Question 1

What is EXIOBASE?

Accepted Answer

EXIOBASE is a global, environmentally-extended multi-regional input-output (EE-MRIO) database. It links economic activity across countries and sectors to environmental data: greenhouse gas emissions, energy, water, land and material use. That lets you trace the environmental impacts embodied in consumption, production and trade along the whole supply chain.

Question 2

What is a multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model, in plain terms?

Accepted Answer

An input-output model is a map of who-sells-to-whom across an economy, every sector's purchases from every other. "Multi-regional" stretches that map across countries, so it captures trade. "Environmentally extended" attaches environmental data (emissions, water, land…) to each sector. Put together, you can follow a euro of spending back through the whole supply chain and add up the impacts it pulls along. That is what makes spend-based factors possible.

Question 3

What is EXIOBASE used for?

Accepted Answer

It answers "what environmental impact is embodied in this economic activity?", from global trade and policy analysis to company carbon accounting. Its best-known commercial use is spend-based emission factors: multipliers that turn expenditure into Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, because the input-output structure connects every euro spent to impacts across the supply chain. Beyond carbon, the underlying database also covers land, water, materials and other pressures.

Question 4

What are emission factors?

Accepted Answer

An emission factor turns activity (here, expenditure in monetary terms) into emissions. XIO's spend-based factors are given in tonnes of CO₂-equivalent per million euro (tCO₂e/M€). Multiply your spend in a sector by the factor to estimate the emissions behind it.

Question 5

Spend-based vs activity-based emission factors: what's the difference, and when do I use each?

Accepted Answer

Spend-based factors turn money spent into emissions; activity-based factors turn physical activity (kg, kWh, km) into emissions. Spend-based factors cover the whole supply chain from expenditure data you already have, so they're ideal for screening all of Scope 3 and filling gaps. Activity-based and supplier-specific data are more precise where you have them, but rarely cover everything. Best practice is both: supplier/activity data where available, EXIOBASE for the rest, on one consistent backbone. Because our factors are split by scope, you can drop in a supplier's Scope 1/2 figures and keep EXIOBASE for Scope 3.

Question 6

How do I calculate a Scope 3 footprint with the spend-based factors? (quick start)

Accepted Answer

Collect expenditure per purchased good/service. Convert to basic prices: remove VAT, and ideally trade & transport margins (TTM). (See basic vs purchaser price; Premium ships coefficients that do this for you.) Correct for inflation so your spend year matches the factor's data year (or use the inflation-corrected factors, included to 2025). Map your spend to the EXIOBASE classification (e.g. via a NACE concordance). Pick the right factor: if you know the supplier's country, use the Standard factor for that country; if not, use the Market-average factor for your own region. (See which factor type?) Optional: if you extracted TTM, apply the transport/trade sector's factor to those margins.

Question 7

Who uses and recommends EXIOBASE?

Accepted Answer

EXIOBASE is one of the most widely used EE-MRIO databases (384,000 unique Zenodo downloads), built by a consortium of European universities and backed by peer-reviewed science. The GHG Protocol recommends EXIOBASE as a source for spend-based emission factors (e.g. Purchased Goods & Services, Category 3.1, and as a fallback where granular data is missing); the PCAF Standard names them for financed emissions. EXIOBASE is also used by the European Environment Agency and national statistics offices (see policy use).

Question 8

Who is XIO Sustainability Analytics?

Accepted Answer

XIO was started by key developers of EXIOBASE to maintain and streamline the database and its derived factors, and to move it to reliable annual updates.

Question 9

How is EXIOBASE used in policy making?

Accepted Answer

EXIOBASE underpins official consumption-based accounts for several countries via a "coupled model" approach that respects national statistics while modelling impacts abroad. Examples: Sweden (PRINCE / PRINCE II, now used by Statistics Sweden), Denmark (Danish Energy Agency), Norwegian public procurement (DFØ) and the CaFEAN official Norwegian consumption-based accounts. The European Environment Agency also lists EXIOBASE among its main data sources. It is also used for the imported emission part of the DEFRA emission factors.

Question 10

Where to start

Accepted Answer

For the basics, read What is EXIOBASE? and What are emission factors?, then How do I calculate a Scope 3 footprint? for the practical steps. The Key terms section at the end defines the jargon, and the keywords under each question help you search.

Questions, answered

Current release at a glance

Getting Started

Data Coverage & Structure

Choosing the Right Emission Factor

Getting Started

Getting Started