How to Calculate Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) in SAP Sustainability Control Tower – End-to-End

[YogeshwaranK]

Hello Everyone,

This is my first blog post on SAP Community, and I’m excited to share my hands-on experience with the Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) feature in SAP Sustainability Control Tower.

In this blog, I walk through an end-to-end, practical guide on how organizations can capture, calculate, review, and analyze greenhouse gas emissions using CCF. The focus is on explaining the functional flow, key configuration steps, and how emission results are generated and analyzed within the system.

I hope this guide helps anyone who is getting started with CCF or looking for a clear, structured walkthrough of the feature. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment below.

Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF)

The Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) process in SAP Sustainability Control Tower helps organizations calculate their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions based on business activities across different locations. It uses form-based manual data entry and emission factors to compute and report emissions.

Steps involved in CCF Calculation E2E:

1. Update master data
2. Maintain emission factors
3. Create business activities
4. Create GHG data collections
5. Enter data in forms in the collection apps
6. Review data and send to analytics

 

Update Master Data

Import data into the Legal Entity and Business Location dimensions in the Manage Master Data tile.

When exporting the Business Location template, maintain the ‘Legal Entity’ field to establish a relationship link between the legal entity and the business location.

This relationship is required for the CCF feature.

For further details, refer to:

Update Master Data | SAP Help Portal: https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_SUS_SCT/8aa9148b4141433fa2808f9808b65480/66fd41bbe3a646998146f7ed11f4...

Maintain Emission Factors

Maintaining emission factors is optional but recommended for accurate carbon footprint calculations. Emission factors can be uploaded via file or entered manually and are used to calculate emissions for business activities.

The Manage Emission Factors app provides default data packages from the GHG Emission Factors Hub (U.S. EPA, DEFRA, GLEC, UBA, EMBER), including:

1. EPA-2023
2. EPA-2023-Spend
3. EPA-2024
4. UBA – 2022
5. EMBER_2023
6. DEFER – 2024

If no custom datasets are available, the default packages can be used. However, they primarily cover Scope 1 (Stationary combustion) and Scope 2 (Purchased electricity, steam, and heat) for the United States. Custom emission factor datasets may be required for other locations or scopes.

For further details, refer to:

Maintain Emission Factors | SAP Help Portal: https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_SUS_SCT/8aa9148b4141433fa2808f9808b65480/06ae39b98a3d4789948e81ab8f4ba...

Create Business Activities

This app is used to define business activities (in any GHG category) for which emissions data will be manually collected and calculated. Activities are linked to specific locations and associated with emission factors. Users later enter consumption data (for example, fuel used or distance travelled), and the system calculates emissions based on the maintained setup.

Separate activities must be created for each location and activity type.

For example, to track emissions for air travel across your organization, a separate Air Travel business activity must be created for each location.

Let’s see an E2E example with screenshots.

1. Open the Manage Business Activities tile to create a new activity for calculating emissions at a specific location.
   
   
   
2. Click the Create button to create a new business activity
   
3. Enter the required details. In this example, a new business activity for Air Travel is created under GHG Category Scope 3.6 – Business Travel. The GHG Category field offers a list of available categories along with their supported calculation methods for reference.
   Calculation Methods by GHG Category | SAP Help Portal: https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_SUS_SCT/8aa9148b4141433fa2808f9808b65480/e6790f0245674b89a27397b5d4ae2...
   
   
   
4. Emission factors can change over time. To reflect these changes, Emission Factor Periods are maintained within the Manage Business Activities app.
   
   Each period stores updated emission factors and calculation details for a business activity. During footprint calculation, the system uses the emission factor valid for the relevant period, ensuring accurate and time-specific results. Create Emission Factor Periods by clicking on the Create button.
   
5. When a new emission factor period is created, it defaults to the activity’s end date. For the next emission factor period, enter the new start date — the system automatically updates the previous emission factor period’s end date.
   
6. Under Footprint Details, select the Preferred Footprint Type to define the kind of data users will enter in the Record GHG Data tile.

There are three types:

1. Manual Emission Footprint
2. Quantity-Based
3. Spend-Based

For GHG Category Scope 3.6 – Business Travel, supported calculation methods are Fuel-Based, Distance-Based, and Spend-Based.

1. Quantity-Based and Spend-Based footprints calculate total CO₂e using emission factor data.
2. For Manual Emission Footprints, users enter the total CO₂e directly.

In this example, select Quantity-Based footprint type with Fuel-Based calculation method, choosing Manual Entry as the Data Source.

(This is because default emission factor packages are currently only available for Scope 1 and Scope 2.)

