#236 Taking Data Complexity From Spreadsheets To Supply Chains With Pulsora

Watch the video interview here One of the common pain points when calculating your carbon emissions is simply gathering the data. When collating data from different departments and suppliers, it can be easy to get overwhelmed. The struggle doesn't stop there, as after obtaining all that data you have to find the best way to capture and display it in a way that's useable for the necessary number crunching. Many will turn to an old favourite, spreadsheets, but these can quickly become very unwieldy and impractical if you've got a lot of data to process. Thankfully, there's a lot of new tech and tools available to help make this task both approachable and integrated within your business. In this episode, Mel Blackmore is joined by Jessica Matthys, Lead Product Manager at Pulsora, to discuss how you can take data complexity from spreadsheets to supply chains, diving into data fragmentation, optimisation and how this can all be balanced for practicality. You'll learn · Who is Jessica Matthys? · Who are Pulsora? · What does data complexity mean in the context of carbon accounting? · What are the requirements for CSRD in California? · What are the biggest pain points relating to data collection? · How can you prevent data fragmentation across your business? · What does 'Comprehensive data' mean in the context of sustainability? · How can Pulsora help a business take their carbon data from spreadsheets to integrated data systems? · How can you make you carbon data more auditable and traceable? · How can new carbon focused technology, such as AI tools, help with seeking investment? · How can you get information from your supply chain to cover scope 3 emissions? Resources · Pulsora · CSRD – California Regulations · SB-253 & SB-261 · Carbonology In this episode, we talk about: [00:25] Episode Summary – Mel Blackmore is joined by Jessica Matthys, Lead Product Manager at Pulsora, to explore how you can take data complexity from spreadsheets to supply chains, diving into data fragmentation, optimisation and how this can all be balanced for practicality. [01:40] Who is Jessica Matthys: Is the Lead Product Manager for carbon solutions at Pulsora. She's been with Pulsora for a year and a half, but has worked within the ESG / carbon / sustainability space for over 8 years in total. Something that people might not know about Jessica is that her passion for sustainability started much earlier than her working career, starting in high school where she opted to live on a farm for one semester. That unique experience of working closely with nature and animals set her on the path that she still walks today. [02:30] Who are Pulsora? Pulsora is an end to end sustainability management AI powered platform. They can manage anything from data collection and carbon accounting all the way towards ESG reporting and audit support. The focus of their platform is auditability and transparency . [04:40] What does data complexity mean in the context of carbon accounting? Jessica breaks this down into three main elements: Disparate nature of data – When compiling data for greenhouse gas accounting, you have to take a lot into consideration including your own production and consumption in addition to all the upstream and downstream relationships across your value chain. The data for all of this will be scattered and will need to be brought together in order to get a full comprehensive view of your emissions data. Missing primary data – Some data may be very difficult to obtain, say from a supplier in a remote region, so in those cases you may need to make estimations to fill those gaps. However, you need to establish a proven and trusted methodology that can be repeated for such instances. Auditability and transparency – Your data needs to be robust enough to hold up to scrutiny in an audit. New and upcoming regulatory requirements will have stricter rules around how you collect and report your emissions. We can see this in regulations such as SB 253 and 261 within CSRD that will affect businesses in California. There's a new focus on mandatory reporting as opposed to voluntary, so you will need to ensure your data is in a good place to be audited when this starts to effect other organisations globally. [07:30] What are the requirements for CSRD in California? There are two main climate bills coming into effect in California in 2026, these are SB-253 and SB-261, which are supported by CARB (California Air Resources Board). These two regulations affect businesses who are either doing business in, have employees located in, or selling products over a certain revenue threshold in California. Affected businesses will be required to report on their scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. There isn't anything new in these regulations that we ...