How DitchCarbon Handles Restatements, Rebaselining, and Methodology Changes

As companies refine their sustainability processes, it's increasingly common to see restated emissions baselines, updated methodologies, and revised historical data. These changes can be confusing for downstream users, especially when you rely on supplier data to build Scope 3 inventories or track decarbonisation progress.

Here's how DitchCarbon handles these updates.

Using the Most Up to Date Data, Always

At DitchCarbon, our guiding principle is simple: we always use the most recent version of any emissions figure available.

When a supplier publishes new reporting, whether it's an annual sustainability report, a CDP disclosure, or regulatory filing, we update our dataset accordingly.

How this works in practice

• If a company restates its 2019 baseline in a newly released report, we use the restated 2019 figure, and the earlier value stays in that figure's change history.
• If the company does not update intermediate years (e.g., 2020 to 2024), those values remain as they were previously captured.
• The result? You always get the freshest available data for restated years, but inconsistencies can remain for intermediate years that were not restated.

This mirrors real world reporting: companies rarely restate full time series unless required, so partial inconsistencies are common.

How do you tell a restatement from a real reduction?

Every figure in DitchCarbon carries its source and change history, and each organisation's emissions are reconciled for restatements. That record shows which years were restated, so a team can tell a real reduction from a methodology or data change and decide whether a supplier's historic values are still comparable or should be remodelled.

Handling Outdated Data After Restatements

One challenge with supplier reporting is that companies don't typically delete or retract earlier emissions values. If they published it, even if it's now outdated, it still exists in the record somewhere.

For this reason:

DitchCarbon cannot remove data that a company still publishes. We only reflect what is present in the supplier's documents. But we can help you interpret it correctly.

What DitchCarbon does instead

• Always prioritise restated figures for any year where updated numbers have been released.
• Show the change history on every figure, so you can see where a year was restated and where historic values may no longer be comparable.
• Support comparisons between old and new values, helping you quantify the impact of methodological changes and decide whether to remodel those years.

This provides clarity without overwriting history, and ensures your datasets remain both traceable and consistent.

Why This Matters

Rebaselining and methodology changes introduce real complexity into emissions tracking. Without transparency:

• Trends can appear artificially steep or flat.
• Supplier improvements may be overstated or understated.
• Decarbonisation targets may look off track or ahead of schedule.

DitchCarbon's goal is to make these transitions as clear and traceable as possible, so your Scope 3 analysis stays accurate, defensible, and easy to audit.

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