SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Aug. 08, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Watershed is announcing a new collaboration to preserve and expand access to open, foundational sustainability data. The new initiative, Cornerstone, brings together researchers from the Stanford Sustainable Solutions Lab and Watershed—including the researchers that developed the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) model for carbon accounting (the US Environmentally-Extended Input-Output model, or USEEIO) and Watershed’s global carbon accounting model (the Comprehensive Environmental Data Archive, or CEDA)—and will onboard additional open source contributors over time.
Effective immediately, Cornerstone will be the hub for open access to USEEIO and Open CEDA, the world’s two most widely used models for scope 3 (value chain) carbon accounting and policy research. These models are used by thousands of organizations worldwide to measure and report their emissions. USEEIO and CEDA are used to calculate roughly 65 percent of scope 3 corporate carbon measurements globally, according to an analysis of CDP data.
In the coming months, USEEIO and CEDA will merge into a single global open multi-regional input output model to be managed by Cornerstone. The new model and associated data is expected to drive significant improvements in scope 3 measurements and will allow for data-driven assessment of environmental impacts beyond greenhouse gas pollution, including regional air and water quality, water use, and waste generation.
The Stanford Sustainable Solutions Lab within the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, led by Dr. Steve Davis, will lead research applying the model to identify and prioritize solutions to pressing sustainability challenges in energy and food systems, in addition to supporting ongoing model development.
“By combining the most trusted environmental data models and keeping them open to the world, we hope to help companies and organizations build and maintain momentum on sustainability,” said Christian Anderson, co-founder of Watershed.
Cornerstone brings together leading experts in emissions measurement. Dr. Wesley Ingwersen, former EPA lead and architect of the USEEIO model, will be Technical Director. Dr. Sangwon Suh, Head of Science at Watershed and developer of CEDA, and Dr. Steve Davis, Professor at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, will be Technical Advisors.
Alongside direct model development and research and innovation in environmental modeling, Cornerstone will foster a community of researchers and practitioners and offer ongoing education in the use of EEIO (Environmentally Extended Input Output) data.
For more information about the initiative visit www.cornerstonedata.org.
ABOUT WATERSHED: Watershed is the enterprise sustainability platform. Companies like Airbnb, Carlyle Group, FedEx, Visa, and Dr. Martens use Watershed to manage climate and ESG data, produce audit-ready metrics for voluntary and regulatory reporting, and drive real decarbonization. Watershed is the platform of choice for companies seeking to reduce emissions, meet customer, investor and regulatory requirements, and modernize their sustainability programs. Watershed customers also have exclusive access to a marketplace of pre-vetted, high-quality carbon projects and groundbreaking virtual power purchase agreements.
Amelia Penniman Watershed amelia@watershed.com
