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Data management

1. Rights and roles management

In the CO₂ calculator tool, robust management of application rights and permissions is in place to ensure strict data protection, particularly of personal data. It is structured around five different user roles:

  • Principal user: The person in charge of the unit is the only one with full access to the tool. They can view their entire unit, have access to all modules, and can use the data imported into the CO₂ Calculator to estimate the carbon footprint of projects in the CO₂ Project planner. The person in charge of the unit explicitly grants access rights to the unit members and may delegate the principal user role to one or more individuals.
  • Standard user: Standard users, representing the rest of the unit members, have access only to their personal data from the External clouds and AI, and Professional travel modules within the CO₂ Calculator workspace. These users can view the unit results in aggregated form once all modules have been validated by the principal users. Standard users have access to all modules in the CO₂ Project planner and CO₂ Explorer workspaces but do not have access to the data imported into the CO₂ Calculator workspace for estimating the carbon footprint of projects and must enter their data manually.
  • IT Manager: The IT Manager is responsible for the technical management of the tool.
  • Back-office Manager: The person responsible for EPFL Sustainability and the person in charge of managing institutional sustainability data have full access to the tool’s data and reporting. This access is strictly reserved for them.
  • Back-office user: Within the faculties, staff in the sustainability offices have the role of Restricted Professional Manager, meaning they can monitor the units within their faculty.

Accreditation of External Staff

External staff are not automatically accredited to use the CO₂ calculator. It is the unit manager responsibility to accredit external staff as needed through EPFL internal accreditation system.

Data retrieval from the CO₂ Calculator workspace

Certain data depending on the modules, workspaces (CO₂ Project Planner and CO₂ Explorer), and user roles is imported from the CO₂ Calculator space. This is detailed below:

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The CO₂ Explorer workspace is accessible to everyone, and no data is reported from the CO₂ Calculator workspace.

2. Best practices

Certain data is particularly sensitive, notably personal data relating to human resources and professional travel. It is therefore essential to follow certain best practices to ensure the confidentiality of information:

  • The role of Unit Manager must be assigned to no more than two people.
  • Results must be disseminated solely in the form of aggregated data, and not based on individual data.

3. Data storage

Data is maintained and stored internally. The retention period for entry and exit data is ten years. For professional travel, only the years of travel will be retained beyond the current year (LEX 5.6.2, Article 25 §3) for a period of five years.

  • Equipment: The EPFL inventory is governed by LEX 5.9.1.
  • Professional travel: LEX 5.6.2 and 5.6.3