Vendor profile · in Sphera’s own words
Sphera: the corporate footprint and the product footprint
Sphera sells carbon accounting software at two levels: a corporate platform for the organisation’s footprint, and life cycle assessment tools for the footprint of each product.
This profile uses only Sphera’s own pages, read on 1 October 2026, plus Verdantix’s own Leader list, and asks when a UK company needs the product layer and what the corporate layer must produce for SECR, ESOS and UK SRS.
This site has tested no carbon software; nothing here is a rating.
The corporate platform
SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability, in four parts
Sphera describes SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability as four pieces of its technology joined into one solution that integrates with existing business systems, naming ERPs and CRMs.
Its emission factors are, in its words, DEKRA-verified, and it says it incorporates mass-based factors into calculations rather than relying on spend.
Sphera also says each customer works with a sector-specific climate specialist to design the data structures.
Its managed disclosure content names CSRD, GRI, CDP, IFRS/ISSB and the EU Taxonomy; SECR, ESOS and UK SRS are not named on the pages read.
Verdantix’s own press release for its 2026 Green Quadrant names eight Leaders in enterprise carbon management software, Sphera among them, from 21 vendors evaluated.
That study measures enterprise carbon management against global criteria, so it says nothing about UK statutory output in particular.
Sphera’s pages also carry customer counts; this profile does not repeat them, because a vendor’s own count is not something this site can check.
| Sphera’s component | What its page says |
|---|---|
| Management and Reporting | Centralise sustainability data and automate disclosures, with pre-built templates aligned to global frameworks |
| Environmental Impact Calculation | Calculate emissions to build a baseline, using DEKRA-verified emission factors |
| Portfolio Management — Financed Emissions | Measure and report the carbon impact of investments |
| Sustainability Performance Management | Track progress against goals and spot gaps early |
Mass-based or spend-based
Sphera’s case against spend — and what UK SRS S2 actually requires
Sphera’s corporate page argues that spend-based data is “variable and error-prone” and that mass-based emission factors give greater accuracy.
That is a vendor’s argument, and the standard a UK listed company reports against takes a more measured line.
UK SRS S2 does not prescribe emission factors; ¶B29 asks an entity to use factors that best represent its activity.
For Scope 3 it sets out characteristics to prioritise, in no particular order, at ¶B40: direct measurement, data from specific value-chain activities, timely data that represents the jurisdiction and technology, and verified data.
It asks an entity to prioritise primary data “with all else being equal” at ¶B47, and jurisdiction-specific factors at ¶B51.
It also contains a presumption that Scope 3 can be estimated from secondary data, so spend-based figures are permitted; what an entity must disclose is the extent to which its Scope 3 rests on specific-activity and verified inputs, at ¶B56.
For purchased goods — category 1 of the Scope 3 Standard — moving from spend to mass is a change of method, and that change has to be described under ¶29(a)(iii).
For UK activity the jurisdiction’s own factors are the DESNZ conversion factors, published once a year for that year’s activity data.
The Scope 3 rules for listed companies are on UK SRS Scope 3 reporting.
Product-level carbon
LCA for Experts and EPDs — when a product footprint is the deliverable
LCA for Experts is Sphera’s product life cycle assessment software, built on what it calls its Managed LCA Content database of more than 20,000 datasets.
Sphera says the tool identifies carbon hotspots in a product’s value chain and lets experts use its models or import their own.
Its EPD service names the standards an Environmental Product Declaration is built to — EN 15804, ISO 14025 and ISO 21930 — and says product carbon footprints can be fed back into an ERP to improve Scope 3 reporting.
A UK company usually needs the product layer for one of three reasons: a customer asks for product footprints, a construction client asks for EPDs, or the company makes goods within the UK CBAM.
The UK CBAM applies from 1 January 2027 to imports of goods in five sectors — aluminium, cement, fertilisers, hydrogen, and iron and steel — and is calculated on the emissions embedded in the goods, according to HMRC’s policy summary.
It is a separate regime from the EU CBAM, with no linking agreement in force.
The picker beside this names the standard that governs what you are trying to produce.
The product standards in full are on life cycle assessment and product standards, and the UK CBAM on UK CBAM.
What are you trying to produce?
Use: ISO 14067:2018; or PAS 2050:2011 from BSI; or the GHG Protocol Product Life Cycle Standard. Each covers one impact category, global warming.
