Announcing New API, New Regions, New Data Signals

As WattTime continues to ‘bend the curve’ of emissions reductions, we’re excited to announce the release of our upgraded API (version 3 or v3), which includes new regions and data signals in addition to a more refined and intuitive schema. By expanding to new countries and regions, we’re enabling our partners to bring emissions-reducing technology to a greater global audience. With additional grid signals, we’re able to maximize human health benefits in addition to greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions.

New API

The v3 API brings many improvements, including more intuitive and descriptive data delivery, error handling, and more. We don't undertake changes to our API lightly. We think the upgrades we've made in API v3 will be well worth the effort, as they will unlock greater opportunities for emissions reductions. We're here to support our partners as they begin using the new API.

New Countries and Regions

We have also released data for 12 new countries, which will only be available in API v3:

Mexico
Japan (10 regions)
South Korea
Brazil
India
Chile
Peru
Turkey
Malaysia
Nicaragua
Philippines
Singapore

Check out our coverage map to see our full coverage, now with unique map layers for each data signal we offer through the API.

New Data Signals

In addition to CO₂, the new API now offers our health damage data signal, which estimates the damage to human life and health caused by emissions from electricity generation based on the time and place that electricity is used. While currently only available in the US, this signal can be used to make decisions that reduce negative impacts on human life and health. IoT and EV companies have already begun using it as an input signal to device scheduling optimization, or to create a UI element advising users when to run appliances or plug in an EV. It can be used in tandem with the marginal operating emissions rate (MOER) to co-optimize device operation to reduce GHG emissions and damage to human health.

We’ve also added an average operating emissions rate (AOER), which is the average emissions rate (in lbs of CO₂ per MWh) of all the generators operating at a particular time, weighted by their energy output. Using this signal for load shifting wouldn’t reduce emissions, but many companies find the data helpful for calculating total annual footprint for GHGP Corporate Standard, Scope 2.

To learn more about the different signals we provide, visit our data signals page.

Refined Handling of Real-time and Historical Data

Two of the biggest changes between our v2 and v3 API are our handling of real-time and historical data.

“Real-time” data (formerly found in both the /v2/data and /v2/index endpoints), used to vary in recency, typically from five minutes old up to six hours. Now, all real-time data is always available within five minutes (in the /v3/forecast endpoint, the first data point applies to the current five-minute period). This provides a single, more reliable place to look for the data that apply to right now.

“Historical” data (formerly found in both the /v2/data and /v2/historical endpoints) used to be created typically within five minutes to six hours, but was never changed or updated after that. Now we’ve designed v3 such that we can still deliver historical data within a few hours (in the /v3/historical endpoint), but we can update those data later if more or better source data for a particular data point become available (data points are not overwritten, but additional points for the same timestamp become available). This allows us to maintain a historical database of emissions data that is more representative of the best available source information.

Transition Resources

We want this transition to be as easy as possible and worth the effort to upgrade. We’ve prepared a number of resources to guide our partners through the transition and help with getting acquainted with the new API, new regions, and new signals.

Transition Guide for APIv2 -> APIv3
APIv3 documentation
Release notes related to the API, data models, and methodology
Data Signals Overview to explain each of the data types we offer
Methodology & Validation have been updated and expanded

Support Webinar

WattTime will host a Q&A webinar about the new API and new features on Tuesday, January 23, at 11:30 a.m. PST / 2:30 p.m. EST. Learn more and sign up for the webinar here, and if you miss the webinar, the recording will be accessible on-demand using the same page after the event concludes.

API Version 2 Support

API v2 will continue to be supported until June 2024. While your upgrade to API v3 will be optional for approximately the next six months, we encourage you to proactively plan for your transition so that we can support you along the way if needed.

WattTime and its partners celebrate one billion watts of emissionality as more renewable energy buyers prioritize avoided emissions impacts

More renewable energy buyers than ever before are intentionally siting wind and solar projects in locations where they will push more dirty energy off the grid.

Oakland, Calif. — 14 September 2023 — Environmental tech nonprofit WattTime today announced that at least one billion watts of renewable energy have now been procured through an emissionality-based approach. In other words, these wind and solar projects have been selected based partially on their potential to avoid more emissions due to their location and the emissions intensity of the power grid in that region.

“Clean energy projects only reduce emissions by replacing fossil fuel plants, and siting them in particularly high-emitting, fossil fuel-heavy regions can greatly amplify their climate benefits by pushing dirtier sources of electricity off the grid,” said Gavin McCormick, founder and executive director of WattTime. “That’s the power of emissionality — a simple approach that can result in bigger benefits for the planet.”

This billion watt milestone is based on WattTime’s analysis of both publicly available and additional confidential market information. Partners of the organization which have publicly listed emissionality as part of their renewable energy procurement strategy include Salesforce, Nucor, Boston University, Clearloop, Rivian, and others.

Most recently, Rivian and The Nature Conservancy partnered with Brightnight on a project which will transform a Kentucky coal mine into an 800-megawatt solar facility. The site was selected, in part, through an emissionality lens to ensure a heftier decarbonization effect for the grid.

