Understanding the difference between summary and detailed formats
The DitchCarbon API provides two main response formats for organization data: summary and detailed. Your access to these formats is determined by your account's plan type.
Plan-Based Access
When you make API requests to retrieve organization data, the level of detail returned depends on your account's plan. By default, new accounts have access to the summary format. To access the detailed format, your account needs to be upgraded to the detailed plan.
Summary
Summary Format
The summary format provides information ranking an organization without providing underlying reported emissions data.
What's Included
- Input fields (id, name, website, external_id, status of request)
- Matching organization information (if available)
- Organization headquarters region
- Organization industry classification
- Organization Score, mean industry score, and organization benchmark score
When Available
Detailed
Detailed Format
The detailed format provides detailed emissions data on an Organization, in addition to what is included in the summary format.
What's Included
Everything in the summary format, plus:
- Emissions disclosures (organization_performances) and original source documents
- Organization specific emission factors (revenue-based allocation method)
- Industry emission factor based on the Organization's industry and region
- CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) status
- Climate pledge status
- Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) data
- UN initiatives data
- Peer comparisons
- Recommended emissions reduction actions
When Available
Example Usage
API Request Example
GET /organizations/{id}
Note: The same endpoint is used for both formats. The response format is determined by your account's plan.
Format Comparison
| Data Point |
Summary |
Detailed |
| Basic organization data | ✓ | ✓ |
| Headquarters region | ✓ | ✓ |
| Matching organization | ✓ | ✓ |
| Score and rank data | ✓ | ✓ |
| Basic industry information | ✓ | ✓ |
| Performance data | ✗ | ✓ |
| Detailed industry with region | ✗ | ✓ |
| Source documents | ✗ | ✓ |
| CDP data | ✗ | ✓ |
| Climate pledge information | ✗ | ✓ |
| SBTi data | ✗ | ✓ |
| UN initiatives data | ✗ | ✓ |
| Similar companies | ✗ | ✓ |
Which plan should I use?
Summary
Summary Format Benefits
The summary format returns significantly less data than the detailed format, resulting in faster response times and lower bandwidth usage. For applications that only need basic organization information, the summary plan may be sufficient.
Detailed
Detailed Format Benefits
When detailed analysis is required for organizations, upgrading to the detailed plan provides access to comprehensive data points for in-depth sustainability analysis and reporting.
To check your current plan or request an upgrade to access the detailed format, please contact our customer success team or your account manager.
Related Resources
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