Payhawk has announced its new platform ‘Payhawk Green’ to help companies make more sustainable decisions related to company spending.
Companies are facing an increasing demand and regulatory pressure to enhance their sustainability practises and provide greater transparency regarding their carbon footprint. For example, companies will soon need to comply with legislation such as the UK’s Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) and the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Starting from the financial year 2025, companies with over 250 employees and a €40 million net turnover will be obligated to initiate reporting under the CSRD. This directive will encompass more than 50,000 companies, necessitating the reporting of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.
Scope 3 emissions, representing all indirect emissions occurring within the value chain (e.g., business travel, transportation, fuel, and capital goods), often constitute the largest portion of carbon emissions for companies. Tracking these emissions presents a considerable challenge as they are both indirect and complex to govern.
Numerous enterprises are currently leveraging spend management solutions like Payhawk to maintain spending control and optimise the efficiency of their financial operations. The introduction of Payhawk Green now enables Payhawk users to automatically assess the carbon dioxide emissions linked to their transactions made with Payhawk cards, all at no additional expense. Furthermore, Payhawk’s versatile platform can be tailored to seamlessly gather and oversee Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) data related to their suppliers, thereby enhancing transparency within the supply chain. Collectively, these functionalities serve as valuable tools for companies seeking compliance with emerging regulations and facilitating their own ESG initiatives, including initiatives focused on carbon offsetting.
Hristo Borisov, CEO and Co-Founder of Payhawk says, “Through speaking with our customers and our own experience pursuing ESG initiatives, we realised that our product puts us in a unique position to help companies when it comes to sustainability efforts associated with company spending, specifically with regards to the management of Scope 3 emissions. We hope that today’s release of Payhawk Green will help businesses with one component of their broader ESG initiative, and to develop more features in the future that further support our customers.”
To quantify spend-related carbon emissions, Payhawk has integrated with Lune. To maximise accuracy, the Lune platform uses the Greenhouse Gas Protocol estimations, considers product category and value, and uses industry-specific methodologies like the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for flights or the Global Logistic Emissions Council (GLEC) for logistics. Lune uses thousands of spend-based emissions factors, with global coverage and country-specific data from more than 45 countries.
Erik Stadigh, Co-Founder of Lune says, “Whilst sustainability is such a new topic, every company approaches it differently. In light of the new EU regulations, it is something every company needs to consider. Payhawk is helping to pioneer how the spend management space can support businesses with integrated carbon emissions reporting built into it, and does not charge extra for this export.”
As well as supporting its customers through the launch of Payhawk Green, Payhawk is in the early stages of implementing an ESG policy, has tracked its carbon footprint since 2021 and is applying for a sustainability standard.
Hristo Borisov continues, “We acknowledge that we can become a more sustainable business and try to balance this objective with our growth ambitions as a young company. We continue to work on our internal ESG initiatives, as well as support our customers on their own journey. We will collect customer feedback on this release of Payhawk Green, and if there is demand add more complimentary features to the platform.”