"In July, Rivian announced a partnership with BrightNight and The Nature Conservancy to be the largest offtaker (100MW) of solar power from phase 1 of the Starfire project in Kentucky — soon to be built at the site of what was once one of the largest coal mines in the US,” said Andrew Peterman, director of renewable energy at Rivian. “We worked closely with The Nature Conservancy to develop a rigorous evaluation framework and set of resources (Power with Purpose) to help select renewable energy projects that prioritize positive benefits for climate, conservation, and communities. WattTime’s analysis and input allowed us to integrate an emissionality-based approach and ensure we were maximizing the climate benefits of our decision.”

Thanks to emissionality, the 14 wind and solar projects included in WattTime’s billion watt milestone will reduce an estimated 10 million tonnes more emissions than they otherwise would have. All of the renewable energy sites included in the analysis are located in coal-heavy regions in the US or overseas.

“It took years of work with like-minded partners to reach a billion watts of emissionality, but we are now seeing a dramatic acceleration. We estimate the next billion watts may happen in mere months, now that momentum is building at what seems to be an exponential pace and other buyers are catching on,” said McCormick.

“As a longtime partner of WattTime, together we’ve pioneered the importance of making sure renewable energy projects get more done when it comes to tackling carbon emissions,” said Laura Zapata, CEO and co-founder of Clearloop. “At Clearloop, we’re fully focused on finding innovative ways to fund and launch new solar projects where they can do the most good — both by cleaning up the grid and expanding access to clean energy, as well as investing in underserved American communities. With support from WattTime, we’ve built Clearloop to help organizations of all sizes embrace emissionality as a key grid decarbonization solution.”

A white paper originally drafted in 2009 by Meredith Fowlie at UC Berkeley first floated the concept that one could, in theory, detect where building renewable energy would reduce more emissions, and then deliberately select these locations. McCormick and the WattTime team built on this theory and coined the term emissionality in 2017.

Today, WattTime works with institutions of all kinds to support them in selecting more impactful projects, whether by providing avoided emissions analysis, connecting them with like-minded groups, or otherwise assisting them in their sustainability efforts. WattTime’s analyses are based on marginal emissions data, which assess the real-world impacts of consuming or generating power at a specific time and location.

Today’s billion watt milestone includes only projects that evaluated avoided emissions with WattTime data — the details of which were readily available to the analysis team. But WattTime would like to hear about (and celebrate) other renewable energy projects with locations that were chosen because they avoided more emissions.

To share information about your projects, learn more about emissionality, or discuss renewable energy project selection support, contact the WattTime team here.

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About WattTime

WattTime is an environmental tech nonprofit that empowers all people, companies, policymakers, and countries to slash emissions and choose cleaner energy. Founded by UC Berkeley researchers, we develop data-driven tools and policies that increase environmental and social good. During the energy transition from a fossil-fueled past to a zero-carbon future, WattTime ‘bends the curve’ of emissions reductions to realize deeper, faster benefits for people and planet. Learn more at www.WattTime.org.

WattTime and ev.energy expand partnership to allow EV drivers to automatically sync charging with cleaner electricity

Palo Alto, Calif. and Oakland, Calif. — 24 August 2023 — Electric vehicle (EV) charging solution provider ev.energy and environmental tech nonprofit WattTime have announced a new phase of their partnership to make driving electric even cleaner. The revamped collaboration will enable the more than 120,000 drivers on the ev.energy platform to charge on the cleanest electricity available on their local grid by intelligently and automatically shifting charging times.

This new capability is made possible thanks to marginal emissions insights from WattTime, which have been fully integrated into the ev.energy managed charging platform. After prior collaboration to develop the current emissions optimization feature in select markets, the expanded partnership takes ev.energy’s emissions reduction feature to the next level — and not just geographically.

While ev.energy’s mobile app previously shared charging-related emissions information with users and allowed them to manually choose cleaner charging times, the new update allows for complete automation of this process. The ev.energy app now uses AER (automated emissions reduction) technology to strategically charge the EV during times that will cause the lowest emissions, using real-time marginal grid emissions data from WattTime. Typically, this means using surplus renewable energy that would otherwise be wasted.

"Our mission at ev.energy is to connect every EV to the greenest energy available on the grid. Through our partnership with WattTime, we can track the carbon intensity of every charging event that flows over the ev.energy platform, and critically, understand the marginal carbon emissions on the grid at any point in time. Watttime's approach is unique, and we're delighted to be scaling with such a like-minded partner and growing together as we accelerate the transition to a carbon-free grid," said Nick Woolley, CEO of ev.energy.

ev.energy helps EV drivers save both money and carbon when charging their cars at home. Their mobile app allows drivers to optimize for cost and avoided emissions based on their local electricity grid and rate plan, and can even help drivers optimize their charging around home solar production. In addition to the 120,000 drivers on ev.energy’s platform, the company works with more than 30 utilities globally to help deliver important grid flexibility services and financial benefits for drivers.

“I am constantly amazed by the sheer potential for EVs to further reduce emissions by charging when there’s surplus clean energy,” said Gavin McCormick, founder and executive director of WattTime. “This growing source of electricity demand has the power to take a huge bite out of global grid emissions. Innovative companies like ev.energy are rapidly moving us closer to a world in which all flexible devices can automatically run on clean energy, and we’re thrilled that they share this vision with us.”

WattTime provides highly granular marginal emissions datasets, which factor in the time and location of energy consumption to pinpoint real-world emissions impact. This real-time emissions signal allows IoT device companies to deploy AER technology to automatically reduce the emissions caused by smart devices that are flexible on when they use power, from thermostats to EV chargers and beyond.

For more information on ev.energy and its suite of services, visit https://www.ev.energy/contact.

And for more information on WattTime and its data-powered solutions, visit https://www.watttime.org/contact/.

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About ev.energy
ev.energy is a Certified B Corporation® with a mission to make EV charging greener, cheaper, and smarter for utilities and their customers. Its end-to-end software platform wirelessly connects to a range of electric vehicles and chargers to intelligently manage EV charging while working with utilities to put cash back in customers’ wallets for charging at grid-friendly times. With a global base of utility, vehicle OEM and EVSE partners, ev.energy manages more than 120,000 EVs on its platform each day. Learn more at https://ev.energy/business.

About WattTime
WattTime is an environmental tech nonprofit that empowers all people, companies, policymakers, and countries to slash emissions and choose cleaner energy. Founded by UC Berkeley researchers, we develop data-driven tools and policies that increase environmental and social good. During the energy transition from a fossil-fueled past to a zero-carbon future, WattTime ‘bends the curve’ of emissions reductions to realize deeper, faster benefits for people and planet. Learn more at www.WattTime.org.

Media Contacts
Inflection Point Agency for WattTime
nikki@inflectionpointagency.com

Mission Control Communications for ev.energy
ev.energy@missionC2.com

Amazon Harnesses WattTime to Enable Alexa and Smart Thermostat Users to Reduce GHG Emissions Impacts

Oakland, Calif. — 14 June, 2023 — Environmental tech nonprofit WattTime today announced it is working with Amazon to bring greenhouse gas emissions insights and emission reduction capabilities to the Alexa app and Amazon Smart Thermostat. The Alexa Energy Dashboard now offers emissions insights powered by WattTime. In addition, the Amazon Smart Thermostat can now automatically optimize HVAC energy consumption to align with lower emissions moments on the power grid.

“We are always searching for those partnerships and applications that will drive more impact faster when it comes to reducing emissions and tipping the climate scales in favor of our planet, and this work with Amazon is a prime example,” said Gavin McCormick, founder and executive director of WattTime. “We’re excited to offer simple — and in some cases automatic — tools to help reduce electricity-related emissions impacts. Today’s news is just the beginning when it comes to the difference we can make with collaborations like this.”

The Alexa Energy Dashboard, housed within the Alexa app, helps users understand their device’s energy consumption. It works with a selection of water heaters and thermostats to help track the usage of devices that consume the most energy. Using historical data aggregated by WattTime, Amazon calculates a median value of CO₂ emissions in each user’s area. Looking at estimated carbon dioxide emissions over the course of 24 hours, it categorizes values above that median as “Higher” and below that median as “Lower,” which is then displayed in the dashboard. This data can help users choose when to run their dishwasher, dryer, or other inherently flexible electricity-consuming appliances.

With new improvements to the Amazon Smart Thermostat, emissions reduction capabilities go a step further. Customers in the U.S. can now choose to opt-in to a feature to help limit HVAC use during times when electricity may cause more emissions by having Alexa use estimations provided by WattTime and automatically adjust the temperature by one degree. The Amazon Smart Thermostat’s new feature leverages WattTime’s marginal emissions rates, which assess the real-world impacts of consuming power at a specific time and location.

"We're very excited about this energy feature update for Amazon Smart Thermostats that enables Alexa to try to reduce a household’s carbon impact proactively," said Maiken Moeller-Hansen, Director of Energy and Sustainability at Amazon. "Now Alexa can automatically adjust temperature set-points to reduce usage during high emission times, based on real-time emissions data from the user’s local power grid."

For more information on WattTime and its technology, visit www.watttime.org.

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About WattTime

Media Contact
Nikki Arnone, Inflection Point Agency for WattTime
nikki@inflectionpointagency.com

Hourly carbon data enables smarter emissions decisions for industrial operations

Hourly carbon data partnership between Ndustrial and WattTime allows companies to drive authentic emissions reductions

RALEIGH, NC AND OAKLAND, CA – March. 14, 2023 – Ndustrial has announced it is incorporating hourly carbon emissions data from WattTime into its Nsight™ Energy Intensity Platform to enable smarter emissions decisions for its industrial customer base.

