The best carbon footprint software in 2025: how to choose the ideal solution for your business

Whether it is to carry out their carbon footprint, to comply with the CSRD or to meet the requirements of their partners, it is becoming essential for companies to equip themselves with an effective carbon footprint software to support them and facilitate their task.

For this, an RFP (Request for Proposal) or call for tenders is an effective starting point that allows companies to clarify their needs and structure their expectations in order to choose the tool that best suits them.

So how can you be sure of selecting the right platform to manage your decarbonization strategy and extra-financial reporting? What are your needs? What are your selection criteria? What are the key features that you must have? All the answers in this article!

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The fundamentals of the carbon balance

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The different carbon balance methodologies

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The carbon footprint is an essential tool for measuring an organization's carbon footprint at a given time, thus making it possible to draw up an inventory of its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The term “carbon balance” actually refers to a methodology developed in 2004 by the government and Ademe, now supported by the Association for the Low-Carbon Transition (ABC).

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Although the Bilan Carbone® has become the reference in France, there are other methodologies, such as the greenhouse gas balance (BEGES), mandatory for companies with more than 500 employees in mainland France (250 overseas) and communities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. Two other international methodologies have also emerged, such as the GHG Protocol and the ISO 14069 standard.

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Before choosing carbon assessment software, it is therefore crucial to check that it is compatible with these main methodologies, for a reliable and compliant measurement of the carbon footprint. The Sami platform and our consultants know how to juggle these various methodologies and adapt them according to your specific needs and requests.

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Scopes 1, 2 and 3

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According to the main methodologies for calculating emissions, such as the Bilan Carbone® and the GHG Protocol, a company's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are classified into three categories, called scopes 1, 2 and 3.

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• The Scope 1 covers direct emissions resulting from activities that are under the direct control of the company. This is the case for emissions from gas-fired space heating or from the fuel used by company vehicles.
• The Scope 2 concerns indirect emissions related to energy (in particular electricity consumption.)
• Finally, the Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions, including the purchase of raw materials, business trips or the transport of goods. This last scope often represents the largest portion of a company's emissions, reaching up to 95% of total emissions.

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Measuring these emissions, especially those in scope 3, requires a rigorous and exhaustive collection of data, because the precision of this step determines the reliability of the global carbon balance.

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When choosing carbon footprint software, it is therefore essential for the company to choose a partner capable of accurately and effectively measuring scope 3 emissions. This implies that the partner has experience, the ability to go and collect the right data through dedicated collectors or questionnaires and to be able to use relevant emission factors (EFs).

To find out more about the carbon footprint, you can read our article”Understand everything about the carbon footprint”.

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Define the scope of the project

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Before you start choosing carbon footprint software, you need to answer several questions related to the structure of your business and the scope on which you want to measure your carbon data. It is this information that will allow you to choose the software that best suits your business and your needs:

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• What is the structure of my business?
• What is the perimeter on which I want to measure and manage my carbon data? Do I want to have a global vision at the group level or only a vision on the parent company or on certain subsidiaries? Only on some activities in my group and not on others? Only in some countries and not in all? To be able to benefit from a consolidated vision at the group level while having data by activity, by subsidiary, by country?

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If, for example, your business is a large group looking to obtain both a consolidated overview and a very detailed analysis of emissions, it is essential to choose a platform that can manage complex projects and that can customize data collection, analysis, and reporting for your various units.

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Set specific goals

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There are a few essential questions to ask yourself before embarking on your RFP project. The answers to these questions will allow you to precisely identify your needs, and thus choose the tool that best suits your expectations, but also to communicate them clearly to your potential partners.

• Why are you engaging your company in a decarbonization project?
• What are your main goals? Is it to meet regulatory requirements such as CSRD, anticipate future ones, meet the expectations of your stakeholders, gain a competitive advantage, or even define a strategy or an objective to reduce your emissions?

If your company wants to set a reduction target in line with the recommendations of the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), it will be essential to select a partner capable of modeling and evaluating reduction actions and trajectories according to this framework. This criterion is important to consider from the beginning of the process of selecting your tool and it must therefore be integrated before the final choice.

You may also want to set goals for different deadlines and goals of different types: you will then need to choose software that meets these different criteria.

