Getting Started with the CRANE Tool
What is CRANE?
CRANE (Carbon Reduction Assessment for New Enterprises) is an open access, web-based application that allows users to evaluate the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction potential of emerging technologies The goal of the software is to greatly reduce the time and resources required for investors, entrepreneurs, government agencies, incubators, and philanthropies to perform forward-facing, rigorous and transparent climate impact assessments. The key result is an impact potential for the technology or company, which is the magnitude of the greenhouse gas emissions in million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMtCO2e) that have the potential to be avoided or abated as a result of deploying the new technology. Every analysis includes a summary report that provides additional metrics, assumptions, references, and calculations. Each analysis can be downloaded in multiple formats and shared among stakeholders for further review and improvement.
CRANE’s mission is to make GHG modeling capabilities publicly and globally available, while contributing to a digital ecosystem of organizations and people working on real climate solutions. The CRANE tool does not precisely forecast the future, but rather provides an estimate for future impact potential and a logical basis for that estimate. We hope our users will view CRANE output reports as a helpful starting place for considering climate impact in their own diligence, integrated reporting and conversations.
CRANE's Methodology
The CRANE methodology originated from Prime’s in-house process, which was formalized and published in a 2018 report entitled Climate Impact Assessment for Early Stage Ventures. Since then, the methodology has been subtly refined in order for it to be applicable to a broad range of sectors and manifested in software. However, the core framework and approach has not been altered.
The high-level approach of the methodology is to calculate the difference in emissions between two divergent futures (scenarios):
- The Reference Scenario, which may be any of a range of possible futures in which the new technology has not been deployed, and the market demands continue to grow at expected rates
- The Solution Scenario, a future in which the new technology has been deployed.
Each scenario includes projections of the Total Available Market (the largest or broadest market that a technology could theoretically displace), Target Market (the specific market that a technology will displace over time), and Established Market if applicable (an existing, clean technology market that falls within the same total available market as the new technology). The Solution Scenario also includes the Solution Market (the market share captured by the New Technology). The remaining market is the Total Available Market less all the other markets incorporated in the analysis.
For more detailed information on the calculations, we recommend reviewing the Calculation References tab of a CRANE analysis.
This framework does not assess the probability of a given venture to achieve commercial success. Rather, it focuses on describing ERPs that allow investors in a variety of industries and subsectors to compare the potential impact of one venture relative to another and to investigate the underlying assumptions.
Customizable CRANE Inputs and Key Outputs
What information to bring with you to CRANE
CRANE provides a portion of the data that is required to conduct an impact analysis, but it is also expected that a company will provide key information that is specific to their technology or venture. The information below describes what data CRANE brings to the table and what a venture should be expected to provide.
Required Inputs
From the User
- Geographic scope of analysis - This is the geographic region that you expect to adopt your technology. Most of the CRANE technology models are global, but we are currently expanding the available CRANE geographies. If the default CRANE geography is not suitable for your application, you can modify it by adding your own data in the Custom Technology Module.
- Time horizon of analysis - This is the start and end point for the analysis. CRANE restricts the analysis projections to a maximum of 2060 for the final year of the analysis.
- Technology area selection - This includes identifying the most appropriate technology model in CRANE. Sometimes technologies that do not at first seem like a direct fit can be modified appropriately for a reasonable analysis. It can be a challenge to identify the best model, so there is more guidance on this below.
- Projected market penetration - CRANE provides default values for projected market penetration, but these should almost always be updated by the venture for a more accurate analysis. CRANE currently does not support projected unit sales as a direct input, so some conversation may be necessary to reach the appropriate input units. The units are always a percentage of the target market.
- Key physical performance metrics or targets - This is a commonly used performance metric for the specific technology, such as fuel efficiency improvement or percent energy savings. CRANE provides default values for an expected similar technology, but this will likely need to be updated if the analysis is for a specific company’s technology.
- Current hypothesis around impact potential (i.e. mechanism of mitigating or avoiding emissions)
From CRANE
- Total Market and target market projection(s)
- Corresponding industry emissions projection(s)
- Key performance metrics and/or GHG intensity of incumbent technologies (i.e. those which are expected to be displaced by solution)
Key Outputs
- Estimate of range of cumulative GHG impact potential to end year
- Estimate of the annual GHG impact potential per company to end year
- CRANE analysis file (can be shared and updated)
- CRANE output report w/ calculation and documentation of references
Registering an Account
How do I sign up for the CRANE tool and how much does it cost?
CRANE is open access and free to use. You can sign up for the tool here and access the tool here. In the future, the CRANE Team is developing additional tools to supplement the main application, some of which may require paid subscriptions, but the currently available CRANE software, as well as development that is necessary for the public good, will always remain free to use.
Custom Technology Module
I can’t find my technology in CRANE, what do I do?
One of the biggest challenges in generating a CRANE analysis is finding the right technology model in CRANE. This diagram can help guide you to finding the best technology model. All existing CRANE technology models as well as their details can be found here. Our backlog of technologies can be found here.
Although we have over 200 verified technology models in CRANE, sometimes there is still no suitable existing CRANE model to represent your technology. For these cases, we have recently released our Custom Technology module. This module allows users to put together their own model that can be used in the main CRANE application. Please note that putting together a model from scratch can be challenging and time consuming, and we understand that there is a bit of a learning curve. The following section includes a tutorial video that can help you get started and guide you through this process. If you do not have the resources to put together a custom CRANE model yourself, Rho Impact (collaborators on CRANE) offers consulting services, including putting together a custom technology model for you and guiding you through the analysis and results.
Tutorial Videos & Demos
I have my inputs ready. How do I generate a custom impact analysis for my company or technology?
Below is a 15-minute tutorial video that we created to help guide you through the process of inputting your customized data and generating an analysis specific to your company or technology and needs.
If you cannot find your technology in CRANE or want to further customize an existing CRANE model, you can use our Custom Technology module. To guide you through the process of creating a CRANE technology model, we have put together the 30-minute tutorial video below.
We do not currently offer free demonstrations to individual companies outside of consulting engagements. However, past webinars can be viewed on our YouTube channel.
Frequently Asked Questions & Glossary of Term
What do I do if I have additional questions or don’t understand terminology used in the tool?
A major challenge of the forward-looking carbon accounting is the lack of common terminology. Not all of the terminology used in CRANE may be familiar to you. In order to assist you in understanding the specific definitions of all CRANE taxonomy terms and to see those terms in relation to more familiar ones, we have put together this glossary (you will need a CRANE account to access it).
If you still have questions about CRANE, please visit our FAQ page. We have included all the most common questions that we have received. If you cannot find your question, please feel free to contact us at info@cranetool.org and we will do our very best to get back to you in a timely manner.