What is the advantage of activity-based data

Activity-based vs spend-based

Activity-Based accounting calculates emissions from physical quantities, such as weight, volume, or kWh. Because it is tied to real consumption, the figures can be compared year on year regardless of price changes, which makes it the most granular and the most defensible basis for targets and benchmarking. This data is not always held in-house, so it sometimes has to be sourced from suppliers or from sub-meters.

Spend-based accounting calculates emissions from monetary value. It accounts for the purchases where you hold spend but not quantity, by mapping the amount to a classification and applying an emission factor for that category. It is an estimate of category intensity rather than a measurement of the specific item, so it is the right tool for purchases where activity data is not available.

Why activity-based data is more precise

Activity-based data reflects what you actually consumed, so it is not affected by price, while spend-based data moves with what you paid. That difference is why activity-based figures are the stronger basis for a baseline and for tracking progress over time.

Example: If you buy 100 kg of steel one year and 100 kg the next, the activity-based emissions are the same because the material is the same. A spend-based view moves with price instead. If that steel costs 1,000 EUR one year but you secure a 10 percent discount the next, your emissions appear 10 per cent lower even though you bought the same 100 kg. And if you switch to a higher grade of steel that costs twice as much, your emissions appear to double, even though the better material may have been produced more cleanly. Spend data is easy to access because it appears on invoices and in bookkeeping software, which is exactly why it is valuable for filling gaps where activity data is unavailable.

How the methods work together in Klappir

In Klappir the two methods feed one inventory rather than sitting in separate silos. Where a purchase has both weight and spend, weight is used because it is the more granular input. Spend-based accounting then accounts for the purchases that would otherwise be left out. GHG Emissions Insights shows the split between activity-based and spend-based emissions, so finance and sustainability teams can see exactly how each part of the footprint was calculated and stand behind it in reporting.

For Purchased Goods and Services, Klappir calculates spend-based emissions using emission factors that are already adjusted for exchange rate and inflation per currency and period, so the method is applied consistently rather than as a rough approximation. This is the same coefficient architecture used for every other emission factor in the platform.

Klappir's approach

Klappir uses activity-based data by default because physical quantities give a more accurate and detailed picture of a company's impact, and it takes pride in helping customers raise the share of activity-based data in their reporting. That means collecting real consumption data from suppliers such as utilities, so your overall activities can be linked to individual ones and compared over time.

Klappir also supports spend-based accounting for Purchased Goods and Services, so purchases you only record as monetary spend can be accounted for as well. The aim is a complete inventory: activity-based, where you have the quantities; spend-based, where you do not; and full transparency on which method produced which number.

Use activity-based data for purchased goods and services, where you can, and spend-based data to account for the rest.