Set Up Data for Your Carbon Credits

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

Gather the requirements to compensate for residual emissions.
List the records needed to manage carbon credits in Net Zero Cloud.
Create a carbon credit project record.
Create a sustainability purchase record.
Create a sustainability credit record.

Track Carbon Credits in Net Zero Cloud

Companies can purchase carbon credits from multiple projects, providers, and marketplaces. It can be difficult to manage all the suppliers and projects, and track their carbon credit inventory and allocation status separately. So Net Zero Cloud serves as your one-stop solution for managing all your carbon credit information. The integrated workflow of carbon credit management and allocation in Net Zero Cloud makes your life easy!

Let’s follow along as Sam gathers the required information and sets up NTO’s carbon credits in Net Zero Cloud.

Gather Your Requirements

First things first! Sam collects data about NTO’s emissions and makes decisions that are necessary to compensate for those emissions.

Forecast gaps after emissions reductions
Sam uses his annual emissions inventory records in Net Zero Cloud to understand NTO’s actual emissions. This data, along with the emissions forecasts, gives a good estimate of how NTO’s emissions are trending. Based on this, he plans reduction and avoidance strategies. He estimates the emissions that can be avoided or reduced, and derives the amount of emissions that will remain.
Identify carbon projects
After a careful evaluation of various carbon projects, Sam selects projects that NTO will invest in. NTO has established that it would like to fund projects that focus on increasing biodiversity. Sam decides to buy carbon credits from the voluntary carbon marketplace for these areas.

Forestry
Agriculture
Renewable energy

Purchase carbon credits
Sam purchases carbon credits to compensate for NTO’s residual emissions.

Sam is all set to enter this data into Net Zero Cloud.

The Records You Need

To manage carbon credits in Net Zero Cloud, Sam must create the following records.

Carbon credit project record: Stores details about the carbon project that you plan to invest in. For example, an account of an organization that develops the project, or a mitigation strategy associated with the project.
A project is like a product listed on an online store, from which you purchase credits. Its record contains specific details of the product, such as its description and category.
Sustainability purchase record: Represents information related to credit purchases. The record stores information such as the broker or supplier company from whom the credits are purchased, the primary user of the purchase, and its purchase order number. The record also stores the type of the purchase, which in this case is carbon credits.
This record is simply a purchase order confirming a purchase.
Sustainability credit record: Stores details about purchased carbon credits. For example, associated carbon credit project and sustainability purchase records, number of credits purchased, and whether the credits are retired or still held with the repository.
If Sam has some retired credits while the remaining are held in the repository, then he must create two sustainability credit records that have the same information but different statuses.
A sustainability credit record is like your purchase invoice, which has the number of instances of product purchased, total cost, associated purchase order, and product code.

Through these records, Sam can get a clear picture of the total carbon credit projects that NTO has invested in, and the total carbon credits that they have.

In this module, we assume you are a sustainability manager with the proper permissions to access and use Net Zero Cloud. If you’re not a sustainability manager, that’s OK. Read along to learn how your sustainability manager would take the steps in a production org. Don't try to follow these steps in your Trailhead Playground. Net Zero Cloud isn’t yet available in the Trailhead Playground.

Let’s follow along as Sam creates a carbon credit project record, a sustainability purchase record, and a sustainability credit record in Net Zero Cloud.

Create a Carbon Credit Project Record

To create a carbon credit project record:

From the Lightning Console dropdown list on the Net Zero Cloud app, select Carbon Credit Projects.
On the Sustainability Purchases page, click New, and provide the following details.

Name: Reforestation
Mitigation Type: Removal
Project Type: Forestry and Land Use

Add other optional details. In the Developer Account field, you can add a lookup into the supplier record of the organization that develops the emissions reduction project and provides the carbon credits. If the supplier record doesn’t exist, create one. For more information, see Manage Suppliers.
Click Save.

Similarly, Sam creates records for other carbon projects that NTO is investing in.

Create a Sustainability Purchase Record

To create a sustainability purchase record:

From the Lightning Console dropdown list on the Net Zero Cloud app, select Sustainability Purchases.
On the Sustainability Purchases page, click New, and provide the following details.

Name: SP_Reforestation
Type: Carbon Credits

Select the broker. A broker is the supplier that supplies, transfers, and retires carbon credits.
Enter other optional details such as the purchase order number or billing address.
Click Save.

Sam uses the same steps to create records for the remaining sustainability purchases.

Create a Sustainability Credit Record

To create a sustainability credit record:

From the Lightning Console dropdown list on the Net Zero Cloud app, select Sustainability Credits.
On the Sustainability Credits page, click New, and provide the following details.

Carbon Credit Project: ReforestationSam selects one of the project records that he created.
Status: Retired
To use the credits for allocation, their status must be set to Retired.
Sustainability Purchase: SP_reforestationSam selects the sustainability purchase record that he created for the supplier selling credits on the Reforestation project.
Credits Purchased: 200
Cost Per Unit: 10

Click Save.

On saving the record, the total spend is automatically calculated. Because none of the credits are allocated yet, all 200 credits that are purchased are marked as available. Sam reviews the details in the Purchase Details section.

Purchase Details section on a sustainability credit record

Sam creates sustainability credit records for other purchases to finish setting up the data.

Sam is happy with the progress made so far. He’s now ready to explore how he can use Net Zero Cloud to allocate the credits. Let’s find out in the next unit.

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