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Ensure that the carbon footprint software price meets your needs

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Several major issues related to the price of your carbon footprint software must be taken into account in order to make the best possible choice:

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• Ensure that the proposed pricing model is based on your specific needs! Once you have identified your needs (see questions to ask yourself beforehand), make sure that the carbon footprint software you choose offers a price based on these specific functional needs and not on too general models that would be based, for example, on your sector of activity, your turnover or the number of your employees.

• Choose an adaptable and scalable price. It is wise for businesses to choose a pricing model that adapts to the use you will make of carbon footprint software. You will gain expertise on the carbon subject: you may need more support from consultants during your first steps, but much less so afterwards! In addition, your uses of carbon footprint software will very likely change since your decarbonization strategy will develop and refine over the long term. For all of these reasons, it's important to make sure that the software (and the price!) can adapt to your needs: this can involve a subscription and/or modules to be taken and paid on a case-by-case basis depending on where you are.

• If you work with a consulting firm, check that the price of carbon footprint software is advantageous and appropriate for the latter.

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The key functionalities of carbon footprint software

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In our opinion, here are the key functionalities that a carbon footprint software should ideally offer. A complete list is available in the Gsheet document, which you can use to structure your RFP.

• The possibility of collaborating with a consulting firm : does the platform offer internal consulting support or can another consulting firm work on the software, including the one you are currently working with? Some platforms offer support with their own consultants but also with a network of partner firms.

• Adapting the platform to your organization : your future carbon partner must be able to manage the carbon balances of complex groups by creating a system of organizational units (subsidiaries, BU, countries, sites, etc.) within the same workspace. Thanks to this system of organizational units, all the key stages of the decarbonization strategy must be able to be managed as precisely as possible. Also ask yourself if the software makes it possible to import and/or store carbon balances in order to be able to compare them over the long term.

• Secure management of rights and access to data : Many teams will be involved in the decarbonization journey and data is sometimes sensitive. It is crucial to find out what the platforms offer you in terms of possibilities and guarantees in terms of the use of the software for each user.

• Scope of emission factors : Emission factors (EF) are an essential element in the carbon balance since they make it possible to convert activity data into emissions. Selecting the right FEs allows you to be more accurate in measuring emissions. For this reason, it is essential to know and analyze the emission factor bases used by the software you are going to compare during this RFP: which databases, what update, whether or not it is possible to integrate custom FEs, etc.?

• Effective and relevant data collection : since the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions is based on data on the organization's activities, the accuracy of the carbon balance depends largely on the quality and comprehensiveness of the data collected. The collection of scope 3 data is also a major challenge. This is why it is essential to ensure that the software is able to meet this challenge: does it provide for multiple collection systems? What format is planned for data processing? Does the software provide customizable questionnaires? Is it possible to carry out a differentiated collection according to subsidiaries, sites, etc.?

• Data consolidation and auditing : this step consists in centralizing the data and verifying that it is good, without inconsistencies or duplicates. It is important that the software you choose has a consolidation space and a whole series of automation features that will allow you to gain efficiency: automatic calculation of emissions related to physical data, automatic processing of the accounting entry file (FEC) and automatic assignment of FE to large volumes of data using artificial intelligence.

• A detailed and personalized analysis of the results : you are advised to find out about the possibilities offered by your future carbon partner regarding the analysis of results. It is this step that will allow you to understand your dependence on carbon and your impact and thus to build an effective and relevant action plan.

• Building an effective and coherent action plan : to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, you will have to build a relevant action plan. To achieve this, you must be able to model and visualize the reduction in GHG emissions made possible by each decarbonization lever and by your global action plan. This is why it is necessary that the carbon footprint software you choose be able to model the potential of each action.

• Customisable reduction trajectories : it must be possible to manage the reduction trajectory at the level of each organizational unit, which means that the software must allow you to manage several reduction trajectories and not just one. It is important to also check that the platform can create reduction trajectories by emission points, in absolute or in intensity and that these intensities are customizable.

