG gases (CO2, CH4, ...).
- Use the delivered table for global warming potentials (GWP).
Creating Compliance Scenarios
It is recommended to create a compliance scenario for each GHG relevant activity. The compliance scenario will allow you to link all relevant objects for the emission calculation and to centralize the setup of all needed activities. Within the compliance scenario:
You create a data collection for either manual or automated collection of the source values, and a calculation to calculate the CO2 equivalent.
Build up the calculations based on your regulatory requirements or based on standard equations. Use emission factors and global warming potentials from the compliance requirement (regulation or company policy). Make sure to use the right units of measure.
If data needs to be maintained on a more granular level than plant, aggregate data to the plant level for consumption.
In case data is already pre-calculated, create data collection activities for CO2 equivalents only.
Creating Standard Data Classifiers
Find the list of standard data classifiers for the use with GHG emissions in “Appendix A: Data Classifiers”. These classifiers need to be created exactly with the given ID. You only need to create the data classifiers that are relevant for your use case.
Creating Activities for GHG Emissions
All values from calculation results, data collections or aggregations that shall be recognized as GHG emissions need to follow these rules:
- Use Listed Substance L00000275188 (Carbon Dioxide Equivalent) as subject.
- Set the unit of measure to metric tons (t). Do a conversion if required.
- Set exactly one out of the list of data classifiers for the GHG scope: “Scope 1”, "Scope 2 Location-based", "Scope 2 Market-based", or “Scope 3”
- For scope 2 emissions only: You must provide an activity for both location-based ("Scope 2 Location-based") and market-based ("Scope 2 Market-based") methods. If you have only the values for one method, you need a 2nd activity with the same values, for example using a calculation, otherwise those emissions would be missing when calculating the totals.
- The periodicity should be either “monthly”, “quarterly” or “yearly”. It is recommended to use data sets with the same periodicity for all GHG activities when extracting/querying the data to have consistent reporting.Note: SAP Control Tower can only consume “monthly”, “quarterly” and “yearly” data.
Data from activities that do not comply with these rules are ignored by GHG related applications.
Providing Additional Information for GHG Emissions
The following information can be specified using additional pre-defined data classifiers:
- Source categories for Scope 1
- Energy carriers for Scope 2
- Sub categories for Scope 3
- Offsets
- Carbon origin
You will find the list of pre-defined classifiers in the Appendix. Which classifiers are supported depends on the respective consuming application.
More information can be given using custom classifiers that need configuration in the consuming applications, for example:
- Gas type
- Energy source
- Activity Type
Reporting Contribution to CO2 Equivalent by Specific GHG Gases
Instead of creating one calculation for the CO2 equivalent, you provide calculations of the CO2 equivalents for each specific gas.
To be able to distinguish the different classes, you need to create a classifier for each GHG gas, as shown in the following example:
| Variable | Subject | Classifiers (Examples) |
| CO2E_CO2 | Carbon Dioxide Equivalent | · Scope 1 · S1 Stationary Combustion · CO2 |
| CO2E_CH4 | Carbon Dioxide Equivalent | · Scope 1 · S1 Stationary Combustion · CH4 |
| CO2E_N2O | Carbon Dioxide Equivalent | · Scope 1 · S1 Stationary Combustion · N2O |
Note: If you have a calculation summing up the CO2 equivalents for all gases, it must not have any GHG classifier to avoid double counting.
Reporting Specific GHG Gases
If the specific GHG gases should be reported, use the following settings for the calculations:
- Use the Listed Substance for the GHG gas (for example “Carbon Dioxide”, “Methane” or “Nitrous Oxide”) as subject.
- Set the unit of measure to metric tons (t). Do a conversion, if required.
- Set exactly one out of the list of data classifiers for the GHG scope: “Scope 1”, “Scope 2 Location-based”, "Scope 2 Market-based" or “Scope 3”
- The periodicity must be either “monthly”, “quarterly”, or “yearly”. It is recommended to use the same periodicity for all GHG activities to have consistent reporting.
