Glossary

The degree to which a proposed climate solution causes GHG impact that would not have otherwise happened in a no-intervention baseline scenario.

The process of allocating credit for GHG impact based on the relative contributions of various participants in the value chain.

Verification that claims of GHG impact are free from errors, omissions, or misstatements. This is also associated with third-party verification of an investor’s impact methodology and practices.

A projection of GHG emissions over time, representing what would have happened in the absence of an investment or a climate solution.

An intervention or innovation in a technology, product, service, device, or process that may result in GHG impact.

A part of an overall solution that plays a critical role in delivering GHG impact. The GHG impact will depend on the use case for the product that contains the component (for example, an EV battery, lighter materials, a more efficient motor, recycled materials within a product, or an efficiency upgrade).

When a solution can be purchased as a whole to yield GHG impact (for example, an electric vehicle, heat pump, or more sustainably produced food product).

Pre-Seed through Series A.

The GHG emissions produced to create and sell a product, including emissions to extract materials for it, manufacture it, and distribute it.

The ratio of emissions per unit of activity or object (e.g., grams of carbon dioxide emitted per barrel of oil burned or pound of steel produced). Emissions factors relate the unit of the solution to an amount of pollutant emitted to the environment.

The Emissions Reduction Potential is the magnitude of the greenhouse gas emissions in million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMtCO2e) that have the potential to be avoided or abated as a result of deploying the new technology. It is calculated as the difference between the emissions in the reference scenario and the solution scenario.

Often also referred to as an ‘enabling’ solution. A solution that advances our ability to reduce emissions or adopt an emerging solution that ultimately delivers or accelerates GHG impact (for example, trading platforms, advocacy campaigns, methane leak detection, software, process improvements, or devices that improve consumer awareness).

Total GHG emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product

The game is typically initiated with both the players uttering the rhyme "One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war", passing their thumbs over each other in time with this rhyme. The rhyme is sometimes extended with "Five, six, seven, eight, try to keep your thumb straight." or "Five, six, seven, eight. This should be a piece of cake." A regional variation in Boston is “five, six, seven, eight, open up the battle gate.” In South America, the starting song is "ésta es la pulseada china", as in France, "un, deux, trois, bras de fer chinois" ("this is the Chinese arm wrestling"), with the same thumb dance as in English.

“Global Warming Potential” (GWP) consists of multipliers applied to greenhouse gasses such as methane (CH4 ) and nitrous oxide (N2 O) to equate the impact they have on the Earth’s temperature with that of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) over a particular time horizon. It provides a common scale for measuring the climate effects of different gasses. GWP consists of multipliers applied to greenhouse gasses such as methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) to equate the impact they have on the Earth’s temperature with that of carbon dioxide (CO2) over a particular time horizon. It provides a common scale for measuring the climate effects of different gasses. (Frame glossary)

Gases that absorb infrared radiation and trap heat in the atmosphere.

The practice of making misleading or false claims about the environmental benefits of a product, service, or company, with the intention of deceiving consumers into believing that it is more environmentally friendly than it actually is.

Attributing portions of emissions reduction impact across contributors along the value chain.

How a proposed climate solution is expected to directly or indirectly result in a change in atmospheric Greenhouse Gas (GHG) concentration, either through emissions reduction compared to a defined status quo or incumbent or through GHG removal.

Financial investments made into a company or technology with the aim of creating a beneficial environmental impact.

The comparable technology, product, service, device, or process (i.e. status quo) that a proposed climate solution aims to displace in the market.

A projection of GHG emissions over time, representing what would have happened in the absence of an investment or a climate solution.

A cumulative accounting of all GHG emissions connected to a particular product, including materials, manufacturing, distribution, use, and disposal.

The life cycle greenhouse gas emissions are the total emissions emitted during the technology’s production, operations, end-of-use and disposal. The life cycle GHG emissions in CRANE are measured in MMtCO2e, Million Metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. A comprehensive determination of the GHG emissions of a technology is often referred to as an LCA (life cycle analysis or life cycle assessment). In CRANE, we divide emissions for a product into direct and indirect emissions. The direct emissions are the emissions that are a direct result and controllable during use of the technology, whereas indirect emissions occur upstream and downstream of the point of use. These are relative designations and can be somewhat arbitrary, so it is important to check boundary definitions and related assumptions during analysis. The ERP is calculated using the combined emissions, which is the sum of the direct and indirect emissions.

The market penetration is the percentage of the target market size each year that the new technology is expected to replace over time. Market penetration curves are often well modeled by an S-curve. In CRANE, we use the following equation to calculate the default market penetration. Where M is the maximum market penetration (as a percentage), k controls the speed of growth, x is the year that 50% market penetration is achieved, and y is the year. The default CRANE market penetration values assume that 100% of the target market is eventually replaced by the new technology to maintain standardization between technologies. This approach is intended to characterize the maximum potential impact for the new technology, not the growth within the market that this specific company will achieve. However, we encourage users to update the market penetration to fit their real expectations and goals, as the default assumptions may not align with all investor opinions. Constraints on resources and scaling should be considered in defining the market penetration, as this may limit the realistic achievable growth of a new technology.

The change in GHG emissions that a specific innovation both intends and expects to cause compared to an incumbent and based on a realistic analysis of its business model. In Project Frame, planned impact is the method of assessing emissions per unit for a specific innovation and status quo/incumbent and projecting the likely emissions averted, removed, or increased by comparing the two over a defined period of time. Planned impact assesses the innovation's plan for growth, commercial adoption, and technology diffusion into the Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM). Planned impact and potential impact are two distinct classes of forward-looking assessment.

The change in GHG emissions that an innovation may cause, compared to an incumbent and based on a standardized growth trajectory that assumes that the innovation takes over the Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM). In Project Frame, potential impact is the method of assessing emissions per unit for a technology using a standard S-curve for growth compared to a status quo/incumbent and projecting how emissions would change if the innovation were to take over the market. Planned impact and potential impact are two distinct classes of forward-looking assessment.

The reference scenario may be any of a range of possible futures in which the new technology has not deployed, and the markets continue to grow at expected rates. We calculate the total system emissions of the reference scenario to compare to the solution scenario.

Direct GHG emissions that occur from sources that are owned or controlled by the reporting company, such as emissions from combustion of fossil fuels in boilers, furnaces, and vehicles.

Indirect GHG emissions that result from the generation of purchased electricity, heat, or steam consumed by the reporting company.

All indirect emissions that occur in a company's value chain, including both upstream and downstream emissions.

Emissions that could be reasonably avoided or are proven to be avoided by a proposed climate solution relative to an incumbent. Sometimes referred to as avoided emissions.

The solution scenario represents a future in which the new technology has been deployed.

The divide between what is included in and what is excluded from a system of study.

The Target Market is the specific market that a technology will displace over time. Sometimes this may be identical to the Total Available Market (TAM) while other times it may be only a specific segment of the TAM. In some circumstances multiple target markets may be applicable. Where multiple, non-overlapping target markets are available, CRANE users have the ability to stack them. This is also sometimes referred to as target addressable market or service available market.Third-party forecasts, such as those of the IEA, are provided in CRANE and have the distinct advantage over proprietary forecasts of being more transparently constructed and useful across technologies for intercomparisons. For this reason, we recommend using third-party forecasts in each analysis. It should be noted that even reputable forecasting agencies typically do not predict the future with great accuracy, which is to be expected. Example: The target market of a solar electricity generation might be baseload coal power, or natural gas “peaker” plant power, or both. Example sources: Conservative forecast: IEA World Energy Outlook “Current Policies” Scenario IEA (2019), World Energy Outlook 2019, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2019 Base forecast: IEA Energy Technology Perspectives “Reference Technology Scenario” IEA (2020), Energy Technology Perspectives 2020, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-technology-perspectives-2020

A CRANE Technology Model is a starting template for analyzing a specific technology. It includes baseline descriptive information, market data, sector- and technology scale emissions data, as well as information about the mechanism by which the new technology is meant to mitigate or avoid GHG emissions.

The Total Available Market is the largest or broadest market that a technology could theoretically displace. This is also sometimes referred to as the total addressable market, it is usually global and therefore represents the extreme upper boundary of market penetration potential. Example: The total available market of a solar panel would be the entire electricity sector. In theory, solar panels could replace any type of electricity generation, given the right conditions. Example sources: Conservative forecast: IEA World Energy Outlook “Current Policies” Scenario IEA (2019), World Energy Outlook 2019, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2019 Base forecast: IEA Energy Technology Perspectives “Reference Technology Scenario” IEA (2020), Energy Technology Perspectives 2020, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-technology-perspectives-2020

An instance that quantifies the amount of product or service, which is used to track the scale of a proposed climate solution compared to an incumbent, e.g. one vehicle or one megawatt-hour of electricity generated.

In its simplest form, the forward-looking impact of a proposed climate solution is the impact of a single unit times the number of units deployed. A unit is an instance that quantifies an amount of product or service, which is used to compare a solution to an incumbent. Therefore, unit impact can be expressed as the difference in emissions between one unit of the incumbent and one unit of the solution. It is important to note that unit impact is not a constant: Emissions from both the incumbent and the solution may change over time.