“Most companies measure their greenhouse gas emissions on an annual basis,” says Ndustrial’s Founder and CEO Jason Massey, “but that doesn’t account for the fact that using electricity can have vastly different emissions impacts at different times of day. Our platform will now highlight these variations.”

Marginal emissions data measures the real-world consequences of consuming electricity at a certain time and location within an ever-changing power grid. Availability of hourly marginal carbon emissions data for local electricity grids around the world now allows companies to achieve bigger carbon reductions and better quantify the emissions impacts of their actions.

Ndustrial helps businesses drive down Energy Intensity, reduce energy costs and increase sustainable operations. One way customers drive down energy spend is by responding to Nsight’s real-time suggestions to avoid critical peak periods via peak avoidance algorithms and demand response signals.

Through the partnership with WattTime, Ndustrial’s Nsight™ Energy Intensity Platform can now incorporate estimates of the avoided carbon emissions expected from various operational suggestions. During peak periods of demand on the grid, for example, users may see substantial cost savings as well as carbon emissions savings from curtailing or shifting the time of their energy use. All of this can be scheduled hours in advance, with a 72-hour forecast of emissions rates.

In addition to the operational insights enabled by hourly marginal emissions rates, Nsight will use hourly average emissions rates for more granular Scope 2 emissions accounting. The most commonly used emissions accounting approach relies on an annual emissions rate from the EPA that is almost two years stale by the time it is published. Nsight will provide an emissions accounting option that is up to date throughout the year, is no more than a few days old, and shows variation throughout the day.

Many leading companies are leveraging marginal emissions data from WattTime to accelerate the electric grid’s transition to zero carbon. WattTime is an environmental tech nonprofit founded by UC Berkeley researchers to increase environmental and social good. Through this partnership, Ndustrial and WattTime will empower a new and large portion of the industrial sector to make faster climate progress.

“Industrial companies are some of the biggest consumers of electricity out there, so they have a huge opportunity to help bring down global emissions simply by making smart choices about when they use that power,” said Gavin McCormick, founder and executive director of WattTime. “This partnership with Ndustrial is an exciting opportunity for us to help their sizable client base bring down global emissions at scale, fast.”

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About Ndustrial
Ndustrial exists to accelerate the optimization of Energy Intensity in industrial facilities and has helped avoid over $100 million in energy spend. Their production-first approach helps clients find – and automate – the energy-saving opportunities that make sense for them. Their Energy Intensity platform integrates over 40 different systems into a single view, processing over 100 million data points every day to enable smarter energy decisions in real time. Ndustrial’s motto, “We help you find energy,” focuses the team to drive down Energy Intensity, decrease costs and increase sustainable operations inside the walls of every industrial facility. Learn more at ndustrial.io.

How Salesforce used emissionality to inform its groundbreaking D-Recs procurement

Less than two weeks ago at a sold out GreenBiz 23, tech giant Salesforce announced the procurement of 280,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of renewable energy certificates. But this was not your classic announcement of large-scale clean energy secured through long-term contracts such as power purchase agreements (PPAs) — often focused on renewables projects in North America — which have continued to set new records year over year.

Instead, Salesforce set its sights on “high-impact renewables” in emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South America. They partnered with Powertrust to source Distributed Renewable Energy Certificates (D-RECs), a financial mechanism that enables organizations to accelerate deployment of capital for small-scale, distributed renewable projects.

Renewables procurement with social impact

D-REC projects can have important social impacts, by helping alleviate energy poverty through financing of projects that focus on electrifying schools, hospitals, and small businesses in less-developed and under-electrified regions of the world.

For example, in India, one Salesforce-connected project will build a solar-powered microgrid in Nagaland, an eastern state in India, for the first time bringing electricity to an isolated mountain community.

For another, in Sub-Saharan Africa, a solar-and-storage installation at a hospital will help improve electricity reliability while controlling rising electricity costs. The system will power ventilators, organ support equipment, and operating rooms.

Overall, these and other projects like that are designed to deliver on UN Sustainable Development Goals related to climate resilience (goals 9 and 11), universal energy access (goal 7), and gender equality (goal 5).

Putting emissionality into practice

Looking beyond North America to source renewable energy can also have a magnified beneficial impact on global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, by displacing fossil-fueled generation on dirtier grids around the world. It’s a procurement strategy known as emissionality, which Powertrust calls out as one of their four pillars. They identify “grids with the highest emissions factors and deliver projects that are positioned to have the greatest potential to reduce carbon emissions in the region.”

Case in point from the recent Salesforce announcement: a project in Brazil will replace old, dirty diesel generators with a solar-powered microgrid for a remote community along the Amazon River, reducing fuel consumption by more than 50% while slashing emissions.

This was not Salesforce’s first experience with emissionality. In late 2020, the company unveiled a strategic shift in its approach to renewable energy procurement, captured in the white paper More Than A Megawatt: Embedding Social & Environmental Impact in the Renewable Energy Procurement Process.