Example:
| Variable | Subject | Classifiers (Examples) |
| CO2 | Carbon Dioxide | · Scope 1 · S1 Stationary Combustion |
| CH4 | Methane | · Scope 1 · S1 Stationary Combustion |
| N2O | Nitrous Oxide | · Scope 1 · S1 Stationary Combustion |
Offsets
Creating Activities for Offset Offset can be maintained as data collections on the appropriate location level. In most cases the country where the offset was realized.
The following settings shall be made:
- Use the amount of compensated CO2 equivalent as positive value.
- Use the subject Listed Substance L00000275188 (Carbon Dioxide Equivalent)
- Set the unit of measure to metric tons (t).
- Set exactly one out of the list of data classifiers for the GHG scope: “Offset Scope 1”, “Offset Scope 2”, or “Offset Scope 3” depending on the GHG scope that is offset.
- The periodicity must be either “monthly”, “quarterly”, or “yearly”. It is recommended to use the same periodicity for all GHG activities to have consistent reporting.
Using Aggregations
If GHG emissions are maintained in a deep location hierarchy, aggregation on plant / site level can be useful. Especially, if data is calculated with a different periodicity than used for GHG reporting.
There are two options:
- Aggregation of source data: If there a several sub locations with the same source data and they use the same GHG calculation, the calculation can be done on plant / site level based on aggregated source data. If feasible, this setup is recommended.
- Aggregation of calculated data:
You need to create one aggregation using a distinct classifier for each activity, for example “Office Heating”. As aggregations require that classifiers be explicitly set to “No” or “Yes” for all activities of child locations with the same subject, periodicity, and unit of measure, this might be a significant effort if there are many kinds of activities.
For all activities that should be aggregated:
Assign a custom classifier for the type of GHG activity:
| Variable | Classifiers (Example) |
| CO2E | “Aggregate Office Heating” – Do not use any of the standard classifiers like “Scope 1”, “Scope 2”, “Scope 3”, or “Offset”. (*) |
Note (*): Location aggregation activities use data classifiers to select data for aggregation. These classifiers must be different from the classifiers used for GHG activities. Using the same classifiers leads to double counting of the aggregation result and the aggregated data.
For locations of type Plant or Site:
- Create a Compliance Scenario for the GHG activity.
- In the Compliance Scenario, create a Location Aggregation selecting all data with your custom classifier (for example “Aggregate Office Heating”).
- In the Compliance Scenario, create a Calculation for the desired target periodicity (e.g., yearly) summing up the data from the classifier.
- Configure the calculation as described in Creating Activities for GHG Emissions.
Appendix A: Data Classifiers
Data classifiers for Greenhouse Gas Management are not part of the SAP standard delivery. They are available as example content in the GitHub repository for Environment Management examples (https://github.com/SAP-samples/ehs-environment-management-samples), sub folder greenhouse-gas-management/classifiers. You can import them to your S/4HANA system using the Data Migration Cockpit.
Please note that classifier names are always in English and must not be changed, but you can add translations for descriptions in your desired language.