• Carbon reporting : If this is part of your objectives, the software must be able to allow you to carry out this regulatory reporting. Make sure that the carbon footprint software can extract data and graphs according to regulatory reporting formats (BEGES, GHG Protocol for example).
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• ‍Training and support : to properly use the tool and gain autonomy, it is imperative that your teams can be trained in it, but also that assistance be set up to answer your questions. Some solutions offer expert training on carbon accounting or climate strategy to increase skills on these subjects.

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The key functionalities of carbon footprint software at the time of CSRD

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The entry into force of the CSRD requires companies to publish extra-financial reporting that is much more comprehensive than before. Carbon data should now be published in your company's sustainability report.

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A carbon footprint software to respond to ESRS E1 data

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The construction of the sustainability report planned under the CSRD is supervised by the ESRS, the new European reporting standards. 12 ESRS standards have already been published. Among them, the ESRS E1 “climate change” indicates to companies the quantitative and qualitative information that they will have to publish concerning the climate issue. As you can imagine: a lot of the information expected is carbon data! This is why, in our opinion, it is crucial for companies to equip themselves with a unique tool, allowing them to both manage their decarbonization strategy while responding to this regulatory challenge linked to CSRD.

With this in mind, your future carbon footprint software must therefore have various functionalities to cover the data expected in the various DRs (disclosure requirements, publication requirements) provided for by ESRS E1.

• Publication requirement E1-1 “Climate Change Mitigation Transition Plan.” Here, businesses are asked to publish their transition plan for climate change mitigation. It is essential that the carbon footprint software you are going to work with has a complete space for the action plan and the trajectory to reduce your emissions.

• Publication requirement E1-3 “Actions and resources related to climate change policies”. Here, the company must publish the main actions carried out and planned in order to achieve the goals set on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Again, this means having software that offers a space dedicated to the action plan and makes it possible to model the potential reduction in emissions for each lever.

• Publication requirement E1-4 “Targets related to climate change mitigation and adaptation”. Here, the company must publish the climate goals it has set for itself. To do this, the software must have a complete “Trajectories” section, with the possibility of determining absolute or intensity reduction objectives, on all emissions or by scope, with reference and target years and again to model the emissions decreases predicted thanks to your action plan.

• Publication requirement E1-5 “Energy consumption and energy mix”. Here, the company must provide information on its energy consumption and energy mix. For this DR, check that your carbon footprint software allows you to collect the most accurate information possible on energy consumption
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• ‍Publication requirement E1-6 “Gross scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions and total GHG emissions”. Here, the company must publish the gross greenhouse gas emissions for each scope and the total emissions. As far as your software is concerned, you must therefore check that it is able to calculate your gross GHG emissions according to the expected methodology, to calculate and visualize the emissions by scope, a visualization in intensity by income and transparency on the assumptions used, in particular the FE used.

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An all-in-one software, from carbon to CSRD

As you will have understood, it seems fundamental to us that companies have a unique software that allows them to both manage their decarbonization strategy but also to simplify and accelerate their sustainability reporting. What are the necessary functionalities to take into account in order to make this possible?

• A software that allows you to automatically integrate carbon data into CSRD reporting : this involves the possibility for the software to produce the data required by the ESRS E1. The best option to simplify your task and save time? Select a solution that can support you on both topics.

• A software that allows you to carry out your double materiality analysis : it is wise for the company to choose software that can assist it in carrying out its double materiality analysis. This is an essential step in CSRD. Thanks to this analysis, you will identify the most important environmental, social and governance issues and will thus be able to easily determine the most relevant information to publish in your sustainability report.

• A tool to help with data collection and tagging : To save time and deal with this multitude of Data Points, it is imperative that your software helps you collect the information to be published! To do this, make sure that your software can automatically set the publication requirements and all associated datapoints that concern you based on the results of your double materiality analysis. Also, make sure that the platform has a project manager to monitor, data by data, the status of the collection. Finally, EFRAG requires the publication of data in the iXBRL regulatory format, remember to check that the software actually makes it possible to tag and then export the data in this regulatory format.

• A tool for auditing data : The sustainability reports will all be audited to verify their compliance with the CSRD. Verify that the tool you intend to select complies with the framework defined by the ESRS, in particular on the integration of the list of potential material issues and on the evaluation criteria for the rating of IRO.

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