“As a company, we’ve been taking a hard look at what makes ‘the best’ renewable energy project,” explained Megan Lorenzen at the time. She’s a senior sustainability manager at Salesforce. “Purchasing renewable energy is about much more than adding new megawatts of renewable energy to the grid. It's about improving the state of the world, which includes considering a number of factors such as land use impacts, wildlife impacts, equity issues, community benefits, and WattTime’s emissionality work, which spans both avoided emissions from a climate perspective and human health considerations for air pollution.”

The time is now for renewables procurement to do more

Salesforce’s leadership on this front comes at a time when corporate renewable procurement can and must do more to help actually reduce global emissions, and not merely “zero out” a company’s GHG emissions footprint on paper.

Beyond North America and Europe, we’re seeing alarming examples of a potential rise in dirty fossil-fueled electricity generation. Pakistan is considering quadrupling its coal-fired power generation in a move away from natural gas, per Reuters, a move that comes ironically and tragically in the wake of devastating flooding worsened by climate change. India says it might build 28 GW of new coal power plants by 2032 to meet that country’s growing electricity demand.

Last year saw record levels of fossil fuel subsidies, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Most were applied in developing or ‘emerging market’ economies. The two largest categories of fossil fuel subsidies were in electricity (#1) and natural gas (#2).

A global approach to corporate renewables procurement — and especially one that incorporates an emissionality lens — can unlock dual climate and social benefits, helping to stem the tide of a pendulum swing back toward emissions-intensive fossil-fueled electricity generation.

Yes, renewable energy buildout via capacity additions worldwide has “unprecedented momentum.” Global renewable power capacity is now expected to grow by 2,400 gigawatts (GW) over the 2022–2027 period, an amount equal to the entire power capacity of China today, according to IEA’s Renewables 2022.
But the real impact metric will be not how many GW of clean generation get built, but rather how much fossil emissions it displaces and how many lives are beneficially impacted. Emissionality can help those same GW of renewable energy do more. Salesforce’s example is a promising start.

WattTime unveils new health-focused power grid emissions signal, partners with Toyota and Lexus for first implementation

Oakland, Calif. — January 11, 2023 — Environmental tech nonprofit WattTime and Toyota Motor North America (Toyota) today announced a partnership enabling electric vehicle (EV) drivers to further reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and human health impacts from vehicles. The ECO Charging feature integrated into Toyota and Lexus apps as part of Remote Connect is currently available for customers with eligible plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs).

“Through our partnership with WattTime, we are providing customers an easy and accessible way to identify when they can charge their vehicle while also helping reduce environmental impacts,” said Steve Basra, group vice president, Connected Technologies, Toyota Motor North America.

WattTime’s emissions data provides the information necessary for smart devices such as EVs and thermostats to align their energy usage with moments of cleaner energy and avoid moments of dirtier energy. This is possible because not all power plants are on or running at full capacity at all times. More- and less-emitting power plants turn on or off, or ramp up or down, at different times.

Until now, WattTime’s emissions data has focused solely on timing energy use to moments when power plants produce less carbon emissions. Today’s announcement signals a new way for WattTime data to be used to reduce the human health impacts of electricity consumption, specifically for owners of EVs. This is particularly important for disadvantaged communities where high-emission power plants are clustered in a particular area, thereby causing a disproportionate burden to those communities.

For example, on the New York grid, ramping up a power plant upstate can cause significantly less harm to people’s lungs than getting the same amount of electricity from all the fossil-fueled peaker plants in the middle of Queens, where the power plants — and their emissions — are surrounded by densely populated communities.

“The key is knowing which power plants will respond — which will turn on or off — based on when people use electricity,” explained Gavin McCormick, founder and executive director of WattTime. “Now, Toyota and Lexus EV owners can use their app to prioritize charging during moments that better protect people’s lungs. We are thrilled to be launching this updated application to multiply the good work the innovators at Toyota have already done in slashing pollution.”

The Toyota and Lexus app software, as part of the Remote Connect ECO Charging feature, combines the customer’s own charging needs with electricity emissions data from WattTime to propose a charging schedule that is likely to reduce both the health impacts and carbon emissions of charging with electricity from the grid.

Even before emissions-optimized charging, EVs cause less pollution than traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) automobiles. Smart charging powered by WattTime’s emissions data can increase that beneficial impact even further to make EVs up to 20% cleaner annually versus normal charging, according to a 2019 WattTime analysis. Those emissions reductions and cleaner air can benefit both people and planet.

“Our electrified vehicle customers select our vehicles not only to enjoy a best-in-class customer experience, but also to make a positive impact on our environment and society,” said James George, general manager, Toyota EV Charging Solutions. “We will continue to provide solutions both now and in the future in support of Toyota’s goal of creating a carbon neutral society.”

Eligible Toyota vehicles include PHEVs such as the Prius Prime and RAV4 Prime, as well as BEVs such as the bZ4X, which debuted in North America as the global automaker’s first pure battery EV. Lexus’ all-new RZ 450e BEV will go on sale early this year. In addition, Lexus offers PHEV options in the NX 450h+ and the forthcoming RX 450h+.

