LucaNet’s data-driven decarbonization journey

LucaNet is a global provider of solutions for the CFO office, including close and consolidation, financial planning, and disclosure management. In addition, they offer ESG reporting to help companies around the world ensure compliance.

Based in Germany, the company has a global presence with over 800 employees spread across 12 countries.

The challenge: making carbon visible

LucaNet is on a quest for total carbon visibility.

“We are on a mission to give total data transparency to our customers – and to ourselves, within the organization,” says Sabeel Asghar, Lead Manager Transformation at LucaNet.

This goal led LucaNet to prioritize accurate carbon accounting as a key component of its sustainability initiatives.

However, the sheer volume of data – as well as the complexity of structuring and understanding it – presented a formidable challenge.

As a software company, LucaNet knew that the majority of its emissions would likely be in scope 3 – the business partners and suppliers in its value chain. Gaining visibility into these emissions would require collecting data from LucaNet’s suppliers; the company’s global reach would make doing this manually a complex and time-consuming endeavor.

LucaNet needed a knowledgeable partner to meet the challenge.

The solution: automated carbon accounting

With support from Normative’s expert Climate Strategy Advisors, LucaNet moved away from assumptions and focused on gathering data. 

After the data was collected, Normative’s carbon accounting platform helped structure and consolidate the data then transform it into emissions calculations.

While LucaNet had previously taken up to six months to calculate its emissions, the company had now accomplished the entire process, from initial data collection to final calculations, in only six weeks – a testament to Normative’s automation-enhanced efficiency.

Normative accelerates the carbon accounting process with:

• Automatic matching of business activities to emissions factors
  
• Smart error detection
  
• API data import
  
• Emissions hotspot identification throughout scopes 1, 2, and 3

The results

LucaNet’s carbon insights unlocked a wealth of opportunities in sustainability, reporting, and business efficiency.

As expected, the company found that the majority of its emissions were concentrated in scope 3. However, with the granularity of their carbon  data, they could pinpoint the specific categories within scope 3 that were contributing the most to their carbon footprint – and found that “Business travel” and “Purchased goods and services” were two of their most-emitting categories.

Armed with these insights, LucaNet launched several decarbonization initiatives targeting scope 3 emissions.

The company implemented a new travel policy that balanced business needs with sustainable practices, and its rental car policy was revamped to favor electric vehicles. It also rolled out a sustainable events policy that cut emissions by approximately 50 tonnes per event. 

LucaNet’s decarbonization initiatives also extended beyond scope 3. Its German offices now operate on 100% renewable electricity, and its global offices increased their percentage of renewable energy use from 40% to 67%. 

Moreover, with Normative’s guidance, LucaNet is working to submit its emissions reduction targets for approval by the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi).

What LucaNet achieved with its carbon data insights:

• Halved the amount of assumptions in its carbon calculations.
  
• Reduced event emissions by approximately 50 tonnes per event.
  
• Implemented a sustainable travel policy.
  
• Increased renewable energy use in its offices.
  
• Begin setting science-based emissions reductions targets.

Executive summary

• LucaNet, a global provider of financial software, recognized the need for accurate carbon accounting to support its sustainability initiatives but faced challenges with data collection and analysis.
  
• Normative’s comprehensive carbon accounting enabled LucaNet to significantly reduce the time and assumptions involved in its emissions calculations.
  
• With actionable insights into its emissions – including scope 3 – LucaNet was able to implement effective sustainability policies, transition to renewable energy, and work towards science-based climate targets.