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Creating and understanding your emissions report

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Malene Tidemann
Updated

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When reviewing your emissions reports, it's important to understand which emission factors have been applied to each shipment and how calculations were performed. This knowledge helps ensure accuracy in your sustainability reporting and provides insights into your carbon footprint calculations.

Content in this article:

Creating a report

  1. Log into nShift Portal and choose Emissions Tracker in the top menu:

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  2. Click Emissions report.

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  3. Set the drop-down lists to the desired values and click Run Report. 

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  4. You will now see a report showing emissions data such as calculated Emissions cost, Emission factor, distance, and much more.

 

Explanation for the emissions columns

Your emissions report contains several technical columns that provide information concerning the carbon footprint of each shipment:

  • Emission Cost: Shows the actual environmental impact value for each shipment, calculated by multiplying the Emission Factor by the Emission Distance and the shipment's Chargeable Weight (converted to metric tonnes). While the Chargeable Weight is displayed in kilograms in reports, the calculation internally converts this to tonnes (dividing by 1000) to correctly apply the emissions formula.

  • Emission Unit: Displays Emission Cost measurement unit. By default the Emission Cost is displayed in kg CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent), the industry standard for comprehensive greenhouse gas reporting.

  • Emission Factor: Represents the emissions factor (derived from NTM standards).

    • Note on prior versions: In earlier releases, the Emission Factor field already included the multiplication with the shipment distance. This meant the Emission Cost was calculated by simply multiplying this pre-calculated Emission Factor with the Chargeable Weight. The current version separates these components for greater transparency.

  • Emission Source: Identifies the calculation origin (currently "EMISSIONS_TRACKER"). Future versions will support additional sources such as carrier-provided and user uploaded data.

  • Emission Timestamp: Records when the calculation was performed, allowing you to track calculation history.

  • Emission Distance: Shows the calculated distance between origin and destination zones used in the emissions formula.

  • Chargeable Weight: Displays the weight used for calculation, which is standardized as gross weight per ISO 14083 requirements.

  • Emission Calculation Method: Always shows "Exact," indicating that calculations use the shipment's chargeable weight. This field is maintained for backward compatibility and may show in reports, though the "Round up" option is no longer available in the current version.

Additional columns in your report contain shipment details such as carrier, service, order number, and dimensions, providing context for each emission calculation.


Identifying applied emission factors

The emissions report contains several key columns that provide transparency into which emission factor configuration has been applied to each shipment:

  • Tariff Name: Displays the name you assigned to the emission factor configuration when you created it. This is why using descriptive, unique names for your configurations is important.

  • Lane ID: Indicates the geographical zone the factor applies to:

    • Nordics: Applied when both origin and destination countries are Nordic countries (Sweden, Norway, Finland, or Denmark). This includes both domestic shipments within a single Nordic country and shipments between different Nordic countries.

    • Europe: Applied when at least one country (origin or destination) is in Europe but outside the Nordics, while the other country is within Europe. For example, a shipment from Sweden to Germany or from France to Italy.

    • Global: Applied when at least one country (origin or destination) is outside Europe. For example, a shipment from Sweden to the United States or from Japan to Germany.

  • Bracket ID: Shows the transport mode and type being used:

    • Road: Further specified as Parcel (up to 100 kg), Groupage (100-2500 kg), Part load (2500-17000 kg), or Full load (over 17000 kg)

    • Air

    • Ocean

    • Rail

  • Tariff Type: Indicates whether the configuration is based on an nShift Standard Emission Factor or a user-defined Custom Emission Factor.


Interpreting Calculation Methods

The combination of these columns provides complete transparency into how each shipment's emissions were calculated:

  1. The system first identifies which emission factor configuration applies based on the carrier, service, and valid date range.

  2. It then applies the appropriate emission factor based on:

    • The geographical zones involved (Lane ID)

    • The transport mode (Bracket ID)

    • The shipment weight (for automatic categorization of road shipments)

  3. The calculation uses the shipment's actual weight and distance to determine the final emissions value.

Understanding these details allows you to verify that the correct emission factors are being applied to your shipments and helps you identify opportunities for optimizing your transportation sustainability.

 

 

Prior Version: Explanation of columns in the legacy Emissions Report

In April 2025, we introduced an enhanced methodology for distance calculations in Emissions Tracker, significantly improving the precision of the emissions reporting. Concurrently, we updated the column structure and data presentation in the Emissions Report available in nShift Portal to better support sustainability reporting needs. Below, you'll find explanations of the columns as they appeared in the legacy reports prior to this update:

  • Emission Source: The source for the emission calculation. This is currently EMISSIONS_TRACKER, but in a future product version, other sources (for example "Carrier" and "Shipper") will be available.
  • Emission timestamp: The date/time when the calculation was made.
  • Lane ID: The lane created between two zones used for the calculation of shipment distance.
  • Bracket ID: The different weight brackets defined in the tariff e.g. 0-100kg, 101-2500kg, etc.
  • Emission unit: The unit of measure is predefined as kg CO2e.
  • Emission calculation method: Could be “Round up” or “Exact”. This configuration defines if the Emission Cost is calculated using the exact gross weight or if it is rounded up to the nearest predefined weight delimiter (defined by Bracket ID), i.e. favorable calculation. The default value is always "Exact".
  • Emission cost: The cost of your shipment on the environment, e.g., the actual emission value. It is calculated by multiplying the "Emissions Factor" with the "Gross weight".
  • Emission factor: The shipment distance multiplied by the emissions per tonne-kilometer (tkm) defined by NTM.
    • Note on prior versions: In earlier releases, the Emission Factor field already included the multiplication with the shipment distance. This meant the Emission Cost was calculated by simply multiplying this pre-calculated Emission Factor with the Chargeable Weight. The current version of Emissions Tracker separates these components for greater transparency.
  • Emission distance: The distance between the zones used for calculating emissions on the shipment.
  • Chargeable weight: The chargeable weight of the shipment, which is always gross weight by default as stipulated in ISO 14083.
  • Tariff name: The name of the tariff used to retrieve data to perform the calculation.

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