In this article, will review our new product feature: AI Data Scanner. At CarbonSuite, we believe that targeted and discrete uses of AI can have tremendous impacts on the carbon accounting process. We are very selective about deploying AI solutions that address the biggest challenge in carbon accounting: data collection and mapping.
This feature is very exciting as it transforms the way CarbonSuite is able to interpret and process activity data. Using AI for carbon accounting removes the difficult work of collecting activity data and keeps emission calculations as accurate as possible. It allows you to automatically scan PDFs and other documents from your NetSuite transactions to calculate GHG emissions.
Let’s see how it works:
We’ll begin by looking at the Emission Workbench. This is your reconciliation page that automatically pulls data from NetSuite transactions to translate them to carbon emissions.
Let’s look through some transactions that were calculated: an electricity bill, a gas bill, and a water bill.
Electricity Bill
Electricity bills can be difficult to navigate. It is common that users have trouble determining exactly what information needs to be pulled from the bill to calculate GHG emissions at the time of input. Scanning these bills manually can be both difficult and time consuming. There can be lots of different values such as total cost, daily usage, peak usage, number of days, meter usages, etc. depending on the utility vendor.
That’s why we’ve designed an AI Scanner – so that you are able to sit back and let the AI do the hard work for you.
Let’s have a look at an example.
This electricity bill has lots of information, and it can be difficult to determine which data is actually useful for calculating carbon emissions. Our AI feature is able to scan this bill for the useful information required, making carbon calculations simple and accurate. In this case, the AI reads the “Usage kWh” column and records the Total Peak and Total Off Peak usage.
This total of 4,072 Kilowatt Hours is then input as the activity amount for the associated emission transaction. The engine then runs the calculation by using Emission Factors to translate this activity data into reportable GHG emissions.
Just like magic! Simply record your Vendor Bills in NetSuite just like you already do, and AI Scanner calculates the GHG emissions of every transaction line.
Now let’s have a look at at another example.
Gas Bill
When looking at a gas bill, you are searching for different information an electricity bill. This can be confusing because it’s not always clear to the accounting team which data to look for when recording the transaction in NetSuite. Thankfully, our AI knows just what to look for.
In this case we have a gas bill from a utility vendor. This bill has financial data, term data, average daily consumption in gigajoules, year to date data, and usage measured in cubic meters. This is a lot of numbers to parse through, even for someone with experience looking through gas bills.
Luckily, our AI Scanner knows just what to look for. In this case, it has pulled the cubic meters off of the bill and input them into CarbonSuite as the activity data. CarbonSuite then uses the 35,251 cubic meters and multiplies them against an Emission Factor to calculate the GHG emissions. This equates to roughly 71,388 tCO2e.
Now let’s have a look at one final example.
Water Bill
A water bill is unique because it actually has two different types of emission transactions: water usage and water treatment. Our AI features is intelligent enough to differentiate these two transaction lines. This allows for the most accurate emission calculations possible.
The AI Scanner was able to read the line items for the water consumption, 1034 cubic meters, and the sewage disposal, 73.74 cubic meters.
The system then records 2 emission transactions, one for water consumption and one for wastewater. This line-level scanning of activity data is truly one-of-a-kind.
In conclusion, AI Scanner is a game changer in the way carbon accounting is handled within the SuiteApp. CarbonSuite is committed to keeping things as simple, efficient, and cost-effective as possible for our customers.
Check out a full demo of our new feature on our YouTube channel here.
Ready to see how CarbonSuite can help optimize your carbon accounting processes? Get in touch with us today!