Discover our transparent, science-based methodology

You’ll find an overview of how we built the general methodology, as well as access to the detailed "General Methodology'' handbook. As a cross-sectorial metric, you will also have access to the 15 dedicated sectorial handbooks.

Directly download the detailed version

Overview of our methodology

The NEC metric makes it possible to assess and compare all economic activities, asset classes, products, services and companies across all economic sectors with regard to their impact on the environment.

This is the strength of our metric: it serves as a reliable compass that guides decisions by allowing any activity to be assessed and, if need be, compared to another, providing a cross-sectorial analysis of Transition Risks and Transition Opportunities.

The metric is based on a methodology that was built in four steps:

Step 1

IDENTIFY THE MAIN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

We identify the environmental issues (climate, water pollution, land use change, etc.) that account for most of the impact of the function or service analysed (traveling, clothing, food, heating, lighting, etc.) along the life cycle steps. Each issue is assigned a weight or relative value, and 2 to 4 environmental issues are then singled out.

Step 2

ASSESS THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

For each value chain, we assign values of measurement to the most material environmental impacts – as quantitatively as possible (e.g. grams of CO2e/kWh for electricity production), allowing a relevant comparison of environmental performance per provided utility/service.

Step 3

CALIBRATE THE SECTORIAL SCALES

 

We convert this impact ranking into a relative scale: by setting 1) the NEC +0% point (corresponding to the global average environmental footprint) and 2) the NEC +100% point (corresponding to the least impactful activities). This creates industry-specific scales, for each of the 15 sectorial frameworks of our methodology.

Step 4

CALIBRATE THE COMMON CROSS-SECTORIAL SCALE

We re-calibrate the 15 sectorial NEC scales all together, with 3 levels available referring to high (-100%/+100%), moderate (-33%/+33%) or limited (-10%/+10%) impact intensity, so that they are all consistent and comparable on a single common NEC scale.

Why 4 steps ?

The first three steps are repeated for all the 15 sectorial frameworks, each of which covers a specific value chain, such as waste, or a group of value chains providing a given function, such as transportation or electricity. Each of these frameworks is thus applicable to an industry or a group of industries, such as mining, metals and basic materials. These three steps consist in building 15 specific NEC scales.

The last step is the second calibration step considering the NEC as a system of interconnected frameworks; it consists in bringing the 15 sectorial NEC scales all together, and to calibrate them on a common unique scale, making the NEC a cross-sectorial system.

Our methodology in more details

We provide access to a ”General methodology” handbook accessible via the form below. You will also find methodological handbooks for each framework, detailing which environmental issues are assessed, how they are weighted, what the underlying sources of the methodology are, … basically all you need to know about the NEC methodological construction.

Here is the list of all 15 frameworks:

Apparel & Textile

Appliances
Basic Materials
Building & Real Estate
Chemistry
Electricity
Food & Beverage
Fuel
Heat
Household & Personal Care
IT & Telecom
Mobility & Transport
Waste
Water
Wood & Paper

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    To access documents from the previous version of NEC, V1.0, please contact us at hello@nec-initiative.org

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