Sci Report

An SCIReport property references a published carbon intensity report for an API or service calculated using the Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) specification — an ISO-ratified standard from the Green Software Foundation. An SCI report documents the measured or estimated carbon intensity for a specific version or deployment of the API, including the methodology, data sources, energy and embodied carbon inputs, the chosen functional unit, and the resulting score. Regular SCI reports enable tracking of carbon efficiency improvements over time.

Also known as: Software Carbon Intensity Report, SCI Disclosure

Example

- type: SCIReport
  url: https://developers.example.com/sustainability/sci-report

Standards

Green Software Foundation Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) Specification
Green Software Foundation SCI Specification source
ISO/IEC ISO/IEC 21031:2024 — Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) specification
GHG Protocol / WRI / WBCSD GHG Protocol Product Life Cycle Standard
GHG Protocol / WRI / WBCSD GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard

Media Types

application/pdf — Formal SCI reports are typically published as PDFs.
text/markdown — Many open-source projects publish SCI calculations as Markdown in their repos.
application/json — Machine-readable SCI score artifacts.

Governance Rules

sci-boundary-documented (SCI Specification) — Report must state the software boundary (which components are included).
sci-functional-unit-declared (SCI Specification) — The R (functional unit) — for example per API call or per user — must be explicit.
sci-methodology-disclosed (SCI Specification) — Energy (E), carbon intensity (I), and embodied carbon (M) data sources must be cited.

Risk & Compliance

Compliance:

EU CSRD / ESRS E1 supports software-level disclosures from suppliers
California SB 253 disclosure may incorporate product-level carbon claims

Security: Unsubstantiated SCI scores risk greenwashing claims; cite emission factor providers, electricity-mix sources, and embodied carbon datasets so the score is reproducible.

Tools

Green Software Foundation Impact Framework — SCI calculation framework (MIT)
Impact Framework source — SCI calculation framework (MIT)
Cloud Carbon Footprint — Cloud energy and emissions estimator (Apache-2.0)
Kepler — Kubernetes energy metering (Apache-2.0)
Scaphandre — Power-consumption metrology (Apache-2.0)
Electricity Maps API — Marginal carbon-intensity data (I in SCI)

Suggested Metrics

sci_score — Computed as ((E * I) + M) / R for the declared boundary and functional unit.
energy_kwh — E — operational energy consumed by the software boundary.
marginal_carbon_intensity_g_per_kwh — I — region-specific marginal carbon intensity of electricity.
embodied_carbon_gco2e — M — amortized embodied emissions of hardware over its useful life.
functional_unit_count — R — denominator such as API requests served, users, or transactions.

Example Implementations

Green Software Foundation — Canonical SCI specification, examples, and case studies.
GitHub — GitHub published carbon and sustainability work referencing GSF tooling.

Related Properties

Software carbon intensity
Ghg protocol report
Sustainability