Consumption Compass: a summary of the methods used

The Consumption Compass is an Excel-based tool launched in April 2022 that provides CO2e estimates for all Swedish municipalities and postcodes. It employs a combination of bottom-up and top-down methodologies to downscale national consumption-based emissions data. The bottom-up approach is used exclusively for personal vehicle emissions, while the top-down approach utilizes four different approximations: MOSAIC lifestyle profile data, household expenditure surveys, other specific datasets (such as energy consumption and air travel), and per capita disposable income as a proxy. The tool integrates data from Statistics Sweden (SCB), InsightOne, and the Klimatkalkylatorn database to help local authorities prioritize climate actions.

• The Consumption Compass provides consumption-based emissions estimates (CO2e) at both the municipal and postcode level for every municipality in Sweden.
• A bottom-up approach, which measures actual consumption to estimate greenhouse gas footprints, is used only for personal vehicle emissions, accounting for 14% of total emissions.
• The largest portion of emissions (48%) is downscaled using MOSAIC profile data, which utilizes 44 consumer lifestyle profiles to distribute emissions per postcode across 60 COICOP categories.
• Food-related emissions are estimated by combining MOSAIC expenditure data with diet data from the Klimatkalkylatorn database, which contains over 800,000 user profiles as of April 2022.
• Eight percent of total emissions are downscaled using a 2009 household expenditure survey from Statistics Sweden (SCB), distributed to municipalities via the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKR) classification system.
• Specific datasets are used for 22% of emissions, including municipal kWh data for electricity and direct heating, Boverket energy declarations for district heating, and Swedish Environmental Protection Agency data for air travel.
• For 29 COICOP categories where detailed data is unavailable, per capita disposable income is used as a proxy to downscale emissions to the postcode level, representing 8% of total emissions.

APA

Rahmati-Abkenar, M., Axelsson, K., Grah, R., & Dawkins, E. (2022). Consumption Compass: a summary of the methods used. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/method-summary.pdf

Chicago

Rahmati-Abkenar, Mahboubeh, Katarina Axelsson, Rok Grah, and Elena Dawkins. Consumption Compass: a summary of the methods used. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2022. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/method-summary.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Rahmati-Abkenar |first1=Mahboubeh |last2=Axelsson |first2=Katarina |last3=Grah |first3=Rok |last4=Dawkins |first4=Elena |title=Consumption Compass: a summary of the methods used |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=April 2022 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/method-summary.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rahmatiabkenar2022consumption, author = {Rahmati-Abkenar, Mahboubeh and Axelsson, Katarina and Grah, Rok and Dawkins, Elena}, title = {{Consumption Compass: a summary of the methods used}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2022}, month = apr, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/method-summary.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }