Petra from Sitowise

Sitowise is one of Finland's leading built environment consultancies, combining expertise in engineering, planning, and digital solutions. In this interview, Petra, team lead for climate accounting at Sitowise, shares how the company moved beyond spreadsheets, why Carbon+Alt+Delete became the natural choice, and what the future of carbon accounting looks like from the Finnish market.

From Excel to a scalable solution

Before adopting Carbon+Alt+Delete, Sitowise relied entirely on Excel by using custom-built spreadsheets developed in-house or sometimes shared by clients who had their own long-standing files. "The basic project was always in Excel," Petra explains. "We had built a few calculators that we could replicate across projects, but then we also had clients using their own sheets, either built by us or by someone else."

The real friction wasn't the calculations themselves, it was managing emission factors. "We calculate emissions to multiple industries and activities and therefore the need for emission factors fluctuates a lot and we need to manage a big load of them. This is why it takes a lot of time to search and upkeep them. This point is one of the biggest reasons why Carbon+Alt+Delete has been so beneficial for us.

A familiar tool, a deliberate choice

Petra had already come across Carbon+Alt+Delete at a previous employer, which meant the decision at Sitowise was rooted in first-hand experience rather than a cold comparison process. "I was already on board with it personally. When I moved to Sitowise and took on the team lead role, I suggested it - and then we had more detailed discussions with the Carbon+Alt+Delete team and brought a couple more people in from our side to evaluate the software properly."

The cross-library emission factor search and automatic updates were exactly what addressed the team's main pain point. "We still wanted to make sure the factors were from credible sources and were the latest version available - but we didn't have a good solution for maintaining them across multiple clients. Carbon+Alt+Delete solved that."

A selling point, not just a back-office tool

For Sitowise, the software has become more than an internal efficiency gain - it has changed how they position themselves in client conversations. "We've had cases where clients have specifically wanted a software-based solution rather than a traditional Excel-based project.” Petra says.

Demo calls have become part of the sales process with interested clients, and the reaction is consistently positive. "They're always really impressed with how it looks, and we have gotten feedback like: 'This seems quite simple, I got the hang of it straight away.' The demo makes it a lot easier to discuss what the project will actually look like."

She also sees a broader alignment with Sitowise's identity as a company. "We operate at the intersection of the built environment and digital innovation. Sitowise is a front runner in digital solutions so it is natural for us to introduce these types of approaches to emissions accounting as well.”

The biggest argument for leaving Excel behind

When talking to potential clients who are still managing carbon calculations in spreadsheets, Sitowise's strongest argument is longevity. By adding customer data, emission factor databases and other input into spreadsheets, there is a high chance of breakdown thanks to the volume of data, user mishaps or something else entirely,” Petra explains. "If you use Carbon+Alt+Delete, you're good to go for many years without needing to revamp everything."

Most of Sitowise's current clients using the platform have already been doing emissions accounting for at least a couple of years. They understand the long game. "That argument is harder to sell to someone just starting out who hasn't yet grasped what the process involves. But for those who have been at it for a while, the benefit clicks immediately."

Helping clients take ownership

One dynamic Petra highlights as particularly valuable is Carbon+Alt+Delete's ability to support collaborative working between consultant and client. "A lot of our clients say they want to participate in the calculations themselves, they want to learn and take ownership of the process. Carbon+Alt+Delete works really well for that, because it stays consistent and we can work together with a clear divide: for example we handle Scope 3 while they handle Scopes 1 and 2." This model has proven reassuring to clients financially as well.

On the support side, Petra highlights the training resources as a differentiator. "Many of our clients have been positively surprised that they can access support materials and trainings directly. That's been really appreciated."

One personal note Petra was keen to include: working with Eerik, Sitowise's Finnish-speaking contact at Carbon+Alt+Delete, has been a meaningful part of the experience. "The fact that there's someone who can discuss this in your native language is a valuable point for us. And for some of our clients, that's not just a nice-to-have, it's a decisive factor."

What comes next: from numbers to action

When it comes to future development, Petra's clients are already pointing the direction. The question she hears most often after delivering a carbon footprint is: "We're doing this because of reporting, but what else? What do we do next with these results?"

"Being able to work with the results inside the system itself, without needing separate tools or reports, that's going to be a relevant thing," she says. Longer term, she also sees direct integrations with clients' own systems as the dream state: smoother data uploads, less manual effort.

Finally, Petra points to Scope 3 as the frontier where carbon accounting still has the most to gain. Especially for larger firms managing hundreds of suppliers - that's a complex net to control and collect data from. And there's a growing wall that companies are hitting: they've set e.g. SBTi targets, they're trying to buy more sustainable products, but those products are more expensive, which pushes up their spend-based emissions. They get frustrated because the number won't go down the way they want. “That's the problem we're now trying to help open up and solve together with the support of Carbon+Alt+Delete."

About Carbon+Alt+Delete

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