Status: ISO 14067:2018 is current but at stage 90.92, “to be revised”, with ISO/WD 14067.2 at working-draft stage and no date. GHG Protocol and ISO formed a joint working group in February 2026 on a harmonised product standard.
What it does not do: ISO 14067 puts carbon offsetting and communication of the footprint outside its scope; PAS 2050 sets no disclosure requirements.
ISO record 71206 — Bible [417]; BSI Knowledge, PAS 2050:2011; GHG Protocol Product Standard page
From each standard’s public catalogue record; ISO clause text is paywalled and is not quoted.
Nothing is stored or sent.
Enterprise energy reporting
SECR and ESOS — two energy duties a carbon platform has to keep in kWh
SECR and ESOS are not named on the Sphera pages read, and both are energy duties before they are carbon duties.
SECR puts energy use in kWh into the directors’ report of a quoted company, a large unquoted company or a large LLP, beside emissions from gas, purchased electricity and transport fuel, under Schedule 7.
An unquoted company is large for SECR when it exceeds at least two of £36 million turnover, £18 million balance sheet and 250 employees, judged over two consecutive years after the first.
The rest of the SECR disclosure — a ratio, the methodology, efficiency measures and comparatives — is set out in the government’s Environmental Reporting Guidelines.
ESOS, run by the Environment Agency, asks for total energy consumption across buildings, transport, industrial processes and any other purpose, with Phase 4 notification due by 5 December 2027.
A platform built around mass-based carbon factors has to keep the kWh it converted, or both reports start from a reconstruction.
The SECR lines are on SECR requirements, and who ESOS catches is set out in our guide to the scheme.
Financed emissions and UK SRS
The portfolio module, PCAF and the listing rules
On 20 June 2023 Sphera announced a portfolio-management module for financed emissions, built for reporting under the PCAF and GHG Protocol standards.
The same release quotes a Blackstone senior managing director on Blackstone’s investment in Sphera in 2021.
PCAF’s standard has moved since: Part A on financed emissions is now in its third edition, of December 2025, and covers ten asset classes rather than six.
UK SRS S2 ¶29A lets an entity limit what it includes in Scope 3 category 15 to its financed emissions, and exclude emissions attributable to derivatives.
Listed companies in UKLR 6, 14, 15, 16 and 22 report against UK SRS on a comply-or-explain basis for periods from 1 January 2027, under the FCA’s PS26/19, with a one-year Scope 3 relief they state they are using.
That replaced the CP26/5 proposal, whose consultation text had made UK SRS S2 mandatory.
UK SRS S1 and S2 themselves were published by the Department for Business and Trade on 25 February 2026, for voluntary use by any UK entity.
A bank’s or asset manager’s own Scope 1 and 2 and its financed emissions are measured to different standards.
Ask whether both run in one platform from one entity model, and test them separately.
Your regimes
Sphera’s claims, regime by regime
The checklist beside this lists what each UK regime requires a platform to produce, cited to the provision, and shows what Sphera’s own pages say for each regime you tick.
Where Sphera names nothing, that is a question for Sphera, not a finding about the product.
Profiles written the same way include Cority and SINAI; the full register is on carbon reporting software.
The inventory itself sits on the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard whichever platform holds it.
Step 1 · which regimes apply to you?
Step 2 · 16 outputs to see on a demo · 0 confirmed
What Sphera says on its own site
- SECR (unquoted / LLP): no claim found on the pages we read
- ESOS: no claim found on the pages we read
Vendor pages read 30 September–1 October 2026; re-read 11 October 2026.
A missing claim is a question to ask, not evidence of a missing feature.
Outputs are the duties in the cited provisions; the demo tests are our reading of them.
Nothing you tick is stored or sent.
Demo questions
Six questions to put to Sphera
Each question tests a statement on Sphera’s own pages against the provision it touches.
Sphera publishes no price, so ask for the cost of the corporate platform and the LCA tools separately, since many UK buyers need only one.
The tests that sit underneath any platform are on carbon accounting software.
Demo questions · tick the ones you need
The pass tests are our reading of the cited provisions.
Nothing you tick is stored or sent.
Frequently asked
Sphera, answered from its own pages
What does Sphera’s carbon accounting software do?
Sphera sells SpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability in four components — management and reporting, environmental impact calculation, portfolio management for financed emissions, and sustainability performance management.