About WattTime
WattTime is an environmental tech nonprofit that empowers all people, companies, policymakers, and countries to easily and effectively supercharge emissions reductions from electricity use. Founded by UC Berkeley researchers, we develop data-driven insights, software, and tools that multiply the beneficial impact of clean energy solutions and slash emissions from fossil-fueled electricity. For more information visit www.watttime.org.

About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our nearly 1,500 dealerships.

Toyota directly employs more than 39,000 people in the U.S. who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of nearly 32 million cars and trucks at our nine manufacturing plants. By 2025, Toyota’s 10th plant in North Carolina will begin to manufacture automotive batteries for electrified vehicles. With the more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker, a quarter of the company’s 2021 U.S. sales were electrified.

To help inspire the next generation for a career in STEM-based fields, including mobility, Toyota launched its virtual education hub at www.TourToyota.com with an immersive experience and chance to virtually visit many of our U.S. manufacturing facilities. The hub also includes a series of free STEM-based lessons and curriculum through Toyota USA Foundation partners, virtual field trips and more.

For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.

About Lexus
Lexus’ passion for brave design, imaginative technology, and exhilarating performance enables the luxury lifestyle brand to create amazing experiences for its customers. Lexus began its journey in 1989 with two luxury sedans and a commitment to pursue perfection. Since then, Lexus has developed its lineup to meet the needs of global luxury customers in more than 90 countries. In the United States, Lexus vehicles are sold through 244 dealers offering a full lineup of luxury vehicles. With six models incorporating Lexus Hybrid Drive, Lexus is the luxury hybrid leader. Lexus also offers eight F SPORT models and one F performance model. Lexus is committed to being a visionary brand that anticipates the future for luxury customers.

WattTime Media Contact
Nikki Arnone, Inflection Point Agency for WattTime
nikki@inflectionpointagency.com

Toyota/Lexus Media Contact
Josh Burns
Joshua.Burns@Toyota.com

REsurety and WattTime to make marginal emissions data widely available to support more impactful climate action

The two environmental technology organizations plan to greatly increase the availability of data that enables an impact-based approach to carbon accounting and decision making.

Boston, Mass. and Oakland, Calif. – January 10, 2023 – REsurety, Inc., a leading analytics company empowering the clean energy economy, and WattTime, an environmental tech nonprofit working to multiply positive climate impact, have today announced that both organizations plan to increase the availability of high-quality marginal emissions data. These data can support impact-based decision making and more accurate carbon accounting for climate-conscious corporations and other institutions that have committed to net-zero and science-based targets. REsurety and WattTime are collaborating to make this critical data available at no cost to qualified end users.

“We’ve heard the growing calls from the private sector for stronger climate action, which have emphasized the urgent need for access to transparent emissions data. As mission-driven organizations in this space, we feel it’s our responsibility to take meaningful action,” said Lee Taylor, CEO of REsurety.

On December 13, 2022, a group of leading global corporations and investors, including Akamai Technologies, Amazon, General Motors, Hannon Armstrong, Heineken, Intel, Meta, Rivian, Salesforce, and Workday, launched the Emissions First Partnership, calling for a shift in corporate carbon accounting standards away from megawatt-hour matching and toward an emissions impact-centric system. Their proposed principles for electricity accounting focus on maximizing greenhouse gas reductions. Marginal emissions data, which measures the carbon impact of consuming or generating energy at a given time and location, is a critical tool for maximizing and accurately measuring real-world carbon impacts.

“This year saw an extraordinary surge in the number of companies intentionally optimizing electricity use and renewable energy generation to slash emissions — an urgently needed climate trend that’s making a real difference,” said Gavin McCormick, founder and executive director of WattTime. “We and REsurety strongly agreed it’s important to share access to open, transparent, validated data from around the world that will empower organizations to more easily track and execute on emissions reduction goals.”

REsurety and WattTime will make historical marginal emissions data available to qualified end users including researchers, corporate sustainability practitioners for accounting, and other non-commercial end users at no cost within the next three months. This improves on the temporal and spatial granularity of the global annual country-level marginal emissions data already available from the UNFCCC.

Furthermore, the two organizations have committed to expanding the geographies covered by their high-quality marginal emissions data. Increased data coverage will enable the standardization of reporting and analytical frameworks, data integrations, and usage patterns for companies within the U.S. and around the world. By the end of 2023, REsurety will provide nodal marginal emissions data across all U.S. wholesale markets and WattTime will expand global data coverage to include parts of two or more additional continents.

“Salesforce has been procuring clean energy since 2013, and last year reached 100% renewable energy for its global operations. But we’ve also seen first hand that not all projects deliver the same impact. By shifting the focus from megawatt-hour matching to emissions reductions, we can focus on maximizing decarbonization impact in the regions where the world needs it the most. High-quality marginal emission data is critical to enable this work,” said Megan Lorenzen, senior manager of sustainability, Salesforce, and co-author of the company’s More than a Megawatt report.

