Why companies should invest in carbon management software

05.08.2010

Sustainability teams at large companies have used spreadsheets for years to track corporate carbon emissions. However, we are now at a tipping point where the benefits of carbon management software, also known as enterprise carbon accounting (ECA) software, outweigh the benefits of spreadsheets.

With many large companies recently completing their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports and Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) questionnaires, it is time to move away from spreadsheets to reduce risk, save money, increase productivity, and establish an enterprise-class source of record for carbon emission data...

The calculation and reporting of carbon emissions today is a standard, mainstream business process and needs to be treated as such. Investors are ever more insistent that reported environmental data have the same rigor and processes of reported financial data. Large companies simply cannot afford the brand and image risk of incorrectly reported carbon emission data to these important stakeholders.

As carbon data collection and reporting needs increase, spreadsheet disadvantages become more acute

Spreadsheets allow a single user to enter, manipulate, analyze and visually represent numerical data with great flexibility. It can also be easily distributed via e-mail or a network-accessible location. However, without a content management system to coordinate and track changes from multiple sources, spreadsheets quickly becomes unwieldy and error-prone.
When a spreadsheet becomes so complex problems are multiple, and only the original author can make required fixes and improvements. What is more, as carbon data collection and reporting needs increase, spreadsheet disadvantages become more acute and lead to additional labour costs and frustration when coordinating changes and updates. These problems are compounded by sporadic backup processes and high training cost if or when the spreadsheet guru leaves.

Moreover, sustainability team members with responsibility for the carbon emissions file spend an inordinate amount of time managing this spreadsheet. These activities include gathering, correcting and inputting data, reconciling current carbon emissions with carbon emissions from previous years and baseline calculations, and creating custom reports by country, division, product line or customer.

Sustainability team members should focus on communicating and educating stakeholders about sustainability plans and identifying reduction efforts, rather than draining time with spreadsheet.

The market for carbon management or ECA software has been emerging during the past few years. Sustainability teams need to realize about the importance of good carbon management processes and tools, and to develop budget requests for software investment.