Koi Leverages Global Best Practices
Last Updated: 2025-05-26
Critical global initiatives focus on the academic and theoretical foundations of avoided emissions. We make these frameworks actionable. Koi is scalable, production-ready software used by enterprises, investors, and innovators making real-world decisions.
Since 2018, Rho Impact has helped shape some of the world's most trusted tools and methodologies for forecasting the climate impact of emerging technologies. Avoided emissions (also known as emissions reduction potential) are quickly becoming the most consistent and robust way to evaluate the impact of new and scaling solutions.
As this field evolves, it is important to understand the distinctions among the various frameworks, methodologies, industry perspectives, and issued guidance. Below is a summary of the key approaches we are most closely tracking, integrating, and aligning with. We are proud to contribute to many of them. Koi is a global standard.
Project Frame
Last Reviewed: 2025-02-21
Avoided emissions are defined as the "positive" impact on society when comparing the GHG impact of a solution to an alternative reference scenario where the solution would not be used. They are sometimes referred to as Scope 4 Emissions, but Project Frame does not recommend the use of this term to avoid conflation with Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 used in carbon accounting.
WBCSD
Last Reviewed: 2025-02-21
Avoided emissions refer to the "positive" impact on society when comparing the GHG impact of a solution to an alternative reference scenario. An avoided emission is thus the difference between GHG emissions that occur or will occur (the "solution") and GHG emissions that would have occurred without the solution (that of the reference scenario). GHG emissions of both the solution and the reference shall be assessed throughout their entire life cycle. Unlike GHG inventory assessments, which focus on the variation of a company's inventory emissions between two points over time, avoided emissions focus on the difference in emissions between two scenarios - one associated with the solution (the one that will be taking place), and one associated with the reference scenario, calculated for a specified time interval.
Koi is highly compatible with WBCSD's guidance and reflects many of the recommended practices around boundary setting, baseline selection, and transparency in assumptions. We see WBCSD's work as particularly relevant for enterprises seeking to quantify product-level climate contributions in credible, investment-grade ways.
GFANZ
Last Reviewed: 2025-02-18
Referred to as Expected Emission Reductions (EER) this metric expresses the expected "emissions return" on a transition finance decision.
Transition finance, as defined by GFANZ, includes three categories of decarbonization: climate solutions, aligned/aligning entities, and managed phaseout. The difference in emissions is calculated between two scenarios, an emissions benchmark (baseline) and a projection of the decarbonization entity's expected future emissions. Where appropriate, allocation methods are then performed to attribute a portion of an entity's EER to a financial institution.
Notes Regarding Koi Compatibility
- Koi can be compatible with the allocation setting in Collections, however, we do not currently provide other allocation methods.
- We refer to everything as "avoided emissions" and "solution"s whereas GFANZ draws a distinction between climate solutions (e.g., wind power) vs. aligned/aligning entities (e.g., use of predictive maintenance robots in O&G) vs. managed phaseout (e.g., elimination of peaker plants). They then recommend different metrics for the "solution" GHG intensity in each case. The mathematical transformations are nearly the same, however, we cannot automatically model phase outs right now because of differences in how you model the "market capture" for these cases.
Carbon Trust
Last Reviewed: 2025-02-18
Avoided emissions refer to the greenhouse gas emissions that have been 'avoided' by using a specific product or service, comparing it to a situation had the product or service not been used.
AEFDi
Last Reviewed: 2025-02-21
Avoided emissions (AE) is used to determine a project's contribution to the low-carbon transition. It represents the delta of CO2e between the induced emission of a project and a reference scenario representing what would have happened without the project.
Koi's forecasting methodology is aligned with the AEFDI framework where applicable, and our team is represented on their Scientific Advisory Committee, contributing to ecosystem dialogue around avoided emissions adoption and implementation.