The electrical transmission and distribution grid play a vital role in reaching the Paris agreement by electrification of society. Although the climate impact of electricity production is well documented, the climate impact of the distribution of electricity has only been investigated in a few previous studies. Therefore, this study aims to present the carbon footprint of the distribution grid in Sweden. The study has developed a tool to map the carbon footprint by applying a case study of an electrical grid company in Sweden. The tool includes activities in the company’s value chain associated with material production, installation, usage, maintenance, transportation of the electrical grid and office activities during one year in an electrical grid company. The tool was developed in excel by implementing the theoretical framework of the Greenhouse Gas protocol and life cycle assessment. According to the guidelines of the Greenhouse Gas protocol the CO2 emissions were allocated in scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3. Scope 1 includes direct emissions controlled or owned by the company. Scope 2 are emissions from purchased heat and electricity consumed by the company, and scope 3 includes other indirect emissions from the company's activities throughout the value chain. The result shows the carbon footprint of the electrical distribution grid during 2020 was 2,02 kg CO2e per distributed MWh. The total carbon footprint of the distribution company was 54 329 ton CO2e. A majority, 97 % of the CO2e emissions originated from indirect emissions within scope 3, where capital goods stand for 76 % of the company’s total emissions followed by 12 % from fuel and energy rated activities. This result indicates the importance of including indirect emissions when analyzing the carbon footprint of a company’s value chain. Our study also indicates, in line with previous studies, that a majority of the emissions originate from the manufacturing of cables.

Research shows that the warming of the climate over the last century is extremely likely due to human activities. Furthermore, there is a need for an understanding how business activities counteract or contribute to climate change. In particular, the digitalization industry is often introduced as an important player in climate challenge. However, research also concludes that the digitalization industry’s impact on the climate is ambiguous, since it in some cases contributes to climate change and in other cases counteracts it. In order to understand the interplay between greenhouse gas emissions and digital solutions, it is necessary to outline and quantify the emissions from particular digitalization projects and furthermore the industry itself. The thesis takes off in a single case study at a Swedish digitalization consultancy company in order to investigate how both internal greenhouse gas emissions and greenhouse gas emissions from customer projects can be quantified as accurate and as often as possible. The findings disclose that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be tracked with an extremely short time step, practically continuously, especially if the tracking is integrated with the company’s ERP1 . Furthermore, the findings show that greenhouse gas emissions from customer projects can be quantified if interpreting and implementing the GHG Protocol with a soft system methodology (SSM) approach. The thesis contributes with (1) a general interpretation of the Corporate Standard (part of the GHG Protocol) in the context of digitalization; (2) a specific example of that interpretation and implementation; (3) a practical interpretation and implementation of the Project Protocol in the context of digitalization and its avoided or caused greenhouse gas emissions; and (4) a general and an in-depth analysis on the topic of quantifying a Swedish digitalization company’s greenhouse gas emissions and feasible approaches to assumption making. / Forskning slår fast att uppvärmningen av klimatet under det senaste århundradet med extremt hög sannolikhet är orsakad av människan. Det finns ett behov att förstå hur affärsverksamheter motverkar eller bidrar till klimatförändringarna. En del av denna affärsverksamheten sker inom digitaliseringsindustrin, vilken ofta presenteras som en central spelare i klimatfrågan. Å andra sidan visar forskning även på en osäkerhet gällande digitaliseringsindustrins påverkan på klimatet eftersom den i vissa fall bidrar till klimatförändringar medan den i andra fall motverkar dem. För att förstå samspelet mellan växthusgasutsläpp och digitala lösningar är det nödvändigt att överskåda och kvantifiera utsläpp från specifika digitaliseringsprojekt och, vidare, från själva industrin. Uppsatsen grundar sig i en fallstudie på ett svenskt digitaliseringskonsultbolag för att undersöka hur både interna utsläpp och utsläpp från kundprojekt kan kvantifieras så precist och så frekvent som möjligt. Resultaten pekar på att växthusgasutsläppen kan spåras och följas med extremt kort tidssteg, i stort sett kontinuerligt, i synnerhet om spårningen kan integreras med företagets affärssystem. Dessutom visar resultaten på att växthusgasutsläpp från kundprojekt kan kvantifieras om GHG Protocol tolkas och implementeras med hjälp av en “soft systems” metod (SSM). Uppsatsen bidrar med (1) en generell tolkning av Corporate Standard (en del av GHG Protocol) i en digitaliseringskontext; (2) ett specifikt exempel på en sådan tolkning och implementering; (3) en praktisk tolkning och implementering av Project Prototcol (en del av GHG Protocol) in en kontext av digitaliseringsbranschen och dess undvikta eller orsakade utsläpp; och (4) en generell och djupgående analys angående kvantifiering av ett svenskt digitaliseringsbolags växthusgasutsläpp och gångbara inställningar till att göra antaganden.