After selecting Manual Entry, enter the emission factor:

1. 2.68 kg CO₂e per liter of fuel.

Note:

1. The entered value represents the total CO₂e produced per quantity.
2. The system uses this to automatically calculate emissions based on the quantities that users record in the Manage GHG Data Collections and Record GHG Data apps.
3. To simplify maintenance, you can use a mass upload feature to import multiple business activity records at once.

For further details, refer to: https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_SUS_SCT/21ecfb83f8d14e5982b7af315da5889a/f8f943508363488ba184965cf4442...

Click Apply to save the details.

Then, click Create button.

Create GHG data collections

Use this app to create a periodic data collection form to capture business activity data for each location within a given period.

The Manage GHG Data Collection app helps in recording footprint data linked to business activities. You create a data collection for the relevant period, and users can enter data through GHG data forms, accessible from both this app and the Record GHG Data app

Let’s see an E2E example with screenshots.

1. After setting up the business activity with the necessary Emission Factor Periods, open the Manage GHG Data Collection app.
2. Click the Create button to create a GHG Data Collection for the relevant period.  
3. Then select the Footprint Inventory Scope is “Default (DEFAULT)” and the relevant period. 
   
4. Then click Create button.
   
5. After creating the new data collection, it appears in the table with the status "In Progress" and 0% Data Recording Completion. Select the created GHG Data Collection to capture business activity data.
   
6. After selecting data collection item in the tables, the GHG Data Collection screen displays general information along with the GHG Data Forms table, which shows all in-scope locations and their data collection progress.

Enter data in forms in the collection apps

1. After selecting a specific location (e.g., Chennai (53002)), you’ll be redirected to the Record GHG Data Form screen, where you can enter GHG data for the selected period and any business activities maintained for that location. Click the Edit button to record GHG Data.
   
2. Enter the quantity of fuel used for the business activity at the selected location, then click the Save button to store the data.
   The value 7.01624 represents the total CO₂e emissions generated from the consumption of 2618 liters of petrol. This result is expressed in metric tons, where 1 ton = 1000 kilograms.
   
   The system used the emission factor of 2.68 kg CO₂e per liter, so:
   2618 liters × 2.68 kg CO₂e/liter = 7016.24 kg CO₂e,
   which is 7.01624 tons CO₂e after converting kilograms to tons.
   
   This calculation helps quantify the carbon footprint based on the amount of fuel used.
   
   
3. You can mark entire locations or specific business activities as Not Applicable if no data needs to be collected for that specific period. These settings are remembered for future collections, reducing repetitive maintenance.
   
    
4. Once all required values are entered, the Data Recording Completion will show 100%, but the status remains In Progress. To finalize the entry, click Set Completed and then Save. The status will change to Completed, and the data becomes available for footprint calculations.

Note: You can still make edits to a form marked as Set Completed or Set Not Applicable by clicking Reopen.

Review data and send to analytics

Step 1: Review and Publish GHG Data

Before GHG data can be analyzed or published in the View Emissions Data app, it must be reviewed and confirmed.

1. Open the Manage GHG Data Collections app.
2. Select the relevant reporting period and business locations.
3. Click Review, enter a comment, and click Confirm.

Once confirmed:

• The Review Status changes to Reviewed.
• Data becomes available in the View Emissions Data app.

Note: If any data is modified after review, the status updates to Outdated, and a re-review is required.

If the review fails, try again.

Note:
Use the Regenerate option when changes are made that affect an existing GHG Data Collection. For example, if new business activities are created after a data collection has already been generated, regenerating the collection updates the data forms to include those new activities. Previously entered data is retained and not lost during regeneration

Step 2: Analyze Recorded GHG Data

Use the View Emissions Data app to analyze the collected and confirmed data.
The Emissions Dashboard provides insights into:

1. Gross GHG Emissions
2. Net Emissions
3. Emissions Avoided by Renewables
4. Offsets

This helps monitor trends and evaluate sustainability performance across locations and periods.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. I hope this end-to-end walkthrough of the Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) feature in SAP Sustainability Control Tower was helpful and provided clarity on how emissions can be captured, calculated, reviewed, and analyzed in the system.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or would like to share your experiences, please feel free to leave a comment below. I’d be happy to engage and learn from the community.

Stay tuned for upcoming blog posts, where I’ll continue sharing practical insights on SAP Sustainability solutions, new features, and technology-focused topics in SAP PaPM Cloud.

[Kauedahora]

This is a super helpful guide, Yogeshwaran. Thank you for putting this together.

The Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) process, especially with its reliance on manual data entry and master data links, can be tricky for new users. Your step-by-step approach really demystifies it.