Carbon accounting was once solely the domain of traditional environmental consultants. However, as urgency around the climate crisis has grown, carbon accounting platforms have emerged as an easier and more efficient way to track and report greenhouse gas emissions data.

Today, there are tons of software platforms built specifically to help you measure and track your carbon emissions so you can build a more environmentally-conscious company and share your impact transparently with customers, partners, and other stakeholders.

The tricky part is finding the right software — with so many options it’s easy to get confused and overwhelmed with choice. Every platform has its pros and cons and there are different options for different sizes and types of business

In this article, we’ll show you 15 of the best carbon accounting software platforms on the market in 2024.

What does carbon accounting software do?

Carbon accounting software allows you to accurately track your greenhouse gas emissions and find out which activities are most responsible. This allows you to make conscious changes to the way you operate, the resources you use, and the companies you work with to reduce your carbon footprint.

The solution you opt for will depend on a lot of factors — your needs, your budget, and your industry, for example. So let’s dive into 15 of the best carbon accounting software platforms out there.

The 15 Best Carbon Accounting Software Platforms in 2024

1. Seedling

Seedling is a carbon accounting solution built specifically for small and mid-market businesses (think up to 500 employees). While a lot of the platforms on this list target enterprise-level organizations, Seedling offers an affordable and easy-to-use platform for teams that don’t have a full-time sustainability expert but still need to get to grips with their carbon footprint and the expectations of clients and regulators.

One of Seedling’s main features is its 1:1 support model — every business gets their own dedicated sustainability adviser to help them get more out of the platform and share advice on decarbonization and climate communications.

Seedling focuses on accuracy by prioritising activity-based metrics, for example using surveys to collect data on commuting and work-from-home patterns to help companies encourage more sustainable habits.

The team at Seedling help with reporting requirements common to SMEs, such as public sector PPN 06/21, B Corp Impact Assessments, and more.

2. Persefoni

Based in Tempe, Arizona, Persefoni’s carbon accounting platform is designed for enterprises and financial institutions. This means its features are aimed at bigger organizations and focus on stakeholder communication and complying with climate regulations.

Persefoni is designed to make carbon accounting transparent and reliable, even for major companies with large amounts of data to manage. However, it is expensive and can be complex.

3. Greenly

Greenly is based in Paris and again focused on larger organizations. Its features help users to measure their carbon footprint and take concrete steps to reduce and offset their emissions.

Greenly is especially impressive for its integrations with more than 100 enterprise software platforms in areas like cloud data, accounting, and electricity, though this may not be a great fit for companies with simpler needs.

4. Normative

Normative, based in Stockholm, aims to give businesses everything they need to measure their emissions, meet their targets, and comply with necessary regulations. Their team of climate strategy advisors are there to help you understand carbon accounting and set realistic goals to work towards.

Normative places particular focus on supply chain reporting, helping large organisation with global supply chains collect and manage complex datasets. 

5. Minimum

London-based Minimum provides carbon accounting software for enterprises. The features are geared towards gaining high-level insights into data and meeting disclosure requirements.

If you’re an enterprise-level organization and want to take a highly sophisticated and data-driven approach to carbon accounting, Minimum may be an excellent choice.

6. Ecologi

Founded by Elliot Coad, Ecologi began life as a subscription service app helping consumers and businesses to invest in nature-based climate action initiatives, such as tree planting. In the last few years, they’ve transitioned to also help businesses measure their emissions.

It’s affordable, simple, and is a great solution if you want a rough, quick overview of your carbon footprint. However, it’s not as accurate as the more advanced options on this list, and comes with minimal support.

7. Greenr

Greenr is based in London and helps businesses and employees track their emissions with a mobile app. It also provides guidance on how to reduce and offset emissions. 

Greenr is spend-based, which means it calculates emissions based on how much you spend on specific goods and services, as opposed to directly calculating emissions based on activities. It’s straightforward and affordable, but doesn’t offer the same bespoke, detailed support that you’ll get with more advanced alternatives.

8. SageEarth

SageEarth was originally called Spherics — a carbon accounting tool based in Bristol, UK, — and was acquired by ERP giant Sage in 2022.

SageEarth’s quick and easy tool lets you calculate your carbon footprint after connecting with your accounting software, with the option to increase the accuracy of the result by adding more data.

SageEarth’s platform is marketed as a cheap, easy alternative to some of the expensive, bespoke platforms mentioned in this article. The trade-off is that it’s not as in-depth or reliable as pricier options.

9. Plan A

Berlin-based Plan A is a software-as-a-service platform designed to automatically calculate CO2 emissions and produce detailed reports for audits and compliance.

Plan A is aimed at larger companies, and its clients include BNP Paribas, BMW, and Trivago. It has won several awards. Plan A is a good choice for companies who want to invest in a cutting-edge carbon accounting tool with high-end features, and have the budget to match.

10. Sweep

Used by the likes of L’Oreal and BlackRock, Paris-based Sweep is an emissions reporting solution that targets large organisations, and financial institutions in particular.  

It’s enterprise-level features include collaboration tools to help teams manage emissions data across departments, and analysis tools for large datasets. 

11. Coolset

Amsterdam-based Coolset provides automated carbon accounting software. Its focus is on regulatory reporting, with emphasis on CSRD compliance for EU organisations. 

Coolset’s reporting functionality is extensive, expanding beyond emissions reporting to sustainability more broadly, including impact and financial materiality assessments. It might be on the expensive side for smaller companies, with prices starting at €9,000 per year for a full-scope carbon footprint.

12. Sustain.Life 

Sustain.Life (which has now been acquired by compliance solution Workiva), is headquartered in New York City and is yet another reporting tool targeted at big businesses. Alongside supporting enterprises directly, Sustain.Life offers APIs to sustainability consultants and developers.  

Going forward, it looks like Sustain.Life will be offered as part of Workiva Carbon, so watch this space as their strategy develops!

13. SINAI

SINAI Technologies Inc. comes with a suite of tools to help businesses model decarbonisation pathways and understand the financial impact of actions taken to reduce emissions (or indeed the risks of a failure to decarbonize!).

SINAI, which is headquartered in San Fransisco, is worth a look for businesses that want to integrate climate change mitigation into broader business forecasts. 

14. Arbor 

Based in Calgary, Canada, Arbor focusses on detailed supply-chain and embodied emissions assessments, in particular for CBAM reporting.

As a result, Arbor is great for large organizations in carbon intensive industries such as construction and apparel, but may be overkill and out of budget for SMEs with less stringent reporting requirements.

Net0

Net0 is based in NewYork and is built on the premise of using artificial intelligence to combat climate change. It comes with a ton of AI tools to collect and analyse emissions data.

Net0 is built mainly for larger organisations (it’s “trusted by Fortune 500 companies”) and government institutions. It’s worth exploring for those with the budget and the desire to take a tech-led approach to carbon accounting.

Make an informed choice

As you can see, businesses today are spoiled for choice when it comes to carbon accounting software.

Whether you’re a large organization looking to meet complex regulatory requirements and invest heavily in cutting-edge, real-time software, or an SME keen to understand your emissions, engage clients, and get on the path to Net Zero, there’s a solution out there for you.

So take the time to weigh up your options, work out what’s best for you, and connect with the right partner.

If you’re interested in learning more about Seedling and how we help businesses to help you make confident, informed decisions, backed by data and climate science, without being too time-intensive or breaking the bank, book a demo with us.