East Ventures and The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin Indonesia) have on Tuesday launched ECOVISEA, which stands for Emission Calculator & Visualization Southeast Asia.
Collaborating with WRI Indonesia as a knowledge partner, ECOVISEA acts as a free web-based global greenhouse gas (GHG) calculator that helps companies calculate and measure their environmental impact, East Ventures said in a statement.
According to the statement, this initiative is one of the outputs from the Memorandum of Understanding between East Ventures, Kadin Indonesia (through its program: Kadin Net Zero Hub), and WRI Indonesia in advancing commitment towards net-zero targets.
With the fact that Indonesia is one of the top ten emitter countries by contributing ~1.48 GtCO2e to GHG emissions yearly, it requires extra efforts to ensure progressive progress in achieving the Paris Agreement target, which is to limit 1.5C of global temperature increase by 2050.
The fundamental step is to have the companies calculate their emissions to measure their environmental impact; therefore, they will be able to reduce environmental impact or make informed decisions towards their sustainability targets.
Despite the importance of calculating GHG emissions, many companies in Indonesia, from large and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to startups, have not yet calculated their carbon footprints.
This is primarily due to a lack of access to GHG accounting skills and knowledge.
Recognizing this gap, East Ventures and Kadin Indonesia, with guidance from WRI Indonesia, launched this innovative tool and invited businesses in any industry nationwide to accurately measure, manage, and reduce their emissions, facilitating the transition to a low-carbon economy.
According to Shinta W. Kamdani, Coordinating Vice Chairwoman for Maritime, Investment, and Foreign Affairs of Kadin Indonesia, this initiative reflects their commitment through Kadin Net Zero Hub to assist national companies in transitioning towards becoming Net Zero Companies.
“ECOVISEA provides an essential tool for Indonesian companies to track and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions,
“We are confident that ECOVISEA will play a pivotal role in enabling national companies to collectively achieve the government’s targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reaching Net Zero Emission by 2060,” she added.
Avina Sugiarto, Partner at East Ventures, said that sustainability has been part of East Ventures’ DNA since its inception.
“Launched in partnership with KADIN Indonesia and WRI Indonesia, ECOVISEA stands as a testament to collaborative efforts in harnessing digital technology, industry-specific expertise, and on-the-ground insights,” she said.
According to her, this innovative tool streamlines the previously manual carbon calculation process and empowers businesses to visualize sources of GHG emissions to better identify emission reduction strategies.
“Together, we’re excited to pave the way for a sustainable future, leveraging the power of technology and actively contributing to the Government’s net zero vision,” she added.
According to the statement, ECOVISEA is currently designed to calculate the emissions produced by companies based on three scopes, including:
Scope 1: direct emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by the company, such as stationary combustion, fugitive emission, mobile combustion, process emissions, etc.
Scope 2: indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy, such as purchased electricity, heat or steam, etc.
Scope 3: all other indirect emissions from a company’s value chain, from both upstream and downstream value chains.
It is noted that the emission factor data used in ECOVISEA is provided by Climatiq, a carbon calculation engine.
This data upholds the global standard and is compliant with the GHG Protocol and ISO 14067.
For the current version, ECOVISEA can support the companies in calculating Scope 1, Scope 2, and some parts of Scope 3. The full version is expected to be fully launched in the first half of 2024.
“We believe that democratizing knowledge about accurate emissions tracking can make a substantial contribution to the industrial decarbonization efforts in Indonesia,” said Nirarta Samadhi, Country Director WRI Indonesia.
“Therefore, it is critical to streamline the data input process to help companies overcome challenges in precisely estimating their emissions, which often arise from complex data presentation and complicated data entry procedures,
“Given WRI Indonesia’s focus on science-based industrial decarbonization, we are pleased to have contributed to the development of ECOVISEA by providing guidance on methodology and ensuring adherence to the GHG protocol,” he added.
It is noted that ECOVISEA upholds the privacy policy for the company’s data inputted into the tool, which will be exclusively used for calculating the company’s GHG emissions.
The tool will temporarily retain the data inputs for the purpose of generating the dashboard as a result of calculating the company’s GHG emissions.
ECOVISEA also integrates with the data privacy system, which limits the authority to access, enter, and modify the company data to only the accounts registered using the company’s email domain.
Founded in 2009, East Ventures is a venture capital firm provides multi-stage investment, from seed to growth stage investments, for over 300 tech companies across Southeast Asia.
Established in 1968, Kadin is the umbrella organization for all chambers of commerce and business associations in Indonesia, including foreign chambers of commerce in Indonesia.
WRI Indonesia is an independent research organization dedicated to contributing to the socioeconomic development of Indonesia in an inclusive and sustainable way.