Both REsurety and WattTime have published research and recommendations supporting the use of marginal emissions data for impact-centric carbon accounting. In September 2022, WattTime published a white paper focused on the concept of “impact accounting” to ensure emissions reductions counted on paper actually translate to changes in the real world. In October 2022, REsurety shared its analysis demonstrating that such an impact-based Scope 2 accounting approach is much more effective than alternatives in encouraging behavior that leads to real-world decarbonization.

“Addressing the impacts of climate change is the biggest challenge of our time, which is why Amazon is committed to reaching net zero carbon by 2040 and why we are on a path to being powered by 100% renewable energy by 2025 — five years ahead of our original commitment. Accounting for carbon emissions is an important part of this work, and we need to ensure the best data and methods are used to help accelerate the decarbonization of the electricity grid as quickly as possible. We welcome this commitment from REsurety and WattTime for increased accessibility and geographical coverage of electricity grid data and support their efforts to further strengthen this data,” said Jake Oster, director, public policy, AWS.

In November of 2021, REsurety and WattTime partnered to bring the strengths of their respective data sets together. Since then, the two groups have collaborated closely with corporates, investors, nonprofits, and other businesses in developing the data needed to support decisions focused on maximizing emissions impacts. Today’s announcement advances this growing data ecosystem.

For more information and to learn more about accessing the upcoming data inventory, contact carbon@resurety.com or go to www.watttime.org/contact.

About REsurety
REsurety is the leading analytics company empowering the clean energy economy. Operating at the intersection of weather, power markets, and financial modeling, we enable the industry’s decision-makers to thrive by providing best-in-class value and risk intelligence, and the tools to act on it. With the world’s most sophisticated clean energy investors, advisors, buyers, and developers as clients, REsurety empowers clients to thrive in the dynamic, complex, clean energy-fueled future. For more information, visit www.resurety.com or follow REsurety on LinkedIn.

About WattTime
WattTime is an environmental tech nonprofit that empowers all people, companies, policymakers, and countries to slash emissions and choose cleaner energy. Founded by UC Berkeley researchers, we develop data-driven tools and policies that increase environmental and social good, including Automated Emissions Reduction and emissionality. WattTime is also the convening member and cofounder of the global Climate TRACE coalition. During the energy transition from a fossil-fueled past to a zero-carbon future, WattTime ‘bends the curve’ of emissions reductions to realize deeper, faster benefits for people and the planet. For more information, visit https://watttime.org.

Media Contacts
Tara Bartley, tbartley@resurety.com
Nikki Arnone, nikki@inflectionpointagency.com

Footsprint and WattTime partner on solution to decrease carbon impact of digital media campaigns

MONTREAL, CANADA AND OAKLAND, USA — 15 December 2022 — Digital performance and sustainability firm Footsprint and environmental tech nonprofit WattTime today announced a partnership aimed at decreasing the carbon impact of digital media campaigns. Their recent integration incorporates historical and real-time marginal emissions data from WattTime into Footsprint reporting to pinpoint opportunities for efficiency and reduced energy usage.

“Our mission is to equip businesses with the tools and expertise to steer their media investments towards sustainable performance,” said Elisa Boivin, founder and managing director of Footsprint. “In essence, this means eliminating waste from our media plans, which will mechanically improve carbon efficiency and media performance. To do this, we need sustainability sciences to work at the speed of digital, through new environmental KPIs that enable advertisers to take action in real-time.”

Footsprint leverages data from WattTime in a variety of ways to assist clients in making digital media campaigns less carbon-intensive. For example, they may reduce the carbon footprint of digital initiatives by shifting the time and location of ad campaigns according to the carbon intensity of electricity, forecasted or in real-time. These strategic interventions are made possible through WattTime's marginal emissions data, which gives a more accurate measure of the emissions impact related to electricity consumption.

“We continue to be thrilled to see the many innovative ways that our partners are leveraging our data to make a difference in reducing emissions on a global scale,” said Gavin McCormick, founder and executive director of WattTime. “Footsprint’s application is a great example of how ordinary business operations can be easily adjusted to slash carbon while often boosting the company’s bottom line.”

Footsprint is part of the Labelium group — a global digital performance agency that specializes in e-retail, media, and consumer performance. Footsprint empowers its clients to decarbonize their digital marketing efforts. From website foundations to multichannel digital advertising, footsprint provides a full stack of sustainable digital solutions, built with a methodology based on the latest industry research. Developed with a strong ecological and business performance mindset, these services help brands reconcile sustainability and digital performance.

WattTime creates data-driven solutions that empower companies, governments, policymakers, and others to reduce emissions simply and easily. Their comprehensive marginal emissions data powers solutions like AER software, which allows internet-connected devices to shift energy usage away from times of dirty power on the local grid. Among their other efforts, WattTime also works with corporate clients on emissionality consulting to help select renewable energy investments that will result in the highest amount of avoided emissions from the grid.

