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Important
This set of features is available as a public preview in Business Central, starting from 2025 release wave 1. Read carefully, and be sure to understand which features we currently support.
The sustainability value chain features are a comprehensive tool designed to streamline the collection and use of data from your value chain partners. This feature empowers organizations to accurately calculate Scope 3 emissions, enabling better sustainability reporting and compliance with environmental standards.
Introduction to value chain for Scope 3 emissions calculation
The sustainability value chain enables you to use data you from your value chain partners to calculate your scope 3 emissions. A value chain in general is a vendor you do business with and from whom you collect inbound emission data. After you collect emissions or carbon data from your vendors, you can use the data to calculate your Scope 3 emissions in your business processes. You can also calculate other emissions for other types of item handling, such as transfers, production, and so on. These calculations help give you accurate information about embedded emissions for items you plan to sell.
The sustainability value chain helps businesses:
- Achieve a higher level of accuracy in sustainability reporting.
- Provide better communication with customers related to emissions in their products.
- Better align with regulatory demands.
- Actively contribute to reducing their environmental footprint.
How the system keeps sustainability value chain data
To track the sustainability value chain, record and use transactions from the Sustainability Value Entries page.
Note
The sustainability value chain process works only with the CO2e (carbon equivalent).
The Sustainability Value Entry page is an important component for managing and tracking embedded carbon footprints. It records changes in the CO2e emissions of inventory items and fixed assets. For items, the changes can include purchases, location transfers, production, and sales. For fixed assets, the changes can include acquisition, reclassification, and disposal. This page helps ensure accurate CO2e valuation and provides detailed insights into the emissions effect of transactions.
You can track carbon for an item by using either the average or specific method:
- Average calculates the item's CO2e per Unit as the average value after each inbound transaction.
- Specific carries the CO2e from the applied inbound item ledger entry to later transactions. For a lot-tracked item, the selected lot determines which CO2e value Business Central uses.
Specific carbon tracking applies when you post purchases, sales, service documents, transfers, assembly orders, and production journals. The resulting sustainability value entries preserve the CO2e from the item entries that the transaction applies to.
Use specific carbon tracking in service
For a lot-tracked item that uses Specific, assign the lot on the service line. When you ship and invoice the service order, Business Central creates a sustainability value entry. The entry's actual CO2e comes from the inbound item ledger entry for the selected lot. The value is an emission reduction because the item leaves inventory.
Available features
The following table contains articles that can help you get started with the sustainability value chain.
| Article | Description |
|---|---|
| Value Chain Setup | Learn how to enable the value chain in Business Central, and the setups you must create. |
| Default emission values | Learn how to set up the default values for your master data. |
| Value Chain in Purchase | Learn how the value chain process starts with purchase processes. |
| Value chain in item journals | Learn how to record emissions in item journals and item reclassification journals, and how to recalculate item emissions. |
| Value Chain in Transfers | Learn how to work with transfer orders and their effect on the sustainability value chain process. |
| Value Chain in Assembly process | Learn how to work with assembly orders related to the sustainability value chain process. |
| Value Chain in Production process | Learn how to work with production orders related to the sustainability value chain process. The article also covers other elements related to manufacturing. |
| Value Chain in Sales | Learn how to work with items and their embedded carbon footprints during the sales process. |
| Value Chain for Fixed Assets | Learn how to track CO2e emissions when you acquire, reclassify, sell, or dispose of fixed assets. |
| Value chain in Service Management | Learn how to calculate, post, and review CO2e for items and resources on service documents. |
Related information
Sustainability Management overview
Sustainability setup
Chart of sustainability accounts and ledger
Record sustainability entries
Ad hoc analysis of sustainability data
Sustainability reports and analytics in Business Central
Sustainability API
Work with Business Central