Increasingly, the carbon footprint of a product is becoming a significant factor in the buying decision. It is driving decisions for all stakeholders from the raw material supplier to the manufacturer and flowing through to the consumer. The CarbonConnect module provides sites with the ability to calculate carbon footprint data at the quoting stage and display this detail on quote letters so it is available to customers.
printIQ has partnered with CarbonQuota who provide automated carbon calculation software. The
demand has initially come from the UK so we are launching in this region and moving forward, we
will look to add other partners in as demand determines it.
Setup the Integration
To setup the integration, a printIQ client will need to have an account set up with CarbonQuota.
They will then need to provide the below information to printIQ support, to configure the connection between printIQ and CarbonQuota. Details required are:
- API Username
- API Password
- API base URL
Using the Integration
For the integration to work there must be one or more printed products on a quote. On the Summary section of the Checkout Screen, users will see a Carbon Footprint ‘Calculate’ button above the Quote PDF icon:
The Calculate button will only show if there is an active integration configured for the site.
Click ‘Calculate’ to call the API and pass production data to the calculator. After the button has been clicked the carbon calculator may return an information message asking the user if they wish to Save or Discard the response.
If ‘Discard Response’ is selected, the data will not be brought through to printIQ.
If ‘Save Response’ is selected, the data will be brought through to printIQ. The total kg CO2e (kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent) calculated for the quote will replace the Calculate button, and display below ‘Carbon Footprint’:
Emissions values are stored against each product quantity on the quote, until a quantity is discarded or repriced. If one of the products is recalculated, users will have the option to calculate the Carbon Footprint again.
The total emission amount displayed is for the selected quantities only. Changing the quantity on a product will update this value without a recalculation, if it has been calculated previously.
Quote Letter templates can be configured to display the information returned from CarbonQuota. This can be shown for each product and quantity, as well as summary values for selected quantity totals.
This integration only works for priced printed products and does not consider outsource or IQstore item information.