1. Caroline Bartlett, please tell us a bit about your background and what led you to the sustainability sector.
My path into sustainability began with a love for ecology and conservation biology, which shaped my academic focus. However, I quickly realised that achieving real, wide-reaching impact required working with businesses to help transform their practices. Nearly two decades ago, I transitioned into environmental consulting before recognising that scalable impact would come through technology—making high-quality emissions data accessible to every organisation.
2. What does your role at Persefoni entail?
The climate reporting landscape is constantly evolving, and staying aligned with the latest science and standards is critical. In my role, I guide clients along their carbon accounting journeys—whether they’re just getting started and need foundational support, or are more advanced and seeking to refine complex, detailed analyses.
Equally important is ensuring our software evolves in step with regulatory changes. Together with our team of climate experts, I help feed market insights and client needs back into our Product team, ensuring Persefoni remains ahead of the curve.
3. What makes Persefoni AI such a powerful tool for understanding environmental impacts?
Our platform simplifies carbon accounting by streamlining data ingestion and delivering fast, accurate GHG calculations using globally recognised methodologies like the GHG Protocol and PCAF. Built-in artificial intelligence (AI) automatically flags anomalies and processes thousands of transactions in seconds, removing the need for manual interventions behind the scenes.
Insights are presented through intuitive dashboards and automated reports aligned with leading frameworks and standards such as the CSRD, CDP, and SECR, enabling clients to move from data to disclosure with confidence.
4. How was the partnership with ecoinvent established? How do Persefoni’s customers use ecoinvent data through your solutions?
ecoinvent is widely regarded as one of the most robust and trusted sources of life cycle GHG emissions data (amongst other data!). It was important to Persefoni to ensure our customers could access this level of granularity and transparency.
Persefoni clients typically use ecoinvent to enhance supply chain assessments, enabling them to identify emissions from specific purchases (across thousands of products, components, or raw materials, to name a few). This allows for a more refined, process-specific view of emissions.
5. From your experience, what are the biggest challenges companies face when trying to account for their emissions? How does Persefoni help to address these challenges?
Data is the most common challenge. Knowing where to source it, how to process it, and which emissions factors to apply. Persefoni addresses these challenges in several ways:
– Accessibility: We offer Persefoni Pro, a free, self-guided carbon accounting tool available to any organisation. It runs on the same calculation engine as our enterprise platform, democratising access to high-quality emissions measurement. It also enables supplier and portfolio engagement to enhance Scope 3 data quality.
– Breadth of data: Our platform includes over 150,000 emission factors, from global spend-based models to regional databases and granular LCA datasets like ecoinvent, ensuring organisations can use the most appropriate data for their needs.
– Expert support: Our climate experts and Customer Success teams are always available to assist clients in improving data quality, methodologies, and output accuracy.
6. Your platform uses a variety of emissions data sources—what role does a premium dataset provider like ecoinvent play in this mix?
It’s essential that customers have access to a broad range of emissions data to meet them where they are on their climate journey. For those just starting out, who may not yet have access to detailed or granular data, broad datasets help them understand the materiality of their impacts and identify where to focus their efforts.
However, that’s only the first step for many organisations. For companies looking to truly decarbonise or set and achieve science-based targets, it becomes critical to go beyond averages and access datasets that distinguish between different technologies and processes.
This is where premium datasets like ecoinvent add significant value. Many of our clients operate in complex sectors such as manufacturing or chemicals, where even small variations in ingredients or production methods can result in substantial differences in emissions. Having access to detailed, process-specific data enables these organisations to pinpoint those differences and make more informed, impactful decisions.
7. Data transparency is very important to ecoinvent. Please could you share some insights on the importance of data transparency on your platforms, and Persefoni’s thoughts on how data transparency builds trust and creates value for clients?
Data transparency is no longer a ‘nice to have’ in carbon accounting. Many Persefoni clients use our platform to meet regulatory reporting obligations, and data audits are becoming standard practice. That means the emission factors used, as well as the methodologies applied, are often checked and challenged.
Transparency is embedded in the foundation of Persefoni’s platform. Clients maintain full ownership of their data, including every decision around methodology and emission factor selection. All transactions are captured within our Carbon Ledger—a fully downloadable, audit-ready record of every data point uploaded. This includes details such as original inputs, applied conversions, selected emission factors, and a complete audit trail showing user IDs, timestamps, and any edits made.
This level of transparency not only supports compliance—it also builds trust, improves data quality, and ultimately enables organisations to take credible climate action with confidence.
8. Many emissions calculations rely on spend-based data. Can you walk us through the key differences between spend-based and unit-based accounting, and what advantages you see when clients transition to unit-based approaches using datasets like ecoinvent’s?
Spend-based analysis is often a useful starting point for estimating emissions, particularly for companies early in their carbon accounting journey. It works by multiplying the amount a company spends on a good or service by a relevant spend-based emissions factor, often derived from environmentally extended input-output models. This approach offers a high-level view of emissions, particularly across the supply chain, but it comes with limitations. Critically, it assumes that all suppliers and products within a given sub-sector have similar carbon intensities, which is rarely the case in reality.
Unit-based accounting, on the other hand, uses actual quantities, such as kilograms of material or litres of ingredient, to estimate emissions. Because it’s based on physical activity rather than financial spend, it is not distorted by price fluctuations, inflation, or procurement dynamics. When paired with high-quality life cycle assessment (LCA) data, like that provided by ecoinvent, unit-based analysis enables far greater precision, offering emissions factors that are specific to particular technologies, production methods, and geographies.
