Why? The Mission
Current Carbon Accounting & Reporting has room for improvement.
CASI recommends how to improve transparency, comparability and decision usefulness based on Integrated Corporate Carbon Accounting (ICCA).
As governments and companies set net-zero targets and commit to climate-aligned action, the ability to measure and verify greenhouse gas emissions and decarbonization efforts has become foundational to effective decision-making throughout the world‘s industrial economies.
Frameworks such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, ISO standards, life-cycle assessments, and national emissions inventories have provided useful starting points—establishing a common language and framework. Industry-level initiatives like Catena-X and Together-for- Sustainability have advanced these frameworks with specific suggestions for standardizing the measurement of carbon emissions within particular industries.
Yet, as the climate transition increasingly shapes trade policy, financial disclosures and executive incentives, it is becoming increasingly clear that corporate emissions data too often lacks the precision and reliability required to support auditable and decision-useful action. From climate-related financial disclosures to carbon border adjustments and emissions-based executive compensation, the need for investor-grade information about corporate carbon emissions is growing.
What? ICCA - Concept and Value
Integrated Corporate Carbon Accounting (ICCA) integrates product carbon accounting and corporate carbon accounting to enable reliable and decision-useful reporting on carbon emissions.
Unlike existing approaches, ICCA applies rigorous double-entry-style accounting logic to GHG emissions and offsets, thereby enabling a coherent, reconcilable, and audit-ready infrastructure for carbon reporting.
Our proposed carbon accounting system is compatible with and builds on the substantial progress already made by existing frameworks and initiatives, such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, ISO standards, and corporate climate disclosure regimes such as the global baseline standard IFRS S2 by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), the TCFD Recommendations (now folded into the IFRS Foundation), or ESRS E1.
Who? The Team
Companies from various industries and academics from leading universities around the globe.
We are a working group of company representatives and academics from the fields of accounting, corporate reporting, and climate sustainability. We are united by the belief that effective decarbonization depends on reliable investor-grade emissions data and that the principles of financial accounting offer a useful foundation for reliable carbon accounting at the corporate level. Ultimately, corporate carbon accounting must evolve to the point where emissions are tracked, allocated, and reported with the same rigor and structure as financial transactions.
CASI Founding Members:
CASI Members:
How? The Agenda
To increase its visibility and impact, CASI also intends to partner with practice-oriented journals to facilitate outreach and provide a publishing forum for proceedings of the working group.
The task before us is large, and we believe the path forward is collaborative. With this initiative, we invite you—whether you are a policymaker, corporate leader, standard-setter, investor, or academic—to join us in refining our approach to corporate carbon accounting. Whether through dialogue or pilot testing, your involvement at this early stage will be essential to ensuring that our initiative advances the transition to a decarbonized economy at speed and scale. We look forward to entering into a dialogue with you as we work toward a new era of climate accountability.
We look forward to entering into a dialogue with you as we work toward a new era of climate accountability.
Our next in-person workshop is scheduled for 2025 December 4-5 in Frankfurt/Germany. We will discuss particular topics of Integrated Corporate Carbon Accounting (ICCA) in our group and with other experts. If you are interested to join the discussion please contact us.
Publications
, and
Partners
↗ Mannheim Institute for Sustainable Energy Studies (MISES)
↗ Institute for Accounting, Auditing and Analysis at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich's School of Management
↗ Rapid Decarbonization Initiative, Stanford University
Impressum
Carbon Accounting Standards Initiative (CASI)
an informal, academic and professional network
Contact (Responsible for content according to § 18 Abs. 2 MStV)
Dr. Christoph Ernstc/o University of Mannheim
Mannheim Institute for Sustainable Energy Studies (MISES)
Schloss
68161 Mannheim
Christoph.Ernst@uni-mannheim.de
Nature of the Initiative
The Carbon Accounting Standards Initiative (CASI) is an international network of academics and professionals from universities and organizations in the EU, UK, and the U.S. Its goal is to advance the understanding and application of rigorous and transparent carbon accounting and to share relevant research and insights.
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Last updated: November 2025
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2. Name and Contact of the Responsible Person
Responsible according to Art. 4 (7) GDPR:Dr. Christoph Ernst
c/o University of Mannheim
Mannheim Institute for Sustainable Energy Studies (MISES)
Schloss
68161 Mannheim
Christoph.Ernst@uni-mannheim.de
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Last updated: November 2025