This case study shows how leading manufacturers unlocked carbon savings by turning ERP and procurement data into actionable insights. With Carbmee’s granular emissions modeling, they revealed hidden Scope 3 hotspots—enabling faster decisions, measurable reductions, and scalable impact.
Many companies will be affected by CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms) Cost, however the implications of the ETS within Europe are significantly higher. The complexity of multiple ETS Systems around the globe and CBAM across regions made it nearly impossible to forecast those costs and traditionally those costs are not captured today in the classical financial systems. This is a broader issue for industries reliant on high-carbon materials, where visibility into emissions pricing is essential to avoid overpayments, compliance fines and missed sustainability opportunities.
Partnering with carbmee, ZF – a global technology company supplying advanced mobility products and systems for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and industrial technology – built a robust framework to uncover and manage hidden carbon costs, leveraging the EIS™ Regional ETS Emission Model to enhance decision-making and accelerate decarbonization. With high-carbon commodities like steel, aluminum, and plastics forming the backbone of production, ZF addresses a critical industry challenge, turning regulatory pressures into strategic opportunities.
The collaboration ensures ZF stays ahead of evolving ETS and CBAM regulations, optimizes cost management, and leads the mobility industry in sustainable practices. With real-time insights and scalable solutions, ZF is poised to turn carbon challenges into long-term competitive advantages, setting a benchmark for global decarbonization by 2040.
“Before carbmee, carbon costs felt like a hidden tax we couldn’t track. Now, we can predict and account for them across products and divisions, enabling smarter, more sustainable choices.”
The Solution: Empowering Decarbonization with carbmee’s Environmental Intelligence System (EIS™)
carbmee’s Environmental Intelligence System (EIS™) provided ZF with a powerful platform to address these challenges, offering real-time visibility and actionable insights into carbon costs. By automating data aggregation and leveraging carbmee’s EIS™ Regional ETS Emission Model, carbmee enabled ZF to:
- Optimize Supply Chain Transparency: Enhance visibility into carbon costs for steel, aluminum, and plastics across the supply chain.
- Enable Accurate Forecasting: Predict future carbon costs and regional price fluctuations with precision.
- Facilitate Smarter Sourcing: Support Decision making by adding future carbon cost.
The platform’s scalability ensured ZF could manage its complex operations, transforming data into strategies for compliance and cost efficiency.
Results & Benefits: Impactful Outcomes for Carbon Neutrality Goals
The collaboration with carbmee delivered transformative, quantifiable outcomes, significantly advancing ZF´s sustainability goals:
- Scalable Carbon Cost Framework: carbmee’s EIS™ enabled ZF to build a comprehensive system to track and simulate potential carbon cost exposure.
- Granular Cost Insights: Provided transaction-level data to pinpoint high-carbon hotspots, improving financial forecasting.
- Scope 3 Visibility: Achieved transparency into emissions costs, supporting compliance with EU regulations and CBAM.
- Efficient Cost Management: Automated processes reduced manual errors, saving time and enhancing accuracy.
- Regulatory Preparedness: Ensured readiness for ETS and CBAM requirements, mitigating risks of fines.
- Strategic Leadership: Positioned ZF as a pioneer in managing hidden carbon costs across industries.
Outlook: Turning Carbon Challenges into Competitive Advantage
At Carbmee, we see regulatory change and carbon pricing not just as compliance hurdles, but as strategic levers. With evolving mechanisms like CBAM and ETS transforming the cost structure of manufacturing, our Environmental Intelligence System (EIS™) empowers companies to stay ahead—by making carbon data traceable, auditable, and actionable at scale.
We continue to invest in advanced forecasting capabilities, scenario-based decarbonization planning, and seamless supplier collaboration—helping manufacturers align emissions management with cost efficiency and business impact. Our AI-powered platform connects granular, transactional data with real-time insights, giving enterprises the control they need to act decisively.
From audit-ready reporting to dynamic abatement modeling, our customers are not only achieving compliance but also unlocking measurable reduction potential. Whether it’s mitigating future carbon costs or embedding emissions data into operational decisions, Carbmee enables leaders to future-proof their supply chains and drive long-term value.