Product

Emissions Data API

The FootprintLab Emissions Data API delivers verified emission factors and spend-based carbon data over a REST endpoint. This enables you to plug peer-reviewed environmental data straight into your platform, ledger, or reporting workflow.

Built for product and data teams in fintech, accounting, ESG and procurement software. Hosted in Australia, OAuth2-secured, and backed by the same peer-reviewed IELab data behind every FootprintLab dataset.

GET /search200 OK · 240ms
$ curl "https://api.footprintlab.io/search?activity_id=growing_wheat&country=AUS&impact_category=climate_change"
{ "num_records": 1, "records": [{ "record_id": "550e8400-…", "activity": { "activity_id": "growing_wheat", "unit": "kg" }, "location": { "country": "AUS", "region": "Oceania" }, "value": 2.15, "unit": "kg CO2-eq/kg" // + impact, source_data, data_year
impact-factor recordFull record shape ↓

What the API does.

Four operations cover the integration: search the factor database, calculate impacts from activity data, match activities with AI, and process many queries in a single batch.

01 / Search
Search the factor databaseGET/search
02 / Calculate
Compute impacts from activityPOST/calculate
03 / Copilot
AI activity matchingGET/copilot
04 / Batch
Many queries at oncePOST/search/batch

Also available: POST /calculate/batch, POST /convert-currency for spend correction, and discovery endpoints that enumerate valid field values.

What the data looks like.

Every search returns structured impact-factor records. Here's the full shape of one, and the dimensions you can filter by.

The recordrecords[]
record_idstring
UUID · stable for reporting
activityobject
activity_id · unit · lca_activity · classification
locationobject
region · country · subnational
impactobject
category · indicator · flow · unit · scope · method
source_dataobject
source · release version · url · data version
valuenumber
the factor itself
unitstring
e.g. kg CO2-eq/kg
data_yearinteger
vintage of the primary data

Wrapped in { num_records, records[], info }

Filter byGET /search
activity_idstring
Fuzzy match on activity or product name
activity_classification_systemstring
anzsic · naics · unspsc · mcc
activity_classification_codestring
Code within the system, e.g. 1351
countrystring
ISO 3-letter: AUS, USA, GBR
regionstring
UN Geoscheme: Oceania
primary_data_yearinteger
Data vintage: 2023
impact_categorystring
climate_change · water_use
impact_indicatorstring
ghg_emissions · water_consumption
scopestring
1 · 2 · 3
valuationstring
bp · pp (spend basis)
sourcestring
GLORIA · DEFRA
methodstring
ipcc_ar5
flowstring
ghg_total · ch4_emissions
sizeinteger
default 50 · max 1000

From card transactions to Scope 3.

The API maps to Merchant Category Codes, so transaction and expense data become emissions directly, with no classification layer to build. It also speaks ANZSIC, ISAPC, NAICS and UNSPSC, so procurement, accounting and ESG teams can query in the codes they already use.

Pick a merchant category
MCC 5411 · Grocery → ISIC G.4711
$420×0.31=0kg CO₂e
Spend$420 AUD
Factor0.31 kgCO₂e / $
BasisBasic price (bp)
Illustrative spend-based mapping. One API call per line.
01Transaction enrichmentTurn card and ledger lines into per-transaction emissions.
02Expense-report emissionsAttach a footprint to every expense category automatically.
03Procurement-card analysisMap spend to Scope 3 by MCC, ANZSIC or UNSPSC.

Get the price basis right.

Factors come in two price bases, so you get the exact numbers you need.

bpBasic price (bp)

Excludes margins. Use it for B2B and source-of-supply analysis.

Use for
Company-to-company purchasing
Imported raw materials
Manufacturing cost accounting
ppPurchaser price (pp)

Includes margins. Use it for retail and consumer-facing Scope 3.

Use for
Consumer and retail goods
Value-chain Scope 3 analysis
Average consumer behaviour
Every factor carries its source and method.
Every factor carries its source and method.

Each response includes the source, version, method and data year behind the factor, so you can verify it or cite it in a disclosure.

01
Sourcestring
02
Release versionstring
03
Data yearinteger
04
Uncertaintypercent
05
Temporal correlationscore 1–5
06
Geographic correlationscore 1–5
07
Technological correlationscore 1–5
08
Reliabilityscore 1–5

How to get access.

Included from the Core plan upward. Request access and we provision your OAuth2 credentials. The full reference, quickstart and Postman collection are public, so your developers can evaluate before you commit.

01
Step 01Request access
02
Step 02We provision your OAuth2 credentials
03
Step 03Build against the public docs
01
Request access
02
We provision your OAuth2 credentials
03
Build against the public docs

Get access

Put verified emissions data in your product.

Talk to us about API access and we'll scope it to your stack.

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