Make emissions measurement accessible to smaller firms

Submitted through the COP31 Sustainable Transformation Awards · SKD Türkiye (WBCSD Global Network Partner)

Şekerbank T.A.Ş. is a Turkish bank with more than 3,000 employees that describes itself as “Türkiye's Social and Environmental Bank”, with a long-standing focus on small businesses, farmers and producers outside the largest financial centres.

Reducing carbon emissions and pursuing net-zero targets, at national and corporate level, is a central part of the response to the climate crisis. Measuring, reporting and verifying the emissions from a company's own operations, energy use and supply chain is therefore becoming a condition for taking part in global trade rather than a voluntary commitment.

The shift is particularly pressing for Türkiye's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which make up a large part of the national economy. Many of them export mainly to the European Union, where regulation increasingly requires evidence of a product's carbon footprint. Together with Türkiye's own net-zero commitment, growing customer expectations of environmentally responsible production and concern about long-term competitiveness in a low-carbon economy, this has made aligning production with net-zero pathways a necessity across the sector rather than a matter of best practice.

In practice this is difficult for most SMEs. Measuring emissions across a company and its workshops, dealers and branches requires calculation infrastructure and monitoring methods that smaller enterprises rarely have the capacity to build or maintain. Carbonmap was created to close this gap.

Location of the initiative: Türkiye, nationwide, through the bank's branch network and digital channels

Carbonmap is a carbon emissions and water footprint measurement platform built and offered by the bank (1). A business registers its locations, production facilities, workshops, dealers or branches and calculates the emissions of each from actual consumption data for electricity, water, fuel, waste, coal, remote working, business travel and employee commuting. A company with more than one facility can view emissions site by site, filter by consumption type or location, and review consumption and emissions over a chosen period.

The methodology follows the GHG Protocol. The platform calculates Scope 1 emissions from sources the company controls and Scope 2 emissions from purchased energy such as electricity, heat or steam in full, and covers selected Scope 3 categories: waste generated in operations (Category 5), business travel (Category 6) and employee commuting (Category 7). Emission factors are drawn from the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), the GHG Protocol and the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). The platform was developed end to end by the bank's own teams.

Usability was a central design goal, because emissions accounting tools are usually complex for a non-specialist to operate. With input from the bank's digital banking and service design teams, the platform presents the calculation through an interface any employee can use: time-based charts of how emissions change, consumption by location, and the total carbon and water footprint at a glance, with reports that can be exported in PDF or Excel format.

An AI assistant, Carby, reviews a company's emissions data and suggests ways to reduce or offset them. Trained to answer sustainability questions, it lets users ask about their results, relevant regulation or possible reduction measures and receive plain-language guidance within the platform. Companies that want to act on these suggestions are connected to the bank's financing products for emission-reduction investments and to wallet solutions for buying carbon credits or investing in emission-reduction or emission-avoidance projects.

The platform is free of charge for SME clients, which removes cost as a barrier for the businesses that can least afford specialised carbon accounting software. Businesses that are not yet clients of the bank can apply to become customers through the platform.

Figure 1: The Carbonmap dashboard, showing a firm's carbon footprint by energy source with the Carby assistant open (sample data)

Sustainability Impact

Climate

The platform is an enabler rather than a direct abatement measure. By giving SMEs a practical way to measure Scope 1, 2 and selected Scope 3 emissions alongside their water footprint, it turns a previously abstract obligation into a site-by-site picture that a business can act on.

The AI recommendations translate that picture into reduction or offsetting actions, and the connected financing and wallet products give companies a direct route from measurement to investment in decarbonisation. This supports the net-zero pathways of individual SMEs and, in aggregate, of the export sectors they supply.

The first phase covers 383 enterprises in sectors exposed to the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which together represent TRY 2.7 billion (approximately EUR 65 million) of the bank's credit exposure.

Social

Emissions accounting software of comparable depth is usually priced for large companies, which puts it out of reach for small workshops, dealers and family-run manufacturers. Offering the platform free of charge extends this capability to the smallest participants in Türkiye's export economy.

This helps them keep pace with EU regulatory expectations and remain in the supply chains of larger buyers, rather than risk exclusion for lack of emissions data they could not otherwise afford to produce.

Business Impact

Benefits

The platform makes the bank a sustainability partner to its SME customers as well as a lender, at a time when climate compliance is becoming commercially material to them.

Its pathway from measurement to action, through AI-generated reduction suggestions, financing for emission-reduction investment and wallet solutions for carbon credits, links a customer's sustainability needs to the bank's own products. It also brings in new customers, since businesses outside the client base can apply through the platform.

