Knowledge A Detailed Explanation of the Importance and Benefits of Using IT for Carbon Neutrality（4/4）～Benefits of Visualizing CO2 Emissions in the Cloud～

Achieving carbon neutrality requires visualizing CO2 emissions. However, many global companies face challenges specific to their overseas operations when calculating and disclosing emissions throughout the supply chain. Company personnel in charge of such efforts often complain that they don’t know how to calculate CO2 emissions, or don’t know where to start. In addition to the lack of skilled local staff, another issue is the prevalent use of Excel for data management.

This article explains the importance and benefits of using IT for carbon neutrality as a solution to these challenges in four parts. It provides a clear introduction to carbon neutrality approaches, especially for those who are new to the field or looking for ways to improve efficiency.

4. Benefits of Visualizing CO2 Emissions in the Cloud

Visualizing CO2 emissions on the cloud offers several benefits for both on-site operations and headquarters:

Improved Operations

By centrally managing data on the cloud, the processes of collecting, inputting, and aggregating data can be automated. This eliminates the need for manual data conversion and standardization, significantly reducing labor. In addition, having a unified input format minimizes errors and improves the reliability of calculation results.

Faster Decision-Making

Since emissions data from all locations are uploaded to the cloud in real time, managers can make decisions based on the most current information. With data managed in a unified format, comparisons across multiple locations become straightforward. Visualizing trends in CO2 emissions by location also facilitates the development of detailed reduction strategies, leading to more efficient and effective outcomes.

Optimized Global Management

Using cloud services helps address challenges related to global governance, enabling headquarters in Japan to supervise and control overseas operations more effectively.

Furthermore, by applying unified global emission factors and calculation standards, companies can achieve more reliable analyses. Automating data aggregation and visualization in the cloud eliminates the need for manual data processing, and instant reporting is an added benefit.

5. Summary

When global companies calculate and disclose CO2 emissions across their supply chains—including overseas production facilities—they must maintain global governance, which can complicate management. In particular, managing CO2 emissions via Excel often results in lower data quality and reliability, and is prone to human error. Manual management also places a heavy burden on responsible personnel, making effort reduction a key challenge.

Cloud-based IT tools, however, can consolidate data from various locations into a single, centrally managed system. KDDI’s Green Digital Solution “ASUENE” is a cloud service designed to visualize, reduce, and report CO2 emissions.

The Factory IoT Visualization Solution uses sensors installed on production lines at overseas factories to collect primary data via network connectivity, enabling cloud-based visualization. KDDI offers a one-stop service from data acquisition to visualization.

KDDI provides centralized management of CO2 emissions—from understanding overall emissions to analyzing root causes—while offering companion support in collaboration with CDP-certified partners. For more information, please contact us.

Green Digital Solution (Japanese only)

Smart Factory IoT Solution

ASUENE