California SB 253 and SB 261 reporting software

California SB 253 and SB 261: What you need to know

California has introduced new corporate climate disclosure requirements to improve transparency and accountability:

SB 253 – Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act
SB 261 – Climate-Related Financial Risk Act

Senate bill	Company annual revenue	Reporting requirements	Timeline
SB 253	$1B+	Report Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions	First Scope 1 and 2 reports due in 2026 (for 2025 data) Scope 3 reporting begins in 2027
SB 261	$500M+	Assess and disclose climate risks (aligned with TCFD)	First reports due by January 1, 2026, with updates every two years

Who is affected?

Companies with $500M+ revenue (SB 261)
Companies with $1B+ revenue (SB 253)
Applies to businesses operating in California, regardless of headquarters location

What businesses need to do:

Measure & report emissions (Scope 1, 2, and 3 under SB 253)
Assess & disclose climate risks (SB 261, aligned with TCFD)
Ensure compliance to avoid penalties and regulatory scrutiny

Streamline your California SB 253 and SB 261 reporting with seamless, AI-powered emissions tracking

Calculate your carbon footprint
‍Effortlessly transform your organisation’s data into comprehensive Scope 1-3 emissions metrics.

Set reduction initiatives and targets
‍Build, compare, and model multiple scenarios with hundreds of parameters to align with targets.

Report on your emissions in real-time
Generate tailored emissions reports for regular monitoring and clear, transparent disclosure of emissions data.

About Avarni

Avarni is an award-winning carbon accounting software company founded in 2021 by former Atlassian & Macquarie Telecom Group staff Misha Cajic & Anuj Paudel, and backed by Main Sequence Ventures, a venture capital firm co-founded by CSIRO.
Avarni has supported global firms and mid-market companies in meeting emissions reporting requirements worldwide, collaborating closely with consulting partners for seamless implementation.
Avarni's advisory board features prominent climate experts, including Michael Molitor, former Global Leader of Climate Change Services at PwC, and Daniel Jarosch, former Climate Change APAC Lead at BCG.

Avarni award-winning carbon accounting software

Hear from our valued partners and sustainability consulting experts

Gain valuable perspectives from Lloyd Lee, Sustainability (Climate) Strategy Lead at Schneider Electric Sustainability Business, on addressing supply chain emissions, utilizing innovative tools, and staying ahead of changing climate policies.

Hear from Aletta Boshoff, Partner & National Leader at BDO Australia, as she discusses compliance with mandatory sustainability standards, ensuring transparency in technology, and managing regulatory shifts with ease.

Learn from Michael Cox, APAC Director at Schneider Electric Sustainability Business, about implementing effective sustainability approaches, tackling supply chain carbon challenges, and the transformative impact of technology on carbon reporting.

Are you a consulting firm interested in becoming an Avarni Partner?

FAQs

What is carbon accounting?
Carbon accounting is the process of systematically measuring and recording the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with specific spend and activity data activities of an organization over a defined period. It uses established emission factors, which convert spend and activity data (like liters of fuel used or kilowatt-hours of electricity consumed) into carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e).
How does Avarni work?
Simply upload your procurement spend and activity data into Avarni, and Avarni’s powerful AI technology automatically converts the data into emissions data, allowing you to visualise your organization’s carbon footprint, broken down by Scopes 1-3, GHG categories, suppliers, and more.
What Scope 3 categories does Avarni cover?
Avarni covers the Scope 3 categories 1-14, with specialised features to aid in the automatic calculation of Purchased Goods & Services, Capital Goods, Business Travel, Employee Commuting and Upstream & Downstream Transportation & Distribution.
Can data be extracted from the Avarni platform?
Yes, all data can be exported out of the platform for use in Excel and other programs.
How does Avarni keep customer data secure?
All data uploaded to Avarni is securely hosted on Australian territory in the cloud, ensuring no foreign entities can access it. Discover how we secure your information with multiple layers of protection by visiting our security page.

View more of our frequently asked questions

Carbon accounting software with experience

US$302bn

worth of data analyzed

487m⁺

tonnes of CO2e identified

311,000

suppliers analyzed across
hundreds of industries

For those of us that have grown up loving a spreadsheet, I'm very pleased that finally there are solutions in this space that are coming to ground, like Avarni’s solution, that is giving us the possibility of managing very large data sets and minimizing that level of consultant intervention.

Michael Cox

APAC Director, Sustainability Consulting
Schneider Electric Sustainability Business

I did a new exercise using Avarni to do the initial emission factor database matching. That saved hours of work, which is sometimes a very manual process, matching it line by line in the spreadsheet.

Lloyd Lee

Sustainability (Climate) Strategy
Schneider Electric Sustainability Business

Avarni’s automation software enabled us to easily assemble data that had been previously distributed across multiple spreadsheets and sources, and facilitated a robust analysis of our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

Robert Selby

Chief Technical & Risk Management
Morrison Hershfield

Avarni’s software was easy to use and is supporting us to reach our target of net zero in our supply chain by 2040. Avarni really understood our goal and worked with us to achieve more accurate data from our supply chain. We look forward to building on this partnership.

City of London Corporation

Avarni’s extensive technical knowledge of the greenhouse gas emissions and reductions space and their technology platform provided excellent insight into our current emissions profile so that we can set meaningful reduction targets for the future.

Robert Selby

Chief Technical & Risk Management at Morrison Hershfield

Avarni enables us to greatly enhance the speed and quality at which we deliver greenhouse gas emissions insights to our customers. We are excited to work closely with them as a key partner in expanding Earth Finance's Scope 3 decarbonization solution set.

Garrett Kephart

President
Earth Finance, Inc.

Because of Avarni, we have been able to get a thorough understanding of our impact areas and emissions, not only in our own operations, but also in our supply chain. They have provided cutting-edge and helped Underworks set solid 2030 carbon reduction goals.

Annelou Ringers

Sustainability Manager
Underworks

Avarni's software is easy to use and very intuitive, upload of data is simple and straightforward, results for Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions are shown in a very clear form - and they are always ready to help, have quick meetings, chats and receive and apply feedback.

Marina Lunardi

Life-cycle Strategy Lead
5B

Streamline California SB 253 and SB 261 reporting with AI-powered carbon accounting software