Frequently asked questions

1. What is asset-based data?

Asset-based data is a concept pioneered by Asset Impact that involves gathering data from underlying physical assets – which could be any object in the economy that is a source of emissions, for example a power plant, steel mill or vehicle. Each asset in Asset Impact’s database is linked to data points on a wealth of technical and physical markers directly tied to the energy transition, biodiversity, sustainability, and the economy. We link physical assets to their direct owners and every other company in the financial ownership tree with an interest in each asset.

By building a picture based numerous data points for individual real assets, associating each asset with financial ownership and providing broad time horizons, we can uncover meaningful insights. For example, how the energy transition is taking place within and across sectors. Digging even deeper, our data can be used to track a specific company's shift away from upstream oil and gas extraction and towards renewable power generation over time.

2. Why use an asset-based approach rather than company reported data?

While a growing number of companies disclose climate and sustainability data publicly, to investors, or to regulators, there is currently no universal standard for disclosure. As a result, companies employ a wide range of different methodologies and accounting principles in their climate and sustainability reporting. We do not use these reported emissions data from companies in our products because in many cases, companies do not disclose all the critical environmental indicators, nor report how their results are allocated across their company tree or underlying asset portfolio. This means that company-reported data is generally neither comparable, nor transparent.

Instead, we use consistent sectoral emission methodologies and data sources to ensure that the scopes and boundaries of company-level indicators remain comparable across all companies in our data. In a nutshell, an asset-based approach provides the most precise view of activities in the real economy.

3. How can differences between company reports and Asset Impact’s asset-based figures be reconciled?

When companies use different methodologies to those employed by Asset Impact, differences between the company’s disclosures and Asset Impact’s methodologically consistent figures may occur. We help our clients reconcile the various reporting standards, metrics, and definitions used by different companies through offering transparent and detailed methodologies and regular engagement opportunities.

4. How do banks, asset managers, consultants, think tanks and policy makers use Asset Impact's data?

Asset Impact's data is trusted by leading financial institutions around the world for a variety of climate-related use-cases. These span from reporting and investment management to compliance, marketing, and product development. Notably, our clients have used our data for the following:

Build the analytics and tools required to measure and manage their climate impact and achieve their climate targets and net-zero goals
Calculate their clients’ current and future carbon footprint
Engage with their clients to achieve emissions reductions in the real economy
Measure portfolio alignment with net zero scenarios
Comply with regulatory requirements (e.g., European Central Bank Stress Test), disclose against voluntary initiatives (e.g., PCAF, Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, etc.), and run analytical tools (e.g., PACTA)
Design new climate-aligned financial products

Click here to see our data in action.

5. What products does Asset Impact offer?

Asset Impact offers two core products, build on our historic, current and forward-looking asset-based data:

Indicators: Datasets comprising huge amounts of raw data. Spanning 11 climate-critical sectors, our consistent and comparable datasets are available at the asset-level or aggregated to the company-level for maximum flexibility and deep analysis of financial portfolios
Analytics: Derived from our asset-based data, our range of analytics are streamlined for specific use cases and designed to be plugged into leading climate standards

6. How many assets and companies does our data cover?

Currently, Asset Impact’s data covers over 300,000+ physical assets in the real economy and 65,000+ listed equities and private companies across 11 energy- and carbon-intensive sectors, representing approximately 76% of global greenhouse gas emissions. However, we are always expanding and increasing our coverage.

7. Which sectors does Asset Impact cover?

Our products are designed primarily to support financial institutions to have the maximum impact possible, therefore we prioritize covering sectors with the greatest contribution to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions because decarbonizing these sectors is key to meeting local, national, and global net-zero ambitions. Assets are allocated to sectors based on their activities, and we assign asset definitions based on these activities. Clients are able to purchase data from one or more sectors.

Sector	Description	Asset definition
Coal	Coal mining	Coal mine
Oil & Gas Upstream Downstream	Upstream oil and gas extraction Down-stream refining	Oil and gas field Oil refineries
Power	Power generation	Power plant
Automotive HDV LDV	HDV manufacturing LDV manufacturing	HDV manufacturing plant LDV manufacturing plant
Aviation	Aviation industry	Commercial aircraft
Shipping	Shipping industry	Ocean-going vessel
Cement	Cement manufacturing	Cement manufacturing plant
Steel	Steel manufacturing	Steel manufacturing plant
Aluminium	Primary aluminium production	Aluminium production plant

Sector	No. of assets	Coverage of global production	No. of companies
Coal	4,000	>95%	2,869
Oil & Gas Downstream Upstream	812 92,951	>98% >95%	777 5,618
Power generation	135,753	80%	42,529
Automotive HDV LDV	318 1,144	>95% >95%	573 569
Aviation	44,377	>95%	1,982
Shipping	50,036	95%	11,657
Cement	2,906	76%	2,417
Steel	1,066	91%	1,412
Aluminium	202	98%	261
Total	333,565	-	66,581

8. Which indicators do we provide?

Our largest dataset includes over 100 indicators. This includes physical emission intensities and absolute emissions, split by scope, for each applicable asset and company. The emission intensity, emission factor, or relative emissions of an asset are the annual emissions weighted by the annual activity of the asset or company. Absolute emissions are the total annual emissions.

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Our asset-based model also enables us to provide activity indicators of each asset and companies: production (for all sectors) and capacity (for only power currently). All these indicators are broken down by country, sector and technology level.

9. How does Asset Impact calculate emissions?

Absolute emissions and emissions intensities are calculated at the asset level using Asset Impact’s state-of-the-art emissions models, which we share with clients. Our models take into consideration a range of the asset’s characteristics, companies’ plans, and macro environmental factors. The emissions indicators are then aggregated at the company level using our proprietary aggregation methodologies. We continue to refine these models based on external benchmarks and client feedback.

10. What are the time horizons included in Asset Impact’s data?

Our standard data products cover a 5-year forward-looking time horizon and 1 year of historical data. For datasets released in 2024, for instance, the time horizon covered is 2023 – 2029. For specific sectors we can provide extended past and future time horizons up to 2040.

11. Where does Asset Impact’s data come from?

We source millions of asset-level and financial data points across the 11 high-emitting sectors that our data covers. Across sectors, we use a wide range of data sources, including economic intelligence data providers, consolidated open-source data, and our own internal research to triangulate indicators for physical assets, which we then integrate into a robust and consistent data framework within our proprietary database.

12. How does Asset Impact ensure the quality of its data?

To ensure the delivery of high-quality data, we make systematic Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) a core component of our work. We integrate data quality checks at each stage of the process flow using automated QA, QC, and testing frameworks as well as internal and external feedback-loops.

We also ensure that our data providers follow stringent QA and QC processes before delivering the raw data to us. We then independently perform our own rigorous QA and QC checks on this raw data, as well as across all the stages in our data pipeline, up to the point where we deliver data to our clients.