To illustrate the difference: imagine purchasing one tonne of fabric. A spend-based approach might apply the same emissions factor per euro or pound spent, regardless of whether the fabric is cotton or silk, whether it was purchased at a premium due to demand spikes, or secured earlier at a discount. A unit-based approach, however, takes into account the specific material, production region, recycled content, and even the weave or knit, providing a much more accurate reflection of its true carbon footprint.
9. In what ways does having access to unit-based emission factors influence the kinds of strategic decisions your clients can make?
Most of our clients are aiming for more than just compliance-driven carbon reporting—they’re committed to actually reducing their emissions. Whether this is motivated by internal leadership, investor scrutiny, or evolving regulatory and public disclosure requirements, there’s a growing expectation for accountability and measurable progress.
For many companies, the bulk of emissions sit outside their direct operations, typically within the supply chain (though this varies by sector). This makes access to accurate, unit-based emissions data critical. It provides the level of specificity needed to set credible targets, identify material emissions hotspots, and take meaningful, data-informed steps towards decarbonisation.
At Persefoni, we’ve seen clients use granular unit-based emission factors to inform a wide range of strategic decisions, from product redesign and material selection to manufacturing process improvements and increased use of recycled inputs. By moving beyond estimates to precise, activity-based data, organisations can align carbon reduction strategies with their operational realities and drive tangible climate impact.
10. How do you help clients balance the trade-off between completeness and accuracy in their emissions inventories?
The GHG Protocol, widely regarded as the world’s leading greenhouse gas accounting framework, is built on five key principles: Relevance, Completeness, Consistency, Transparency, and Accuracy. Striking the right balance between completeness and accuracy is essential but can be challenging, particularly when navigating fragmented data or Scope 3 emissions.
At Persefoni, we support clients in managing this trade-off by providing access to a wide range of emissions factors and multiple methodological approaches. Many organisations begin with spend-based data to gain a comprehensive, top-down view of their emissions. This offers a high level of completeness, even if the initial accuracy is limited.
From there, clients can identify material emissions sources and begin refining their estimates using more precise, unit-based emission factors. To take it a step further, our Data Exchange module and Persefoni Pro enable companies to directly engage their suppliers and portfolio companies, unlocking supplier-specific data where available and appropriate, and further improving accuracy.
As we often say in this space, nothing is ever black and white. The most accurate and complete inventories typically blend multiple approaches. Managing that complexity manually can be resource-intensive, which is why technology is so important. Persefoni’s platform automates best practices, streamlines data management, and helps clients build GHG inventories that are not only robust and credible but also time- and cost-efficient.
11. How do you see the field of emissions accounting evolving over the next few years, whether in response to regulations, stakeholder pressure, or corporate ambition? What shifts do you think will define the next wave of best practices?
Emissions accounting has advanced rapidly in recent years, and that momentum shows no sign of slowing. Amid ongoing regulatory shifts across Europe, North America, and beyond, companies that embed best practices, such as prioritising primary data and adopting precise, unit-based methodologies, are emerging as the most resilient and future-ready.
Looking ahead, we expect to see increased scrutiny and a clear move away from basic disclosure towards high-integrity climate data as a core business asset. There’s a growing convergence around international standards like those set by the ISSB, which are significantly raising expectations for transparency, traceability, and auditability.
In this next phase, organisations will need to go beyond estimates. They’ll be expected to justify methodologies, provide robust data trails, and demonstrate the use of verifiable, activity-level data. This evolution will not only enhance the credibility of climate reporting but also sharpen its strategic value, enabling more informed, accountable decision-making.
12. With the launch of Persefoni Pro as a free, self-guided platform, how do you see its role in shaping the sustainability reporting market?
Persefoni Pro is designed to lower the barriers to entry for carbon accounting, making it possible for any organisation, regardless of size, expertise, or budget, to begin measuring and understanding their emissions. By offering a free, self-guided platform powered by the same calculation engine used by global enterprises, Persefoni Pro helps democratise access to high-quality emissions data and GHG reporting capabilities.
Its impact extends beyond individual users. Large organisations can now more easily engage their suppliers and portfolio companies in climate disclosure efforts, improving the quality and completeness of Scope 3 data across their value chains. This kind of scalable, bottom-up engagement is essential for credible decarbonisation planning.
In shaping the market, Persefoni Pro is redefining what’s expected from sustainability tools: transparency, accessibility, and alignment with global standards, all without requiring a team of experts or expensive consulting support. As reporting requirements become more widespread and stringent, tools like Persefoni Pro will play a vital role in enabling more organisations to participate meaningfully and confidently in the climate disclosure ecosystem.
13. How can readers engage with Persefoni to deepen their understanding of carbon accounting and sustainability reporting?
One of the most accessible ways to engage with us is through Persefoni Academy, our free, on-demand learning platform designed to help organisations globally to build confidence in carbon accounting, climate disclosure, and sustainability strategy.
The Academy offers a range of expert-led courses that walk users through the fundamentals of emissions measurement, carbon accounting standards like the GHG Protocol and PCAF, and practical application of climate data in business decision-making. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to strengthen your existing knowledge, the content is structured to meet learners where they are.
It’s not just for Persefoni users; Persefoni Academy is open to anyone looking to better understand the carbon accounting landscape. It’s part of our broader mission to empower more people with the skills and knowledge needed to take credible climate action. And for those who complete the courses, certificates of completion are available to demonstrate growing expertise in this evolving field.
