Avoided Emissions of Digital Solutions 

Digital solutions enable decarbonization in other sectors through mechanisms such as optimizing operations and logistics, reducing material and energy use, and shaping operator and consumer decisions at key moments. Even small improvements can deliver significant decarbonization when applied at scale. Assessing the avoided emissions of digital solutions presents specific challenges because their impact depends on complex interactions with physical value chains. WBCSD’s new sectoral guidance, Avoided Emissions of Digital Solutions, aims to address these challenges by providing sector-specific methodologies to help companies credibly assess digital solutions.  

Who is it for? 

This guidance is written for digital solution providers whose solutions support systemic decarbonization in other sectors. It is also relevant for investors and policymakers aiming to assess and compare the impacts of digital solutions enabling low-carbon transitions. 

Why read it? 

• Understand how digital solutions generate avoided emissions through five enabling mechanisms.  
• Get digital solution-specific guidance on seven methodological topics, such as defining a functional unit and system boundary, constructing a reference scenario, accounting for rebound effects, and capturing real-world user behavior. 
• Access three practical AE assessment case studies, including household energy usage optimization through a smart home platform, supply-demand matching in a retail application, and AI-driven industrial machine optimization. 
• Support credible, transparent AE assessments that align with the latest science and regulatory expectations. 

Quantifying and communicating AE gives companies a consistent basis for tracking performance, demonstrating the business case, and supporting investment and capital allocation decisions. This guidance supports technically robust and practically implementable AE assessments for digital solutions. 

This document complements the Guidance on Avoided Emissions v2.0: Drive Innovations and Scale Solutions Toward Net Zero, which provides a cross-sectoral framework for AE assessment. 

As digital solutions are implemented across sectors, this Guidance may also be used along with our growing library of sectoral guidance documents in the Implementation Hub.