eco.income engineering | climate impact management for mid-sized companies

Would you manage 1.55°C, compliant with a still stable world?

If we are honest, we recognize that unfortunately we have just exhausted the emission budget for the 1.5°C limit and thus are about to exceed several climate tipping points. This would lead to additional global warming and thus more catastrophic consequences for human civilization. Long-term, we can even be catapulted irreversibly into a nightmarish 3°C+ world.

It is therefore essentiell to follow a course that only minimally exceeds 1.5°C. To do this, companies must produce more sustainably and, in particular, purchase more sustainably. And they need to be able to clearly understand their contribution to global warming - with a simple °C figure.

Here you will find our video
‍"eco.income - Climate Footprint management for a bright future"
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Customer testimonials

ionio GmbH

We were convinced by the fact that it is a scientifically sound and comparatively simple, consumption-based accounting approach. We also like the climate impact in degrees Celsius, which indicates the rise in temperature if all companies were to behave like ours.

Martin Grotzke, Co-Owner

Netzvitamine GmbH

eco.income prepared a carbon footprint for the DSTCMP - the think space for decision-makers in German-speaking tourism - in 2023. Thanks to the structured query of the required data (all that was needed was an export of the corresponding expenditure from the accounting software), our effort was very manageable and targeted. Based on this, Jurij Peters and his team produced a well-founded analysis including Scope 3 emissions. The “hotspots” of the industry meeting from a climate perspective were easily identified and the results helped us to take appropriate measures for subsequent years in order to achieve an even better carbon footprint.

Benjamin Buhl, Managing Director

elbdudler GmbH

The right choice for us as an SME to know our certified climate footprint. A clear tool, competent contacts and uncomplicated cooperation that we can only recommend.

Christopher Rohs, Managing Director

Impact Hub Hamburg GmbH

eco.income helped us understand our carbon footprint based on our financial transactions. The team was knowledgeable, thorough, patient, and the analysis provided valuable help in identifying areas where we can become more climate conscious. Highly recommended!

Boris Kozlowski, Ex Co-Founder & Co-Managing Director

Basis: the eco.income Climate Footprint Index

Our index is a world-leading index solution for calculating the entire climate impact of our purchases and consumption based on payment transactions. The underlying calculation method is science-driven and the process for determining greenhouse gas emissions has been verified by TÜV Rheinland. Our calculations and reporting for companies are furthermore in compliance with the international GHG protocol standard.

The special feature: we use - not territorial-based accounting (TBA), but - consumption-based accounting (CBA) and allocate GHG emissions globally across borders to those who demand them. In this way, we take into account the fact that GHG emissions that occur elsewhere in the world but are demanded and consumed in Germany e.g. (embedded in imported products and goods), are also included in the emission factors in Germany according to their cause.
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For this we use the most sophisticated methods and databases. We use a hybrid model of input-output analysis and life cycle assessment to generate our index: the GHG intensities (kg CO2e / unit of currency) for 40+ spend categories, for 40+ countries. We map the index to the suppliers or the required category tree of our customers.

The hybrid model - in a little more detail
In the top-down approach, we use Environmentally-extended Multi-regional Input Output Analysis (EE-MRIOA), in combination with the leading database EXIOBASE. With this, we determine the average GHG intensities per country per category using CBA logic. Here, we analyze a country's economy by economic sector and product group as part of the complex global trade. We take into account 1) ALL global financial flows and GHG emissions associated with the production and trade of goods and purchase of services across borders, 2) in a consistent manner (harmonized raw data in Exiobase), and 3) finally allocate with Input Output Analysis the financial and GHG flows along the production and supply chains to the final procurement and consumption of economic agents.

‍In the bottom-up approach, we use a life cycle assessment (LCA) logic. We use this for direct GHG emissions, e.g. from the combustion of gasoline in cars or natural gas in businesses/households, since they are not included in the input-output databases. And especially for determining the expression of habit modifiers, to distinguish from averages (e.g. "sometimes sustainable" in the category electronics ). This makes the calculations more accurate without going on product level.
But we also go on product level if needed. We can replace average GHG intensities with specific ones by looking at invoices from our B2B customers and using GHG factors from leading "botton-up" databases such as ecoinvent for the products and services listed there.

Extrapolation, updates, benchmarking
Our model is based on a complex, non-linear, weighted chain of extrapolations, which means that we do not rely solely on the publication of new data and provide updated GHG intensities annually. To ensure quality, we regularly benchmark our model at the micro level, i.e. we compare our category-based calculations to actual product-level results. In addition, we perform macro-level benchmarking, i.e. we scale our index to national GHG emissions - with national expenditures - and compare it to official sources such as the European Environment Agency (EEA).

Take a look at our beginnings

In 2020 we laid the methodological foundation for consumption-based accounting with a master thesis. We will be happy to send you an excerpt (in German).

Download excerpt of Master Thesis

Competitive advantage for mid-sized companies with the main sustainability KPI, a °C figure

Would you manage 1.55°C, compliant with a still stable world?

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