Welcome to the onboarding manual for our impact dashboards. This manual will guide you through navigating our dynamic dashboards, enabling you to interpret insights and make data-driven decisions effectively.
This article will guide you through how the material impact dashboard works.
Environmental & carbon footprints
We calculate two types of footprints: carbon and environmental.
The carbon footprint is determined using the IPCC 2021 methodology and the GWP100 indicator.
Our results align with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, reporting emissions in three scopes:
Scope 1 covers direct emissions from owned or controlled sources
Scope 2 includes indirect emissions from purchased energy generation, and
Scope 3 encompasses all other indirect emissions in the company’s value chain.
Curious to learn more about the Greenhouse Gas Protocol? Read our blog here.
The environmental footprint provides insights into the overall environmental impact of the company or product portfolio across a broad range of metrics including climate change, ecosystem quality, material resources, pollution, toxicity and water use.
The environmental footprint is calculated using the Environmental Cost Indicators from CE Delft combined with ReCiPe 2016 v1.03 (H). Our environmental footprint assesses a range of environmental metrics, creating a holistic overview of the company’s impact, unlike other Life Cycle Assessment SaaS solutions that only assess a limited number of environmental metrics.
Environmental footprint
What is this dashboard about?
This dashboard provides insights into the portion of your total company impact attributed to materials.
Material footprint metric
Our environmental footprint metric assigns a monetary value to your company’s environmental impacts, such as carbon emissions and water usage. If Planet Earth had a bank account, this would be the amount invoiced.
In this dashboard, the monetary value shows the total material footprint for a
selected timeframe, expressed in euros.
Curious to learn more about our environmental footprint metric? Read our blog here.
Top contributing materials
This table displays the top materials contributing to your company’s total material footprint. It includes the impact of each material and the quantities your company
orders.
Material impact per category
This pie chart illustrates how your total material footprint is distributed across six impact categories. Each impact category represents several environmental factors, such as climate change or pollution, that are affected by your company’s activities.
This chart highlights the environmental impact of the materials your company uses.
Material impact over time
This graph displays your total material footprint distributed across time.
Material impact per material
This table provides the total environmental footprint of each material in your product portfolio.
The 'Absolute' view option offers insight into each material’s environmental impact as a monetary value, which is related to Root’s environmental footprint metric.
The 'Relative' view option shows each material’s impact compared to your company’s overall material footprint.
You can download this data by clicking the download button at the top right of the table.
Carbon footprint
What is this dashboard about?
This dashboard provides insights into the portion of your total company carbon footprint that is attributed to materials.
Material footprint metric
This is your total material footprint for a selected timeframe, expressed in tonnes of CO2e, also known as greenhouse gas emissions. This number represents the impact of your business activities on global warming.
Top contributing materials
This table displays the top materials contributing to your company's total material carbon footprint. It includes the impact of each material and the quantities your company orders.
Material impact per scope
This graph shows the total material carbon footprint distributed across scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
Material impact over time
This graph displays your total material carbon footprint distributed across time.
Material impact per material
This table provides the total carbon footprint of each material in your product portfolio.
The 'Absolute' view option offers insight into each material’s carbon impact, expressed in tonnes of CO2e.
The 'Relative' view option shows each material's impact compared to your company's overall material carbon footprint.
You can download this data by clicking the download button at the top right of the table.
FAQ
What are Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions?
Carbon emissions are categorised into three scopes:
Scope 1 covers direct emissions from owned or controlled sources
Scope 2 includes indirect emissions from purchased energy generation, and
Scope 3 encompasses all other indirect emissions in the company’s value chain.
For product companies, the majority (typically over 85%) of emissions fall under Scope 3.
What is an impact category?
An impact category represents an environmental factor influenced by your company’s activities, such as climate change or pollution. We group these factors into six key impact categories.
Can you explain each impact category?
Impact Category | Explanation |
Climate change | Measures the greenhouse gases emitted by your company’s activities and their contribution to global warming. |
Ecosystem quality | Assesses the impact of industrial activities on biodiversity, habitat integrity and the overall health of ecosystems. |
Material resources | Evaluates the consumption and depletion of natural resources, including minerals and fossil fuels, throughout a product’s life cycle. |
Pollution | Analyses the release of contaminants into the environment, affecting the quality of air, water and soil. |
Toxicity | Examines the release of harmful substances into the environment and their potential effects on human health and ecosystems. |
Water use | Measures freshwater consumption and its effects on water availability and aquatic ecosystems. |
You can find more information about Root’s environmental footprint calculation, including the impact activity, indicators and the environmental price per unit, in this document.
What happens after I upload data - is the dashboard immediately usable?
Yes, the dashboard is always up to date. We’ve recently removed the “Request Impact” button, so you’ll instantly see the most current data based on your uploaded information.
What is the difference between inbound and outbound transport?
Inbound transport refers to logistic routes generated from your purchase order data, and outbound transport refers to logistic routes generated from your sales order data.