Digital Transformation Starts in Cities: Which Tools Calculate Carbon?

How to Measure City Carbon with Digital Tools?

Creating a city's greenhouse gas inventory means managing a huge pool of data. From transportation to waste management, from building energy to industrial processes, thousands of data points need to be collected and analyzed under a single roof. To manage this complex process, cities have powerful digital tools at their disposal.

So, which is the most widely used vehicle worldwide and what are the next generation solutions that take the process one step further with automation?

1. Meet CIRIS: The Global Standard

CIRIS (City Inventory Reporting and Information System) platform is the most common and widely used tool used by cities on their climate action journey.

• What is it? It is a completely free and Excel-based calculation tool developed by C40 Cities.
• Compliance with Standards: CIRIS is designed in full compliance with the GPC standard. It is also aligned with the Common Reporting Framework (CRF) of the Global Covenant of Mayors on Climate and Energy (GCoM), which enables cities to fulfill their international climate commitments.
• How does it work? It allows users to enter data in GPC format, select emission factors and global warming potentials (GWP). It also includes built-in calculators for complex calculations such as solid waste and wastewater emissions.

However, being Excel-based can introduce manual workload and risk of error with large data sets.

2. Future Management: CimpactPro CITY and Automation

For cities that want to go beyond Excel spreadsheets and fully digitize the process, specialized software like CimpactPro CITY comes into play.

• The Power of Automation: This platform is not just a calculation tool, but Turkey's first software that supports emissions management on a city scale. It accelerates the process by saving up to 60% time compared to Excel-based manual methods.
• End-to-End Management: Automates the entire process from data collection to $CO_2e$ calculation, from CRF-compliant reporting to the MER (Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting) cycle.
• Strategic Decision Support: CimpactPro CITY does not only report today. Thanks to its simulation modules, it allows you to model different mitigation scenarios and answer the question "How much will our emissions decrease if we make this investment?".

Which Tool to Choose?

If a city is just starting its climate journey and wants to create a basic inventory, CIRIS is an excellent starting point. However, for cities that want to manage the process with a corporate discipline, eliminate manual errors and analyze future scenarios, automation-oriented platforms such as CimpactPro CITY offer a strategic advantage.