To learn more about Footsprint’s services in decarbonizing digital performance, visit www.footsprint.co. And to learn more about WattTime’s emissions reduction products and services, visit www.watttime.org.

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About Footsprint

Launched in 2022 by the Labelium Group, footsprint is the first global digital sustainability consultancy brand. From sustainable web design and media services to social impact advertising, footsprint aims to empower its clients in transitioning towards more responsible digital practices. The footsprint team is innovative, diverse and science-driven, composed of seasoned environmental and digital experts. For more information please visit us at https://www.footsprint.co/

About WattTime

Media Contacts

Nikki Arnone, Inflection Point Agency for WattTime
nikki@inflectionpointagency.com

Elisa Boivin, Managing Director for Footsprint
elisa.boivin@footsprint.agency

Juan Sotés, Impact Measurement Director for Footsprint
juan.sotes@footsprint.agency

TimberRock partners with WattTime to enhance emissions reduction capabilities of its E-IQ decarbonization platform

Orlando, Fla. and Oakland, Calif.—04 October 2022—Software and energy solutions provider TimberRock today announced it is working with partners at environmental tech nonprofit WattTime to supercharge the emissions reductions possible through its E-IQ platform. The SaaS corporate energy decarbonization platform prioritizes authentic environmental impact and helps organizations account for and reduce energy-related emissions. Empowered with marginal emissions insights from WattTime, corporate users of TimberRock’s E-IQ can now go ‘beyond accounting’ to calculate—and act upon—the highest-impact emissions reduction strategies.

Through a longtime partnership with WattTime, TimberRock has embraced an impact-based approach to corporate carbon accounting using marginal emissions data to identify and maximize authentic emissions reductions rather than simply offsetting a company’s carbon footprint on paper. These data are now directly integrated into the E-IQ platform to make this approach easily actionable for corporations prioritizing sustainability plans that make a real difference for the planet.

“We built E-IQ around the same impact framework that drives WattTime’s work. Instead of just measuring megawatt-hours, E-IQ accounts for actual induced and avoided emissions—which we refer to as CO₂e debits and credits,” said Brent Hollenbeck, CEO of TimberRock. “This allows our users to see how their operations are truly impacting the environment. E-IQ then takes it an important step further, making the data insights actionable, not just accounted for.”

E-IQ was designed for large companies looking for a simple and integrated tool to measure and reduce emissions from energy usage. With the recent launch of the portal component of E-IQ, the cyber-secure platform now measures Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions by fully integrating with a company’s operations network and supply chain. The auditable GHG emissions data provided by the platform can be used for ESG compliance and to track progress toward hitting corporate climate goals.

Users of E-IQ have the tools necessary to make better decisions regarding energy consumption in order to lower emissions; the platform enables pathways to create authentic, high-impact emissions reductions in real time. For example, it may calculate the emissions impact of an external intervention, like signing a power purchase agreement (PPA) for a renewable energy project that displaces more fossil fuel generation, or may drive internal interventions directly, like shifting flexible energy demand (such as smart thermostats or EV chargers) to times when the local grid has surplus clean energy available.

TimberRock is a software and energy solutions provider with 20 years of experience helping organizations account for and reduce energy emissions. The company has worked closely with WattTime for four years to incorporate its impact-centric approach into TimberRock solutions. By building a tool driven by the impact framework, TimberRock has become a vocal leader in the energy accounting and management space, which is facing a reckoning over authentic and effective accounting practices.

“The scientific community reached consensus years ago that there’s obviously a world of difference between a project that reduces more emissions in the atmosphere, versus less,” said Gavin McCormick, founder and executive director of WattTime. “But traditional carbon accounting approaches all too often still don’t reflect this. That’s why we’re thrilled to see TimberRock leading the charge to upgrade traditional accounting to also measure ‘impact’—the overall effect of each sustainability project on total emissions that hit the atmosphere. After all, that’s the only thing that actually matters to the planet.”

WattTime works with companies, governments, policymakers, and others to make it simple to choose clean energy and reduce emissions. Their solutions are built around the idea that not all megawatts of electricity are equal, and that not all renewable energy projects have the same impact on the power grid. Factors like time and location have marked effects on the emissions-intensity of various decisions, and use of marginal emissions data helps to capture those nuances.

To learn more about an impact-based carbon accounting approach and the importance of using marginal emissions data, download WattTime’s recent report, Accounting for Impact: Refocusing GHG Protocol Scope 2 methodology on ‘impact accounting’.

To explore TimberRock’s solutions and learn more about the E-IQ platform, visit www.trock.io.

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About TimberRock
TimberRock believes in an emissions-free energy future in which decarbonized energy is abundant, accessible, low-cost and reliable. TimberRock's mission is to deliver the technology and services that achieve this future via it’s E-IQ platform. E-IQ is deployed across 100-million square feet of buildings today and provides energy emissions "impact" accounting that enables the journey to net zero energy emissions. For more information, visit https://www.trock.io.

Media Contacts
Nikki Arnone, Inflection Point Agency
nikki@inflectionpointagency.com