Model prerequisites

Before you run the Scenario Modeler Tool for the first time, you must make sure that the model prerequisites are met.

Review the prerequisites that are required to show expected savings, savings start and end periods, and special action fields.

Baseline period data

You must have at least one year of historical data in the platform to serve as the baseline period before you can model as scenario.

Expected savings

The expected savings in the report are derived from values that are associated with actions. Depending on the model type, one or more of the following fields must be populated:

Estimated Annual CO2e Savings (kg CO2e)
Estimated Annual Unit Savings
Estimated Annual Cost Savings

Note:

In the savings fields for actions, you must enter annual values. The report apportions the annual savings amount to monthly savings amount by number of days in each month. For example, the derived emission savings in March would be slightly higher than savings in February, due to the difference of number of days in each month.

If you cannot provide annualized values or the values require derivations, the Sustainability Program Tracking module can automatically calculate annualized values based on pre-defined custom rules. Contact the IBM® ESG Suite team for more information.

Note: If you enable the automatic calculation of CO2e savings, the estimated CO2e savings that are calculated by the system are included in this report. However, for actions where CO2e savings are entered manually by a user, the user-supplied values takes precedence over system-generated values, and the user-supplied values are used in the report instead.

Savings start and end periods

Each action requires a projected saving period. For example, an action that is completed in December 2022 might deliver savings for the next two years in the period from January 2023 to December 20224. January 2023 represents the start of the savings period and December 2024 represents the end of the savings period.

The Savings Start Period is calculated in Sustainability Program Tracking by using start and finish dates that are provided for an action. The Savings Start Period uses one of the following dates, in order of preference depending on which fields are populated for an action:

Actual Finish Date
Planned Finish Date
Actual Start Date
Planned Start Date
Raised on Date
Last Update on Date

The Savings End Period uses the Savings Effective To field. If no date value is specified, use the Savings Start Period + Default number of Savings Years, which is defined in the Organization Settings. For more information, see Setting dashboard and reporting preferences

Special action fields

In the Scenario Modeler Tool, the following four fields are used to filter the report and slice and dice the report:

Action Status
Acton Type
Action Class
Action Priority

If you customized the names of these fields or if you do not use any of these fields, you might see an X instead of these fields in the report. Contact the Envizi ESG Suite team about crating a custom version of the report, if this limits the usefulness of the report.