IN Brief:
- IPOINT and T-Systems have paired software and data-space connectivity for product carbon footprint tracking.
- The solution uses Catena-X standards to exchange PCF data across multi-tier automotive supply chains.
- CSRD reporting pressure is pushing carbon accounting into core supplier data workflows.
IPOINT and T-Systems have partnered on an end-to-end approach for tracking product carbon footprint (PCF) data across multi-tier supply chains, using the Catena-X data ecosystem to standardise how carbon information is calculated, exchanged, and reported. The offering combines IPOINT’s sustainability software with Catena-X access and data-space capabilities provided by T-Systems, with an initial focus on automotive supply networks spanning OEMs, tier suppliers, and distributed manufacturing footprints.
The technical challenge in PCF is rarely limited to arithmetic. It is the data plumbing: collecting primary data where it exists, handling gaps where it does not, mapping it to consistent product structures, and exchanging it across companies without collapsing into spreadsheets, email, and one-off portals. Catena-X is intended to reduce that friction by defining shared standards for data exchange across the automotive value chain, while maintaining data sovereignty for participants.
In the partnership’s framing, the target is a workflow that runs from primary data collection through to carbon footprint reporting, rather than a point tool for one tier. The combined approach can support sustainability reporting aligned to the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which is driving large organisations to formalise emissions accounting beyond their own operations and into upstream and downstream value chains.
Karin Mostler, Chief Business Development Officer at IPOINT, said the work aligns with a push to “enable truly sustainable business by design.” On the infrastructure side, T-Systems is leaning on its Catena-X-certified connectivity and integration services, built to support governed data exchange at scale across companies with different ERP and engineering system landscapes.
T-Systems’ wider Catena-X tooling describes a Connect & Integrate layer that supports data upload and automation options, UI-based policy management, and semantic modelling for mapping and conversion to Catena-X formats. The same material points to integration pathways that can span enterprise systems such as ERP and PLM, as well as shopfloor data sources, to reduce manual handling in PCF data collection. The aim is to make PCF exchange repeatable, auditable, and fast enough to keep pace with supplier onboarding and product change cycles.
Sven Löffler, Director Data Spaces at T-Systems, set out the intended scope: “Together, we help the automotive industry achieve real transparency — from primary data collection to carbon footprint reporting.” That “primary-to-reporting” arc matters because PCF values are increasingly being requested in commercial conversations, not just annual reports, particularly where OEMs are trying to compare design choices, logistics configurations, and supplier selections on a like-for-like basis.
For procurement and logistics functions, the practical question is how quickly PCF can move from a parallel reporting lane into the same data fabric used for quality, compliance, and supply continuity. Catena-X’s bet is that shared standards and governed exchange remove enough friction to make that realistic, even when supply chains extend across regions with different data maturity. The IPOINT and T-Systems partnership is another signal that carbon visibility is now being engineered into the supply chain stack as an operational requirement.
