- Feature
- Specific carbon calculation method with item tracking
- Availability
- Generally available (October 2026)
- Industry focus
- Steel and metals stockholders
Steel stockholders buy the same grade and size of material from different mills, and the carbon footprint can vary enormously between them. Steel from an electric arc furnace using recycled scrap may have a very different footprint from blast furnace steel. Customers in construction and engineering increasingly want carbon data for the actual material they receive, not an average. Business Central 29.0 makes that possible.
The industry challenge
A steel stockholder typically:
- Buys the same item, such as a particular beam section, from several mills
- Tracks material by heat number or lot for mill certificate traceability
- Sells to fabricators and contractors who need carbon data for their projects
Until now, Business Central's sustainability value entries used an average method. Emissions per unit were averaged across all stock of an item, much like average costing. For a stockholder, that means a low-carbon beam and a high-carbon beam of the same size end up with the same figure. The customer who paid a premium for low-carbon steel can't prove it.
What Microsoft delivered in Business Central 29.0
According to Microsoft, Business Central 29.0 introduces a new calculation method for carbon footprint tracking in sustainability value entries. On the Item Card's Sustainability FastTab, a Carbon Tracking Method field offers:
- Average (the default), the existing behaviour for all postings
- Specific, which uses the exact emission value for the unit received, similar to specific costing, for items tracked with serial or lot numbers
The Specific method also works with the new item journal emissions tracking, so emissions follow tracked items through adjustments and reclassifications.
Where the value shows up
| Business area | Impact for a steel stockholder |
|---|---|
| Customer carbon data | Emissions reported for the actual heat or lot supplied |
| Low-carbon premium | Evidence to support pricing for lower-carbon material |
| Traceability | Carbon linked to the same lot numbers as mill certificates |
| Tender support | Accurate data for customers' embodied carbon calculations |
| Supplier comparison | Clear view of carbon performance by mill |
This matters commercially. As construction clients set embodied carbon targets, stockholders that can prove the carbon of specific material will win work, and may command better prices for low-carbon supply.
A worked scenario
Consider a structural steel stockholder that buys universal beams from two mills, one using electric arc furnaces and one using blast furnaces (an illustrative example). Each delivery arrives with a mill certificate and an environmental product declaration stating its CO₂e per tonne.
The stockholder sets the Carbon Tracking Method to Specific for its beam items, which are already lot-tracked by heat number. When each delivery is received, its specific CO₂e value is recorded with the lot. A fabricator orders beams for a school project with a low embodied carbon target. The stockholder allocates lots from the electric arc mill and provides carbon data for exactly those lots, alongside the mill certificates.
Adoption considerations
- Use item tracking. The Specific method applies to items tracked by serial or lot number.
- Capture supplier data at receipt. Ask mills for emissions values per delivery and record them when receiving.
- Choose the method per item. Use Specific where material varies by source and Average where it doesn't.
- Align with certificates. Link carbon data to the same lot records as mill certificates.
- Explain the method. Tell customers how figures are calculated so they can use them in their reporting.
The bottom line
For steel stockholders, carbon is becoming a product attribute as important as grade and size. Specific carbon tracking in Business Central 29.0 lets stockholders report the true footprint of the material they supply, batch by batch. It turns low-carbon sourcing into something they can prove, and sell.
If customers are asking for material-specific carbon data, it's worth setting up specific carbon tracking with an experienced Business Central adviser.
Source: Microsoft roadmap 573379