Open Footprint® (OFP) Forum
OFP Observations
Pace of activity has picked up with greater membership
Current OFP data model is well suited for now and future
Evolving beyond the data model into live use-cases
Need to balance different drivers from members (regulatory versus other)
Some key takeaways:
OFP Standards Deliverables
Data Model Industry Agnostic
- Data model aligned with regulatory requirements (now and in the future)
- Supportive of other GHG related use-cases
Reference Implementation
- Reference implementation (on multiple platforms) deployable to companies to house GHG data in OFP data model
Technology
- APIs and supporting technology to enable transfer of data
- Calculation engine to enrich the data
Published Standard
- OFP artifacts published as a data standard
- Regulatory drivers continue to bring urgency to emissions reporting generally. The Open Footprint Forum direction and planned deliverables address an urgent need that is not presently being addressed by the myriad of sustainability reporting frameworks that are out there.
- It will continue to be important to work with the producers of these various reporting frameworks and complementary standards including GHG protocol, ISO, WBCSD, and others, to align efforts.
- The existing sustainability reporting frameworks tend to deal with the "what" of reporting emissions data, defining what data needs to be reported, in what format.
- There is little out there to help deal with the "how" of emissions data management. This is fundamentally a data interoperability issue, which we've dealt with in The Open Group for many years, across many industries.
- There is a need for various use cases from companies in different industries to use to validate the forthcoming data model standard as it exists today.
- It will be important as the data model standard and APIs are published to work with solutions providers to drive interoperability.
- Today's pain point could be best described as a lack of standards to a ease data sharing for emissions data among value streams. This is particularly painful with scope 3, and is manifested in reporting companies by having to deal with a myriad of spreadsheets with varying data definitions from both sides of a business (supply and distribution chains), and the massive manual conversion efforts this brings, with delay, cost, and friction.
- Tomorrow's pain point may well be how to discover and leverage business value from the repositories of emissions data that will be created. Enabling better agility in decision-making is fundamental to reducing emissions, and making smart emissions-related investments.
The planned deliverables from the Open Footprint Forum are well positioned to address both of these pain points, and to make a significant contribution toward meeting carbon reduction goals.