Verified client data can in time feed the bank's own financed emissions accounting (Scope 3, Category 15: investments).

Costs

The platform was developed in-house and is maintained by a standing product team, so its main costs are the bank's own development and operating resources.

Because the service is free for SME clients, there is no direct revenue against these costs; the return comes through deeper customer relationships and new customers. The AI assistant runs on a commercial large language model service, which adds a running service cost.

Impact Beyond Sustainability And Business

Co-benefits

Access to climate finance: SMEs are often excluded from carbon markets and green finance by cost and complexity. The platform gives them a route into both, from measuring their footprint to buying carbon credits or financing reduction projects.

Supply-chain reporting: Many SMEs supply larger companies that must disclose their Scope 3 emissions. Helping these suppliers produce credible emissions data strengthens the reporting of their corporate buyers.

Capacity building: Free, hands-on use of GHG Protocol-aligned measurement builds emissions literacy in businesses that would otherwise have no practical entry point into carbon accounting.

Potential side-effects

Data assurance: Self-reported consumption data can be mistaken for audit-grade certification. The platform presents all outputs as an internal carbon management baseline and states when third-party verification is required.

Adoption and digital literacy: SMEs with limited digital experience may find onboarding difficult at first. The bank addresses this with support in its branches and a simple, non-technical interface.

Typical Business Profile

The model suits banks and other lenders with a large small and medium-sized enterprise client base, particularly where borrowers export into markets that apply carbon border rules.

It requires an in-house digital banking and technology capability able to run a product team, and a sustainability function able to set the calculation standard.

It is most relevant where clients cannot afford consultancy-led carbon accounting, because the value comes from removing a cost barrier.

Approach

1. Start with the most exposed clients: Launch with enterprises in sectors exposed to CBAM. Here the first phase covered 383 enterprises with TRY 2.7 billion of credit exposure, ahead of a wider rollout across the commercial portfolio.

2. Set the calculation standard first: Base Scope 1, 2 and 3 calculations on the GHG Protocol and recognised emission factor sources (IPCC AR6, GHG Protocol, DEFRA), so that results are accepted by buyers and regulators.

3. Build with a cross-functional team: Combine sustainability and regulatory expertise with digital banking, agile development and service design, so that a technically complex framework becomes an interface a non-specialist can use.

4. Make data entry easy: Let firms add all their sites and upload their invoices, so that consumption data is complete and easy to check.

5. Add guidance and a route to action: Provide an AI assistant for questions and reduction suggestions, and connect the results to financing products and carbon credit solutions.

6. Remove the cost barrier and use existing channels: Offer the platform free to SME clients and use the branch network to support onboarding.

Stakeholders Involved

• Project leads: The initiative is sponsored at executive level and run through an agile product structure with dedicated accountability and a development roadmap aligned with the bank's long-term sustainability strategy.

• Company functions: Sustainability specialists, software engineers and digital banking teams developed the platform together in-house. The branch network is the main distribution channel, engaging SME clients and bringing sustainability into client relationship management.

• Main providers: No third-party integrator was used for the build. The Carby assistant runs on a commercial large language model service.

• Other: SMEs and mid-sized enterprises, particularly in sectors exposed to CBAM and to emerging domestic climate regulation, are the main users and beneficiaries. Large corporate clients also use the platform across their supply chains, encouraging tier-1 and local suppliers to measure their emissions.

Key Parameters To Consider

The platform was launched on 24 December 2024, and 2024 is the baseline year for impact monitoring.

The first phase of a wider rollout across the bank's commercial portfolio covers 383 enterprises in CBAM-exposed sectors, representing TRY 2.7 billion (approximately EUR 65 million) of credit exposure. Onboarding is still under way, so active use is tracked separately from the size of the cohort, with the aim of steadily expanding the active user base.

Live functions cover Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions tracking, water consumption analytics, the Carby assistant, ESG risk assessment and customs tariff screening. Climate risk measurement and carbon credit integration are planned next.

Impact data is tracked continuously from user entries and consolidated at each reporting cycle.

Implementation And Operations Tips

Remove both cost and effort. A free tool removes the cost barrier, but engagement depends on ease of use, such as automated reading of utility bills, and on immediate regulatory relevance, such as customs tariff screening that shows whether a firm's exports fall within the scope of CBAM.

Link measurement to incentives. Commercial incentives, such as favourable green lending terms, help turn a one-off calculation into continuous measurement.

Report actual use. Report client activity on realised use rather than projections, and when verified client data is brought into the bank's financed emissions accounting, put safeguards in place against double counting.

External Links

• Carbonmap platform

• Annual and integrated reports

Source List

• (1) Carbonmap platform