Main Data Classifiers
Use exactly one data classifier per GHG activity out of this list:
| Usage | Data Classifier ID | Data Classifier Description |
| Scope 1 GHG Emissions | Scope 1 | GHG Scope 1 |
| Scope 2 GHG Emissions using location-based method | Scope 2 Location-based | GHG Scope 2 Location-based |
| Scope 2 GHG Emissions using market-based method | Scope 2 Market-based | GHG Scope 2 Market-based |
| Scope 3 GHG Emissions | Scope 3 | GHG Scope 3 |
| Offsets from projects to offset Scope 1 emissions | Offsets - Scope 1 | GHG Offsets for Scope 1 |
| Offsets from projects to offset Scope 2 emissions | Offsets - Scope 2 | GHG Offsets for Scope 2 |
| Offsets from projects to offset Scope 3 emissions | Offsets - Scope 3 | GHG Offsets for Scope 3 |
Data Classifiers for Carbon Origin
| Data Classifier ID | Data Classifier Description |
| No classifier needed for fossil origin | |
| Biogenic | GHG Emissions from Biogenic Sources |
Data Classifiers for Scope 1 Source Categories
| GHG Scope | Classifier ID | Data Classifier Description |
| 1 | S1 Stationary Combustion | GHG Scope 1 - Stationary Combustion |
| 1 | S1 Mobile Combustion | GHG Scope 1 - Mobile Combustion |
| 1 | S1 Fugitive Emissions | GHG Scope 1 - Fugitive Emissions |
| 1 | S1 Process Emissions | GHG Scope 1 - Process Emissions |
Data Classifiers for Scope 2 Energy Carriers
| GHG Scope | Classifier ID | Data Classifier Description |
| 2 | S2 Purchased Electricity | GHG Scope 2 - Purchased Electricity |
| 2 | S2 Purchased Heating | GHG Scope 2 - Purchased Heating |
| 2 | S2 Purchased Steam | GHG Scope 2 - Purchased Stream |
| 2 | S2 Purchased Cooling | GHG Scope 2 - Purchased Cooling |
Data Classifiers for Scope 3 Sub Categories
| GHG Scope | Classifier ID | Data Classifier Description |
| 3 | S3.1 Purchased Goods And Srvs | GHG Scope 3.1 - Purchased Goods and Services |
| 3 | S3.2 Capital Goods | GHG Scope 3.2 - Capital Goods |
| 3 | S3.3 Fuel And Engy Rel Activts | GHG Scope 3.3 - Fuel- and Energy-related Activities Not Included in Scope 1 or 2 |
| 3 | S3.4 Upstream Transp And Distr | GHG Scope 3.4 - Upstream Transportation and Distribution |
| 3 | S3.5 Waste Generated In Ops | GHG Scope 3.5 - Waste Generated in Operations |
| 3 | S3.6 Business Travel | GHG Scope 3.6 - Business Travel |
| 3 | S3.7 Employee Commuting | GHG Scope 3.7 - Employee Commuting |
| 3 | S3.8 Upstream Leased Assets | GHG Scope 3.8 - Upstream Leased Assets |
| 3 | S3.9 Downstream Transp And Dis | GHG Scope 3.9 - Downstream Transportation and Distribution |
| 3 | S3.10 Processing Of Sold Prods | GHG Scope 3.10 Processing of Sold Products |
| 3 | S3.11 Use Of Sold Products | GHG Scope 3.11 - Use of Sold Products |
| 3 | S3.12 EoL Treatm Of Sold Prods | GHG Scope 3.12 - End-of-Life Treatment of Sold Products |
| 3 | S3.13 Downstream Leased Assets | GHG Scope 3.13 - Downstream Leased Assets |
| 3 | S3.14 Franchises | GHG Scope 3.14 - Franchises |
| 3 | S3.15 Investments | GHG Scope 3.15 - Investments |
Appendix B: Using Classifiers for Individual Gases
This is an example of how to set up a calculation for reporting individual gases. Each gas is identified by a classifier. There is no pre-defined set of classifiers as they depend on your individual needs.
| Variable | Expression | Listed Substance (Subject) | Classifier IDs |
| CO2 | Carbon Dioxide | Scope 1 | |
| CH4 | 0.001*FUEL*HHV*EF_CH4 | Methane | Scope 1 |
| N2O | 0.001*FUEL*HHV*EF_N2O | Nitrous Oxide | Scope 1 |
| CO2E_CO2 | CO2*1 | Carbone Dioxide Equivalent | Scope 1, CO2 |
| CO2E_CH4 | CH4*GWP_CH4 | Carbone Dioxide Equivalent | Scope 1, CH4 |
| CO2E_N2O | N2O*GWP_N2O | Carbone Dioxide Equivalent | Scope 1, N2O |
| CO2E | CO2E_CO2+CO2E_CH4+CO2E_N2O | Carbone Dioxide Equivalent |
Appendix C: Change Log
| Date | Description |
| 2023-10-11 | Added information that offset should have positive values |
| 2023-07-25 | Some data classifier IDs for scope 3 sub categories were too long. They have been abbreviated to fit in the 30 characters limit. |
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