Understanding Organization Structure
Let’s see what information you can view about the organization structure, and consider what is the best way to design your organization structure.
Navigate to the Organisation Chart
Viewing detailed information for each BU
Additional customized information for each BU
1. Navigate to the Organisation Chart
The organisation chart contains the list of business units via which customers will use to track and compare emissions. The layout of the org chart typically depends on the structure of the company (how its business is organised and split), and how the company would like to track and manage emissions and its decarbonisation activities.
Supported functionality:
Measurement year: Click on the dropdown menu at the top right-hand corner of the page to select a different measurement year. The list will contain only measurement years for which an organisation chart has been uploaded.
Search: It is possible to search for a business unit by name, which is particularly useful in large organisational structures where there are numerous business units.
Fit view: This brings the organisation chart into view. Helpful for when it is out of focus or you have issues locating the org chart in the viewport.
Zoom in: This zooms in on the current view of the org chart.
Zoom out: This zooms out on the current view of the org chart.
Expand / Collapse all: This expands or collapses all of the nodes of the org chart.
Downward facing buttons below: Each last displayed node - these expand to reveal the direct children of each specific node of the branch selected. Useful for viewing children nodes of the selected business unit.
2.Viewing detailed information for each BU
It is also possible to view the details of a business unit by clicking on the node. This will reveal a side panel with its information. There are default fields—where providing some information is optional.
3. Additional customized information for each BU
Custom Fields - which your organization can use to add any additional business unit indicators or information as needed.
Optional fields 1 to 6 can be completed when filling out the template. For instructions on creating a Custom Field, please refer to the section on Custom Fields, It is recommended to define custom fields in advance, before starting the organization chart, if you believe these fields will be useful for your organization. When custom fields are created prior to completing the organization chart template, they will be automatically included in the downloadable template. This is especially convenient if your organization has numerous business units.
Organisation Chart Setup
The organisation chart forms the foundation of your emissions tracking structure, defining how your business units will be monitored and compared.
The organisation chart contains the list of business units via which customers will use to track and compare emissions. The layout of the org chart typically depends on the structure of the company (how its business is organised and split), and how the company would like to track and manage emissions and its decarbonisation activities.
⚠️ Important: For each year, only one unique organisational structure can be maintained for the entire organisation. For example, it is not possible to configure different organisational structures following the same entity structure and the value chain within the same year.
Planning Your Organisation Chart
Before creating your chart, consider:
Business Structure: How is your organisation divided?
Reporting Needs: What level of granularity do you need?
Data Collection: Who will provide data for each unit?
Future Growth: How might your structure change?
Step-by-Step Setup Process
Step 1: Access organisation chart section
Navigate to the Organisation Chart section on the platform
An organisation structure for the most recent year may be displayed, or the page may appear blank if none has been created previously.
Click "+ Create new"
Step 2: Download template
Click "Download Template"
Save the Excel file to your preferred location
Open the template in Microsoft Excel
Step 3: Prepare your data
Organisation Template Completion Best Practices
Maintaining data accuracy and applying consistent naming practices within the organisational structure ensures that reports remain clear, accurate, and easy to interpret, making emission results straightforward to understand. See Analysis and Reporting section.
Steps and Data Accuracy Guidelines
Start from Level 1
✅Use a single, unique name at Level1 (usually the company name or “Headquarters”).
Fill business unit (BU) names for subsequent nodes in columns
✅Keep the default tab names unchanged.
✅Fill in Business Unit (BU) names for all levels in all applicable columns, from Level 1 down to the lowest level.
❌Do not create naming conflicts across hierarchy lines.
Save the template (Please also see how to complete Optional Section of the template )
✅Only in .xlsx format.
✅Keep the default tab names unchanged
Error Example: Duplicate Business Unit (BU) Names
Using duplicate BU names in different parts of the hierarchy will cause errors.
For example:
A BU named Marketing appears at Level 3 under Fashion (Level 2) and again at Level 3 under Perfume (Level 2). Although these are different BUs in the different hierarchy of a organisational structure, using the same name will result in an error.
A BU named Fashion is used at Level 2, and the same name appears again at Level 3 under Perfume (Level 2). These represent different BUs in different hierarchy so that duplicate name will also cause an error.
Optional Sections of The Template
The template includes optional sections to fill. The details entered in these sections are displayed in the Business unit detail window and facilitate searching for BUs with specific information.These fields can be edited manually in the Business unit detail window.
Please also see how to incorporate Custom Fields into the template.
1. Types of business units (e.g. Office, Factory, Warehouse) of the BUs in corresponding Levels.
✅Pick applicable type from the dropdown list.
2. Location of the business units of the BUs in corresponding Levels.
✅Only countries are supported (Singapore, France etc).
3. Owner of the business units of the BUs in corresponding Levels.
✅ "Owner" is typically the individual responsible for the project within the Business Unit (BU), or the person leading reduction initiatives for that BU.
4. Description of the business units of the BUs in corresponding Levels.
✅The character limit for this field is 500 characters.
5. Tag names associated with the business of the BUs in corresponding Levels.
✅ You may include as many as tags you can.
✅ Separated by commas in the cell. Duplicate values will be ignored within a cell.
6. Business unit identifier of the BU in this Level.
✅This is used for performing bulk updates of the org chart on the platform.
Quality Assurance Checklist:
❌ Don’t leave required columns blank
❌ Do not create naming conflicts across hierarchy lines
❌ Don’t exceed the upload limit of 1,200 nodes in a single file
💡 Tips:Industry-Specific Examples of Organisation hierarchy
Step 4: Upload
Return to the Terrascope platform
Select the year for which you would like to create an organisation chart; note that years shown in grey already have organisation charts, while selectable years are displayed in black
Upload your prepared Excel file
Click "Import" to begin validation
Step 5: Validate and Confirm
The system will check for errors (e.g. missing managers, duplicate entries, or incorrect formatting).
If errors are found, cancel the current org chart creation process, correct the data, and re-upload the file.
If no errors are found, proceed by clicking Import.
🚧Handling organisation creation errors
There are two kinds of problems you might see: technical issues and file errors.
Technical problems: If there's a technical issue, you'll see an error message pop up on your screen.
File errors: If there are mistakes in the Excel file you uploaded, a text file will automatically download. This is because there could be many errors, and it's easier to see them all in a text file than in pop-up messages. Open the text file to see the errors you need to fix. Make the changes in your file and then upload it again.
To remove the file you uploaded before, click the backspace icon.