Work with carbon credits

When you can't reduce your emissions for some reason, you can purchase carbon credits to offset them. By buying carbon credits, you can still emit the equivalent amount of gases but remain carbon neutral. You can purchase carbon credits from specialized providers.

In general, carbon credits are permits that allow the owner to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) or other greenhouse gases (GHGs). One carbon credit typically represents the right to emit one metric ton of CO₂ or an equivalent amount of another GHG, so it's important for some organizations to enable this option.

Set up carbon credits

You set up carbon credits in Business Central as items. A credit can be an inventory, service, or non-inventory type of item.

To set up an item as a carbon credit, follow these steps:

  1. Select the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter Items, and then select the related link.
  2. Create a new item. To learn more about how to create an item, go to Register new items.
  3. On the Sustainability FastTab, turn on the GHG Credit toggle.
  4. In the Carbon Credit Per UOM field, enter the value of the carbon credit.
Note

Note:
The Carbon Credit Per UOM field represents the amount of CO₂ in the unit of measure configured in the Emission Unit of Measure Code field on the Sustainability Setup page. The total value of carbon credit is the amount of credited CO₂ per one Base Unit of Measure of the item.

Purchase carbon credits

Purchase documents

To work with any purchase-related documents, follow the steps:

  1. Select the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature 3. icon and:
    1. Enter Purchase Invoices if you want invoice as a Document Type, and then select the related link.
    2. Enter Purchase Orders if you want order as a Document Type, and then select the related link.
  2. Fill in the fields on the General FastTab. To learn more, go to How to work with purchase invoices and orders.
  3. On the Lines FastTab, choose the item configured as a carbon credit in the No. field on a line. Then fill in the Quantity and Direct Unit Cost fields.
  4. In the Sustainability Account No. field, choose the account to use for decreasing your carbon dioxide (CO₂) value. Business Central automatically fills in the Emission CO2 field based on the value you configured in the Carbon Credit Per UOM field on the Item card.
  5. Post the document.
Note

Note:
Although carbon credits decrease the value of entries, the Emission CO2 field shows a positive amount. After you post the document, on the Sustainability Ledger Entry page, the entries have negative values and the Document Type field shows GHG Credit.

Sustainability journals

To work with sustainability journals, follow these steps:

  1. Select the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature 3. icon, enter Sustainability Journal, and then select the related link.
  2. On the Sustainability Journal page, enter as many lines as you intend to post in the same batch.
  3. In the Document Type field, choose GHG Credit.
  4. In the Account No. field, you can select only nonblocked sustainability accounts where the Direct Posting field is selected and the Accounting Type field is set to Posting. The accounts must also be configured with a category and a subcategory. Choose the account to which you post carbon credits.
  5. Select the Manual Input checkbox, and then enter the value you want to post as a carbon credit to the Emission CO2 field.
  6. Post the journal.

Finance
Record sustainability entries
Sustainability management overview
Sustainability Setup
Chart of Sustainability Accounts and Ledger
Ad-hoc analysis of sustainability data
Sustainability reports and analytics in Business Central
Sustainability API
Work with Business Central

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