Normative launches AI Assistant to make businesses fluent in their carbon data

If you work as a sustainability professional, or sustainability comes under the wider remit of your role, you’ll be getting questions from stakeholders all the time. Investors, regulators, budget holders, auditors and colleagues contributing to the carbon data collection process, could all be waiting with a query to better understand your carbon data. 

Imagine if you never had to say ‘Let me get back to you,’ ever again…

That’s why we’ve developed the Normative AI Assistant. 

How does Normative’s AI Assistant work?

Normative’s AI Assistant is the trusted explorer you need by your side to help your business navigate gaps in understanding around its carbon data. 

Grounded in traceable methodology, it is built to: 

• Explain GHGP concepts and classifications
• Clarify Normative’s taxonomy and definitions
• Explain emission factors and databases

You’ll never have to leave stakeholders waiting for a response again, but that’s not even the best part. This is not just another AI tool.

How Normative’s Assistant differs from public AI tools

Normative’s AI Assistant is based on access to the entire Normative database and its domain-specific knowledge within sustainability and carbon accounting. Being built on our proprietary, non-public database, is what sets the Assistant apart from general tools that can bring higher hallucination rates and don’t have access to the conversion factors and regionality details that are a key part of accurate GHG categorization and calculation.

When you ask it a question, the AI Assistant draws on the thousands of emissions factors and a taxonomy based on 21 scientific databases at Normative’s disposal, so you can be sure your responses are reliable and aligned with the latest science. It does not learn from individual customer data but is updated every time that Normative releases new versions of its platform. 

Crucially, the Assistant knows its limits. 

This is not a replacement for the human expertise of our climate specialists. If it can only provide non-specialized advice that could potentially lead to non-compliance and reputational damage, then it will direct the user towards their dedicated Normative Climate Strategy Advisor.

Why does your business need a credible AI sustainability assistant

At Normative, we received hundreds of questions in the last 12 months regarding a broad range of topics, like knowing which scope 3 category to report for any given factor. Whether you have years of sustainability experience or you’re just starting your journey, other stakeholders will expect you to navigate your business’ carbon emissions. But regardless of your experience, no one can be expected to know everything about every single emission factor.  

Previously sustainability pros would have to spend time contacting support, or trying to find the answers through less reliable public AI tools, when stakeholders pose questions like:

• Can you explain the difference between market-based and location-based scope 2 emissions?
• Can you explain the methodology Normative uses to calculate the emissions of our energy consumption?
• Why are the emissions for our aluminium purchases so high?

All the time they risk losing credibility with key stakeholders and even providing unreliable answers that could negatively impact the business from a compliance or operational perspective. When carbon data is so critical to an organization’s operations, you can’t afford to lose time, or credibility.

How will AI sustainability capabilities benefit your business

As more stakeholders get involved in sustainability reporting and requests for more complex reports are accompanied by earlier deadlines, an AI sustainability assistant has a big role to play in not only saving sustainability teams time, but helping them understand and stand by their critical carbon data. This capability allows businesses to:

• Report with confidence and control: even if you are an experienced sustainability professional, you can’t afford to make mistakes with carbon emission data. Use the tool to truly understand your data, mitigating the risk of non-compliance and opening up opportunities from smart use of the insights.
• Upskill your team: you might be a lone sustainability professional in your organization, or have responsibility for the reporting process but no background in sustainability. Normative’s AI Assistant will be at your side to help you explain complex technical concepts to internal stakeholders or auditors and defend your data.
• Save time, boost advocacy: users no longer need to waste time or risk inaccuracies researching answers with public AI tools. Become fluent in your own carbon data with answers to technical questions at your fingertips. Watch as trust and advocacy from your stakeholders grows, along with the impact of sustainability in your business. 

Responsible use of AI

AI systems consume energy and contribute to carbon emissions. We acknowledge this trade-off.

Carbon accounting requires users to understand how results were produced in order to trust them, explain them internally and externally, and act on them with confidence. 

Normative AI is deliberately scoped to support this work:

• Helps users quickly understand why a result looks the way it does, directly in context
• Makes methodologies and emission factors easier to interpret
• Supports users in answering internal and external questions about their data

Normative AI reflects a conscious choice to apply AI narrowly and transparently, only where improved understanding enables users to trust their results, communicate them clearly, and use them more effectively in their work, justifying the additional computational cost.