Publications and Media

Discover the latest developments, articles, and podcasts on E-ledgers accounting.

Showing 9 - 16 of 30 results

A Proto-Standard for Carbon Accounting and Auditing using the E-Liability Method
by Lauren Holloway, Karthik Ramanna, Max Israelit, Chloe Wenye Zhang, and Robert S. Kaplan

The E-ledgers Institute is excited to announce the release of a draft Proto-Standard for carbon accounting and auditing using the E-liability method. A number of different jurisdictions are currently attempting to develop standards for entities to calculate and report the GHG emissions embedded in their outputs, especially to have an assessment basis for planned carbon border levies. This document can serve as a complementary guide for such efforts, ensuring that standards developed in different geographies, industries, and sectors follow similar, interoperable, and conceptually sound accounting principles.

SSRN

September 2024

PublicationE-ledgers Method Governance
Disclosing Downstream Emissions

When are companies accountable for customers’ use of their products?

by Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna

An increasing number of companies are using the E-liability carbon-accounting method as an important tool for tracking progress toward reducing global emissions in their supply chains. The system does not require formal accounting for downstream emissions – those occurring after a company sells its products to immediate customers, for several good reasons. Certain companies, however, are accountable for disclosing downstream emissions generated by consumers’ use of their products. This article presents three principles to govern accountability and explains how and to what standards of reliability the companies should disclose downstream emissions.

Harvard Business Review

July-August 2024

PublicationDownstream Emissions E-ledgers Method
What’s Scope 2 Good For?
by Marc Roston, Alicia Seiger, and Abigail Mathieson

Scope 2 has long been pivotal in addressing electricity’s role in emissions, yet its effectiveness in emissions accounting is limited. Marc Roston (Senior Fellow) and Alicia Seiger (Board member), with co-author Abigail Mathieson, explore some of the challenges with status quo approaches to account for electricity-derived emissions, including the market vs location emissions and grid-embodied emissions. Seiger, Roston, and Mathieson introduce the concept of carbon solvency as a model to enable more accurate emissions accounting and investment decisions for grid decarbonization.

Oxford Academic

July 2024

PublicationCarbon Markets Electricity Emissions
How Europe’s Import Carbon Tax Can Boost Prosperity, Not Hurt It
by Karthik Ramanna

The EU is implementing a definitive Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) from 2026, an import tax of sorts to level the playing field for domestic companies that are subject to more-stringent environmental regulations than many overseas suppliers. Professor Karthik Ramanna sets out that the primary challenge for CBAM is the absence of an accurate, verified, and comparable basis for import levies. He describes how carbon accounting can be harnessed to ensure effective implementation of CBAM and its environmental goals.

Impact Alpha

June 2024

PublicationPolicy and Regulation
How One Company Added Carbon Estimates to Its Customer Invoices
by Robert S. Kaplan and Timmy Melotte

Soprema is an international building materials supplier, producing millions of square meters of waterproofing, insulating, and roofing products each year. In 2022, the company’s president and third-generation owner, committed to reporting the carbon footprint of each product on every customer invoice, and to help customers reduce the embedded GHG emissions in the products they purchased. This article describes how the E-liability pilot, which focused on the company’s bitumen waterproofing systems, unfolded at Soprema. The company estimates a potential carbon footprint reduction of 34% from the project.

Harvard Business Review

May 2024

PublicationCase Studies E-ledgers Method
How Could Harvard Decarbonize Its Supply Chain?
with Robert S. Kaplan

Harvard University aims to be fossil-fuel neutral by 2026 and totally free of fossil fuels by 2050. Our co-founder, Professor Bob Kaplan, and Shirley Lu (Harvard) discuss the flow of emissions along the supply chain of Harvard University’s construction projects and the different methods of measuring carbon emissions, including the E-liability approach.

Cold Call Podcast

February 2024

PodcastE-ledgers Method Procurement Technology
Principles and Content for Downstream Emissions Disclosures
by Robert S. Kaplan and Karthik Ramanna

The E-liability carbon accounting algorithm supports companies to measure and subsequently reduce their own and their suppliers’ emissions. Some investors and stakeholders want companies to also be accountable for downstream emissions, those produced by their customers, their customers’ customers, and so on down a value chain. We argue that companies should not be required to measure and be accountable for downstream emissions, and propose three principles for corporate disclosure of downstream emissions.

Watch the accompanying video with Alicia Seiger
Read our HBR article on disclosing downstream emissions

SSRN

February 2024

PublicationVideoDownstream Emissions E-ledgers Method
Can Accounting Save the World and Your Company?
with Michael Mahoney

Our then-CEO, Michael Mahoney, spoke with Sabine Dembkowski on the Better Boards Ltd podcast about why climate change should be a priority for boards, why accurate climate-related measurement accounting matters, and how board members can ask the right questions.

Better Boards Ltd

February 2024

PodcastE-ledgers Method Governance

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