System for “radical collaboration” on emissions data expands to the U. S.

Key takeaways

• Multiple automotive companies have piloted the Catena-X data-sharing ecosystem
• The system is designed to accelerate information flow through value chains
• Catena-X could serve as the blueprint for similar solutions in other industries

A tool that allows for “radical collaboration” around sustainability data will expand from Europe to the U.S. in the next few months.

Catena-X is a data-sharing ecosystem that automotive industry companies use to exchange product carbon footprints and other sustainability information. The system, developed by BMW and other European companies, was piloted last year. Now, the Automotive Industry Action Group, a non-profit that promotes collaboration between industry partners in the U.S., is gearing up to offer Catena-X to its almost 5,000 member companies.

The system is designed to smooth the countless points of friction that automotive companies encounter when sharing sustainability data — for example, the use of different software systems. Similarly, smaller companies that typically sit deeper in supply chain find it harder to efficiently measure and share data with larger manufacturers.

Common language

Catena-X creates a common language for value-chain partners to use. Oliver Ganser, the BMW vice president who chairs the Catena-X board, likened the system to email protocols that allow users of any relevant software — Gmail or Outlook, for example — to exchange messages seamlessly. “Now SAP can talk to IBM,” he said, referring to two of the tech companies that provide sustainability software to the automotive industry.

In addition to BMW, the Catena-X board includes representatives from Renault, Siemens, Mercedes and others.

The system also includes “kits” that suppliers can use to calculate information they want to share, such as the carbon footprint associated with specific products, as well as rules that allow companies to control which partners have access to commercially sensitive data. 

Catena-X was piloted last year after around three years of development. In one test, a team at BMW’s plant in Landshut, Germany used it to receive data from Covestra, a partner that supplies the kidney-shaped grilles that adorn the front of the company’s cars. The information included all emissions involved in production of the grille, from the extraction of raw materials through the manufacturing process. After being transferred to BMW, the data was integrated with the Siemens software the company uses to track its own emissions numbers.

In another pilot, Witte Automotive, a supplier of door handles and locks to BMW and others, used Catena-X to more efficiently calculate the carbon footprint of one of its products. A third test involved data exchange between three companies — Ford, semiconductor manufacturer Micron and Flex, which designs and produces electronics. Unlike BMW, the trio was not involved in the development of Catena-X.

Expanding stateside

More than 140 companies began to use the system after those pilots were completed and registration opened last October, said Ganser. U.S. companies will soon be invited to join them. Kevin Piotrowski, chief transformation officer at the Automotive Industry Action Group, said that in the next month or two he will announce a formal collaboration with Catena-X and invite his members to use it. “They want to collaborate and share data, but they don’t want to do it five different ways or 10 different ways,” he said. “We’ve got to come up with a standard way.”

Although designed for automotive companies, the emergence of Catena-X raises the possibility that multiple industries might one day plug into a common architecture for sharing sustainability data. For example, Catena-X incorporates core principles developed by the Partnership for Carbon Transparency, an industry-agnostic initiative from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development that has created a standard for sharing Scope 3 data.

“Catena-X is intentionally designed for the automotive sector, addressing its specific complexity, multi-tier supply chains and regulatory demands,” said Ganser. “However, from the beginning it was developed as a blueprint for other industries facing similar challenges.”