Zerofootprint unveils carbon benchmarking at Climate Summit

VELOmetrics software will now allow industries to compare and benchmark carbon performance.

Sat, Sep 26 2009 at 12:27 AM EST

Image: Zerofootprint

This was a big, big week for the climate. Though no major agreements were made either at the Climate Summit in New York or the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, one thing was made clear.. the biggest world super powers have acknowledged that it's time to get real about climate change.

You can hear some of the highlights from the Climate Summit here, including Obama's first official speech on climate change.

The press has thoroughly covered the mostly unsurprising statements by world leaders, but one of the most interesting announcements, I thought, was about a specific piece of software that will hopefully help corporations and world leaders get a little more real about the carbon emissions they discussing.

The software is called VELOmetrics by Zerofootprint, a leading carbon accounting company, and it is the world's first attempt at creating a unified benchmarking platform for the carbon industry.

This is a big deal. As I've blogged about frequently, there are now literally hundreds of companies competing to win the Carbon Software Race, and the one thing the industry and the climate change movement does not need is cacophony.

VELOmetrics will now allow a uniform reporting system, so a company can do more than just track and report its carbon emissions. Now it can compare itself with an average of other companies in the same industry sector, overcoming a huge hurdle many CEO's face as they try to legitimate to their shareholders the cost of implementing carbon measurement and management strategies.

The software also allows comparisons by geographic region, which again is key in understanding the importance of certain carbon strategies by region:

An excerpt from the press release:

VELOmetrics provides an easy-to-use data collection tool so even organizations that are new to carbon reporting can participate immediately. It analyzes data from organizations to create industry benchmarks, cost-effectively. VELOmetrics enables companies to measure themselves against industry peers across the world, regardless of the carbon footprint software or how they capture their data today.

It's hard to say whether or not VELO will end up being the one "ring to rule them all" but it is at the very least an important step towards the important task of getting real and tactical about managing carbon emissions.