Global Collaboration to Develop a Carbon Reporting Demonstrator

How the exchange of CO2 data along the value chain and across countries can work on a standardized basis.

Secure and managed data interoperability among inter and intra-company manufacturing platforms offers significant opportunity for improved, end-to-end industry productivity and precision. Motivated by the value of data interoperability across platforms and borders, Plattform Industrie 4.0 and its US partner CESMII – The Smart Manufacturing Institute together with Labs Network Industrie 4.0 developed a first joint demonstrator to show interoperability among different inter company data collection systems. Inter-platform data interoperability is significantly complex when accounting, for example, managing selected data from multiple entities, the differences in platforms that need to be networked or data security in storage and transit. Carbon reporting is an important industry-wide, national and international application area in which data interoperability is a key enabler for achieving easy end-to-end data collection and processing. Applying the demonstrator to this use case contributes not only to international interoperability, but also to the commitment of both countries to reduce CO2 emissions in manufacturing. 

Demonstrator proves interoperability of Asset Administration Shell (AAS) and Smart Manufacturing Profile (SMP) 

Against growing expectations towards companies from clients, regulators, and further stakeholders to report on their carbon emissions, also on product level and in higher frequency, manufacturers face digital hurdles: Different data systems cannot communicate with each other and data is hardly ever automatically transmitted from one company to the other. Even inhouse, it can be a challenge to gather data on a standardized basis. In addition, achieving reporting on product level demands high complexity and detailed data collection and allocation. 

This is exactly where the demonstrator comes in and shows: It is possible for data to be networked via interoperable digital solutions. By using an established open standard (OPC UA) and a connection to the cloud (UA Cloud Library, developed by the OPC Foundation and CESMII) the use case proves that data collection systems for assets in production – the Asset Administration Shell (Plattform Industrie 4.0) and the Smart Manufacturing Profiles (CESMII) – are interoperable. This means that emission data generated during production can be collected digitally and made available via open standardized interfaces – across platforms, company sites and countries. 

In the demonstrator, carbon emissions generated during production – so-called Scope 1 and 2 emissions – are measured and calculated. When the product is passed on to a customer, these documented carbon emissions are sent along the value chain. This is an important step to include Scope 3 emissions in the overall calculation, i.e., the emissions from the entire supply chain (upstream and downstream), which are responsible for about 80 % of emissions in manufacturing (source: „Die Zukunft der globalen Wertschöpfung“, S. 14, CDP Europe/Systain Consulting gmbh, 2014). Therefore, a baseline for calculating product-specific carbon footprints is established.

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Plattform Industrie 4.0 CESMII –
The Smart Manufacturing Institute 

Bülowstraße 78 520 Portola Plaza 
10783 Berlin MS 5308 – Box 951557 
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1557 

Status 
November 2021