Why does Root need my addresses?

Accurate locations are essential for calculating your environmental footprint. Root uses addresses to:

Calculate transport emissions — The distance between a supplier and your warehouse determines how much CO2 that shipment produces.
Select the right emission factors — A factory in Germany uses a different electricity grid than one in France, which means different carbon emissions for the same amount of energy.
Match materials to regional data — A supplier's location helps Root suggest the most relevant environmental impact data for the materials they provide.

In short: better addresses lead to more accurate results.

How it works

When you upload address data, Root resolves each one to a real-world location using a geocoding service.

For each address, Root:

1. Looks up the location and finds the best matching standardized address, coordinates, and country.

2. Calculates a confidence score by comparing your original input to the resolved address. The closer the match, the higher the score.

3. Assigns a status so you can see at a glance which addresses are good to go and which ones need your attention.

Each address in Root has one of these statuses:

Status	What it means	Action needed?
Complete	The address was resolved with good confidence, or you've confirmed it.	No
Incomplete	The resolved address has low confidence — it may not be accurate.	Yes — review and correct or confirm
Error	The address couldn't be resolved at all.	Yes — update with a valid address
Validating	The address is still being processed.	No — check back shortly

Within the complete and incomplete statuses, Root shows you how confident it is in each match:

Accuracy	What it means
Confirmed	You've manually verified this address is correct.
High	Strong match — the resolved address closely matches your input.
Medium	Reasonable match — likely correct but worth a quick check.
Low	Weak match — the resolved address may not reflect what you intended. Review recommended.
No match	The address couldn't be resolved. Needs to be corrected.

You can manage your addresses from the Addresses section in Root. For any address that needs attention, you have two options:

Confirm: If the resolved address looks correct, confirm it. This locks it in as verified, even if the automatic confidence score was low.
Update: If the resolved address is wrong, you can either type a corrected address or place a pin on the map to set the exact location.

When you correct or confirm an address, Root automatically recalculates everything that depends on it:

Transport distances and emissions are recomputed using the updated location.
Material impact suggestions are refreshed to account for the new geography.
Facility emission factors are updated if the address belongs to a facility (e.g. switching to the correct regional electricity grid).

You don't need to re-upload any data — the changes propagate automatically.

Be specific: "Industriestr. 5, 80331 Munich, Germany" will match much better than just "Munich".
Include the country: This helps avoid ambiguity (e.g. "Paris, France" vs. "Paris, Texas").
Use consistent formatting: If the same supplier appears in multiple uploads, try to use the same address string each time.
Review low-confidence matches early: Correcting addresses before running your calculations ensures the most accurate results from the start.