Welcome to the onboarding manual for our data collection tool, which allows you to collect all necessary data to accurately calculate your company's and product portfolio's environmental and carbon impact.
This article will guide you through how the facilities chapter works.
What is this chapter about?
Facilities are automatically identified from the purchase and sales orders you uploaded in the setup chapter.
In this chapter, you will provide details about the consumption of your company’s facilities, including warehouses and manufacturing sites.
For more information about how Root calculates the production impact of products, see our deep-dive article here.
Why do we need this information?
Uploading facility information helps us assess your facility's contribution to your company's and products' overall environmental and carbon impact.
We use enriched eco-invent data for utility impacts, which allows us to offer users a more detailed and flexible way to calculate utility impacts. Once consumption data is uploaded for a facility, we automatically calculate the environmental and carbon impact of the facility, as well as the processing and manufacturing impacts of the products.
We do this by aligning the utility contract's timeframe with the purchase and sales orders, which helps us determine which products have passed through the facility.
The consumption data and subsequently calculated environmental impacts are then allocated to the life cycle of the products that pass through that specific facility using mass allocation.
How is this data related to other chapters?
Facilities are identified based on the purchase and sales orders in the setup chapter. Each facility’s address is linked to the addresses used in the transport chapter for each unique route.
Facilities page
Explanation of columns
Facility Name: Name of the facility.
Category: Facility category, determined by you.
Electricity, Heat, Water, Cooling, Consumables, Residual Waste, Capital Goods: These columns show whether this consumption data is in scope ("On"), or out of scope ("Off) for each facility.
Type: A standardized facility type which determines the emissions category.
Status: Status of the address information provided for each facility.
Setting the scope for each facility
Sometimes certain consumption data for specific facilities can be set out of scope. You can do this either for each facility individually by clicking on the facility and turning consumption data "On" or "Off", or this can be done in bulk by selecting multiple facility checkboxes in the facilities overview page and clicking "Edit scope".
Adding data in 2 simple steps
Click on a specific facility. Add the address per facility (you can do this manually per facility or upload all addresses for all facilities at once via the upload module, explained later). Second, add the facility category and select facility type.
Then upload information about each facility's electricity, heat, water, consumables, residual waste and capital goods.
Below is more information about these two steps:
Step 1 - add address, category and type of suppliers
We identify the suppliers and customers in your value chain from the purchase and sales orders uploaded in the Setup chapter.
You can manually add the address, category and type of a supplier by clicking on the supplier and then clicking on the ‘Edit’ button at the top right of the screen. Facility types a pre-determined and help the impact calculation module to place the environmental impacts into specific value-chain categories. The types are;
Owned or Rented facility: Any facility (e.g. Warehouse, Office) that is owned or rented by you.
Supplier Production site: A site where production activities take place (e.g. Factory, Assembly site).
Distribution center (third party - upstream): A distribution center that is operated by a contracted service provider (Transport company, Supplier).
Distribution center (third party - downstream): A distribution center that is operated by a contracted service provider after sale (Transport company, Customer).
Franchise store: Any facility that is operated by a third party under franchise contract.
You can also bulk upload your supplier's address, category and type using the facility template to streamline this process. Please use the specified facility types to prevent errors.
Simply follow these steps:
Download the template.
Add each facility address (format: "address, city, country"), category and type.
Upload your file by clicking the ‘Upload’ button, then click the 'click to browse’ button or dragging your file right into the blue box. Once uploaded, check the ‘Status’ column for incomplete information, then click the ‘Upload’ button.
An example template can be found here.
Step 2 - provide consumption data of your facilities.
We need details about your facility’s electricity, heat, and water consumption and data on consumables, residual waste and capital goods to accurately assess your company's and product footprint.
To upload this information, select the supplier name, then click the ‘Add’ button to upload each piece of data.
Below is the key information we need:
Electricity
We need information on electricity usage for each facility, including the energy source.
Key information we need:
Timeframe of the utility contract.
Total electricity consumed (in kWh).
Electricity sources (the more detail you provide, the more accurate the product footprints will be).
If the facility uses more than one type of energy, the percentage breakdown of the fuel mix (e.g. 60% natural gas, 40% wind).
