SAS, an IT vendor more known for its business intelligence (BI) software and services, has recently introduced in this country a software that supposedly measures a company's eco-friendliness and carbon footprint. Its capabilities, SAS claims, include tracking the level of CO2 emissions of companies and analyzing its impact on its business operations.
Thomas Spiller, SAS senior director for international programs, said the product can be customized to the customer specifications but admitted that since it has just been launched, SAS has yet to sign up a local customer.
Just who are these customers that SAS is targeting, and why should you buy, or not buy, the product?
With the escalating cost of energy and pressures from the environmental movement, big business has started to embrace eco-friendliness and energy efficiency. Going carbon neutral, as the movement is now known, is not just a fad, Spiller assures.
For many companies, moving towards that goal not only enhances their corporate social responsibility (CSR) image, but the bottom line as well from energy savings and increased business.
Usually, the first step towards this direction is to quantify your carbon footprint--that is, how much greenhouse gases (GHG) as typified by CO2, your company is actually producing.
Without saying in so many words, SAS is actually offering a carbon calculator.
A carbon calculator is a device, usually a software, that does what its name implies: calculate the total carbon emission or footprint for a given event, an energy project or a company.
Existing carbon calculators range from order-of-magnitude estimates to fairly sophisticated devices that detail every possible source of emission and the methods backed up by reputable data. There are free carbon calculators usually offered by non-governmental organizations concerned with global warming and government institutions such as the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and there are fairly sophisticated commercial calculators used by carbon market traders, renewable energy project developers applying for carbon credits through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and big business carrying out a corporate program towards carbon neutrality.
Calculating a carbon footprint is not easy. As what any budding software developer is advised, GIGO - garbage in, garbage out. Your results will only be as good as the worst assumption built into the software.
For example, the total carbon footprint of all the employees in a company may be estimated by the average per capita footprint but if the built-in assumption is that for a developed country like Japan or the U.S. where individual energy consumption is far higher, the errors can be very significant.
To be on the conservative side, choose a calculator which is most comprehensive in its coverage. Some calculators for example, fail to take into account such as commuting habit of its employees which can amount to a large number.
If in doubt, ask.
It is also important to choose a provider accredited with a top accepted standard to ensure getting a comprehensive calculator. Some of the stringent standards include the Gold Standard, the Greenhouse Gases Protocol, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) ISO14064, The Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) and The Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards (CCBS).
You may be passionate about making your company green. Just make sure that you have the right tools in realizing your dream.
I think there needs to be a "dumbed down" discussion of going green and all this talk about carbon footprints, maybe through comics or something like what Asiong Aksaya did for energy conservation when I was young. Something in plain english, although of course those following this topic will know already...but it needs to go more mainstream I think.
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