The science

The science behind CarbonCloud

CarbonCloud is based on a biophysical model that has been developed during more than 20 years of scientific endeavors. The model can calculate climate footprints quickly and with a high degree of accuracy.

Scope and methodology

Climate-curious or sustainability expert?

Pick your own adventure and explore the science behind (and inside) CarbonCloud.

Supply chain models

Everything calculations, explained

CarbonCloud's scope and methodology cohesively apply to the web of interconnected food supply chain models. Here is an overview of how we calculate the different supply chain stages in food production and how you get comparable climate footprints.

Our people

Meet our science team

Xueting Wang

Xueting Wang

Life Cycle Analyst, PhD

Xueting Wang is a life cycle analyst at CarbonCloud. She accomplished her Ph.D. degree in material science on sustainable chemical production in 2018. Her research and passion are rooted in sustainable development of our society since then. At CarbonCloud, Xueting engages both in life cycle analysis and product development. With the knowledge from a substantial amount of analysis done, she applies her experience in providing a data-driven solution to assessing the climate performance of the food industry at scale.

Fredrik Hedenus

Fredrik Hedenus

Co-founder, Science Advisor, PhD, Professor, Advisory Board

Fredrik Hedenus is an associate professor at Physical Resource Theory with a focus on food, energy, and climate change mitigation at Chalmers University of Technology and co-founder of CarbonCloud. He has conducted research about the future energy system for 15 years and is co-author of the book Sustainable Development: nuances and perspectives. Fredrik is a thought leader on food and climate change in Sweden with a track record of TV productions and a large number of radio and newspaper appearances.

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Emma Jonson

Emma Jonson

Scientist, PhD

Emma Jonson has a Ph.D. in Energy and Environment and has been working for almost 4 years at CarbonCloud. During her doctoral studies, she deepened her knowledge of climate change physics, energy systems, and the climate impact on agriculture. Her skills include locating, structuring, and analyzing information from these fields, e.g. with the help of mathematical models. At CarbonCloud she uses her scientific knowledge and skills to assess, in a consistent and efficient way, the climate impact from the different life cycle stages of food products.

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Erik Edlund

Erik Edlund

VP of Science, PhD

Erik Edlund is VP of Science at CarbonCloud, leading the Science team in creating, curating, and delivering the scientific knowledge the food industry needs to tackle climate change. Erik is a former MIT Postdoc Fellow with a Ph.D. in Complex Systems from Chalmers. His Ph.D. thesis, Exactly Solvable Models for Self-Assembly, used methods from Statistical Mechanics to design self-assembling soft matter systems. At CarbonCloud his research has included estimating climate impacts of agricultural products and method development for ensuring correctness and efficiency in the design and implementation of scientific models.

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between climate footprint and CO₂?

What you measure is climate footprint and the unit with which you measure it is kg CO₂e, or only kg CO₂ if all the emissions are carbon dioxide (CO₂). Think about it as you would with length, where what you measure is the length and the unit you measure it with is a meter. If it makes grammatical sense to write length you write climate footprint and if it makes grammatical sense to write meter then you write kg CO₂e.

What does carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) mean?

There are many different greenhouse gases of which carbon dioxide is the most widely known. Different greenhouse gases affect the climate in different ways. Some stay in the atmosphere for a long time but do not cause so much warming per kg emissions, like carbon dioxide. Others, like methane, heat the earth a lot, but do not stay very long in the atmosphere. There is an exchange rate of sorts, that makes the comparison of the different gases possible. The exchange rate expresses how many kg of carbon dioxide emissions that warm the climate equally as 1 kg of another greenhouse gas. The exchange rate is called Global Warming Potential and is typically abbreviated GWP. By knowing the GWP of different gases the total climate impact of a product can be condensed into one single unit: kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents (kg CO₂e).

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What's in a footprint?

Dive deep into climate science