Heat
We need to understand the heat/energy consumption of each facility.
Key information we need:
Timeframe of the utility contract.
Type of heat consumption (e.g. natural gas).
Total heat consumption (in m³ or MJ).
Details of any equipment used by the facility.
Water
We need data on the water consumption of each facility.
Key information we need:
Timeframe of the utility contract.
Total water consumption (in litres or m³).
Consumables
We need data on the consumables purchased for each facility, including additives for specific production processes (e.g. dye for textiles).
Key information we need:
The total amount (unit to be specified in tool) of consumables purchased for each facility.
Residual waste
We need data on the waste produced by each facility. This includes the different types of waste (e.g. plastic waste, cardboard waste) flows, per treatment type (e.g. recycling).
Key information we need:
Amounts of each type of waste (in kg) per facility and treatment type (e.g. recycling).
By matching an impact factor to the waste type, the waste treatment is defined (e.g. choose wood recycling)
Capital goods
We need data on the capital goods purchased for each facility. Capital Goods are classified as goods that are used for the production process, such as machinery, tools, buildings and vehicles.
Key information we need:
Total capital good purchased by/for a facility in kg's
Invite suppliers to upload facility data
You can now invite suppliers to upload facility information directly through a unique public URL, making data collection faster and more collaborative. Make sure to set the correct scope of data you want the supplier to provide, such as electricity, heat, or water, then publish the URL and share it via email. Any data submitted by your supplier will be marked as external in Root, so you stay in control. Need to make a change? Simply unpublish the link and the supplier will no longer have access. An example email to send to clients with the link is given below, please make sure you fill in the missing information between brackets "[]".
"
Subject: Request for Environmental Data – Energy, Heating & Water Use
Dear [Supplier Name],
As part of our ongoing efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of our products, we are working closely with our suppliers to gain better visibility into resource use across our supply chain.
We are using a dedicated platform developed by Root Sustainability, which allows us to collect and assess key environmental data in a structured and secure way. This will support compliance with upcoming regulations and help identify opportunities for efficiency and sustainability improvements.
We kindly ask you to provide the following information for your facility (or facilities). Please make sure that the data that you provide is limited to consumption associated to the products produced for [Client Company]. If your facility produces for more clients than [Client Company], you can use mass allocation to calculate the consumption associated to the products produced for [Client Company].
Electricity consumption (annual, in kWh), limited to production for [Client Company]
Heating/fuel use (type and amount, e.g., natural gas, biomass, etc.), limited to production for [Client Company]
Water consumption (annual, in m³), limited to production for [Client Company]
Consumables (annual, in kg), limited to production for [Client Company]
Residual waste (annual, in kg), limited to production for [Client Company]
Capital goods (annual, in kg), limited to production for [Client Company]
Please submit this information via the following secure link:
[Insert link here]
The link contains a secure environment where consumption data for your specific facility can be filled out.
If you have any questions or need support, please reach out to us directly at [Your Email].
Thank you very much for your contribution and collaboration.
Best regards,
"
FAQ
Why are all my suppliers displayed in my facilities?
Suppliers are displayed in your facilities to provide detailed information about their electricity, heat, and water usage. This data is used to calculate the impact of the products produced by these suppliers.
What if I don’t have any information about electricity, heat, and water for my suppliers?
If you lack information about your suppliers' electricity, heat, and water usage, you can choose to exclude this facility from the production impact assessment for the current year. In the meantime, start contacting your suppliers to collect this information for the following year. As long as you are transparent about the data gaps, it will not affect the overall accuracy of your calculations.
How can I find information about electricity from my suppliers?
This information can be requested from your electricity supplier.
How can I find information about the heat consumption of my suppliers?
This information can be requested from your heat/energy supplier.
How can I find information about the water consumption of my suppliers?
This information can be requested from your water supplier.
Can I highlight when energy sources are on-site?
When providing details about energy sources, click the ‘Show advanced options’ button to identify if the energy source (like solar panels) is on-site.
I have very granular details about my suppliers' energy sources. How do I add this information?
If you have detailed data, you can add it by selecting the correct energy source under 'What electricity sources do you have?' and then clicking 'Show advanced options' to provide more specific details.