Sphera says it draws on DEKRA-verified emission factors and integrates with ERP and CRM systems.
What is Sphera LCA for Experts?
LCA for Experts is Sphera’s product life cycle assessment software.
Sphera says it is built on its Managed LCA Content database of more than 20,000 datasets and is used to model products’ environmental impacts and produce Environmental Product Declarations.
Which standard governs a product carbon footprint?
A full life cycle assessment follows ISO 14040 and ISO 14044; a product carbon footprint follows ISO 14067; an Environmental Product Declaration follows ISO 14025, and construction products follow EN 15804.
The picker on this page names which applies to what you are trying to produce.
Is Sphera a Verdantix leader?
Verdantix’s own press release for its 2026 Green Quadrant for enterprise carbon management software names eight Leaders, Sphera among them.
The study evaluates enterprise carbon management against global criteria; it does not assess SECR, ESOS or UK SRS output.
Does Sphera support financed emissions under PCAF?
Sphera launched a portfolio-management module for financed emissions on 20 June 2023, describing it as built for reporting under the PCAF and GHG Protocol standards.
PCAF’s Part A on financed emissions is now in its third edition (December 2025), so ask which edition a calculation follows.
Can Sphera report energy for SECR and ESOS?
SECR and ESOS are not named on the Sphera pages read.
Both turn on energy in kWh — SECR in the directors’ report, ESOS as total energy by purpose — so ask to see kWh kept as its own figure, not only converted to tonnes.
How much does Sphera cost?
Sphera publishes no price on the pages read on 1 October 2026.
A 45-day free trial of LCA for Experts is an offer, not a price; this site lists Sphera as Enterprise level · TBD.
Who owns Sphera?
Sphera’s own June 2023 release quotes a Blackstone senior managing director referring to Blackstone’s investment in Sphera in 2021.
Sphera does not describe the ownership terms on the pages read.
Has this site tested Sphera?
No. This site has tested no carbon software.
This page reports what Sphera publishes, dated, beside the UK provisions it touches.
Sources
Primary sources
Sphera’s pages are cited only for what Sphera says about itself, read 1 October 2026; the Verdantix placing is cited to Verdantix.
Every regulatory statement traces to the instrument’s owner.
- SpheraSpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability
The four components, mass-based factors and system integration. Vendor’s own material.
- SpheraLCA for Experts
Product life cycle modelling and its LCA database. Vendor’s own material.
- SpheraEnvironmental Product Declaration (EPD) services
The EPD standards Sphera names. Vendor’s own material.
- SpheraSpheraCloud Corporate Sustainability — Portfolio Management for financed emissions (20 June 2023)
The financed-emissions module, PCAF and the GHG Protocol. Vendor’s own release.
- VerdantixGreen Quadrant: Enterprise Carbon Management Software (2026) — press release
The eight Leaders, named by Verdantix.
- Department for Business and TradeUK SRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures (PDF), ¶B29, ¶¶B40–B51, ¶29A
No prescribed factors; primary data and jurisdiction-specific factors prioritised; financed emissions.
- Department for Business and TradeUK Sustainability Reporting Standards S1 and S2
Published 25 February 2026 for voluntary use.
- Financial Conduct AuthorityPS26/19 — final rules on UK SRS reporting by listed companies
Comply or explain for periods from 1 January 2027.
- Financial Conduct AuthorityCP26/5 — the consultation (landing page)
The proposal the final rules changed.
- Financial Conduct AuthorityCP26/5 (PDF)
The consultation text.
- PCAFThe Global GHG Accounting and Reporting Standard for the Financial Industry
Part A Financed Emissions, third edition (December 2025).
- HM Revenue & CustomsCarbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM): policy summary
The UK CBAM, a product-level regime from 1 January 2027.
- legislation.gov.ukSI 2008/410, Schedule 7 Part 7A — SECR for large unquoted companies
Energy in kWh and the emissions limbs.
- GOV.UK (DESNZ, Defra)Environmental Reporting Guidelines, including SECR requirements
The government SECR guidance.
- Environment AgencyEnergy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS)
Total energy by purpose; Phase 4.
- Department for Energy Security and Net ZeroGovernment conversion factors for company reporting
The UK factor sets, one per activity year.
- GHG Protocol (WRI, WBCSD)Corporate Standard
The corporate inventory basis.
- GHG ProtocolScope 3 Standard
The fifteen categories, including category 1 purchased goods.
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