If there’s one industry that loves complexity and regulations, it’s the information technology (IT) industry. Simply put, new problems and constraints equal new business opportunities for technology vendors and consultants (see Sarbanes-Oxley and “10+2″). The latest potential gold mine: carbon information management (CIM).
I’m not sure who invented this (yet another) three-letter acronym, but it’s what the folks at Planet Metrics are calling their solution. I haven’t been briefed by the company yet, but based on what’s on their website, their solution is effectively a software-as-a-service business intelligence application focused on carbon footprint related metrics. Planet Metrics closed $2.3 million in Series A funding from angel investors and Draper Fisher Jurvetson back in November.
Carbonetworks (“technology solutions for carbon management”) is another vendor looking to strike gold in this area. According to their website, their Emissions Management Platform allows companies to manage their emissions as financial assets or liabilities and connects them to a global network of carbon reductions. In a press release published last month, the company stated, “The market potential for carbon management is only increasing [emphasis mine] and Carbonetworks continues to actively hire for new positions to further build its world-class team.” Carbonetworks is also privately-held, with NGEN Partners and Swiftsure Capital as investors.
The Goliaths of the IT industry are also seeing green in carbon management. Earlier this year, I wrote about IBM’s “green” consulting offering, and last Thursday the company announced a partnership with OMRON, where the two companies will work together to assist clients in addressing anticipated regulatory restrictions and penalties for CO2 emissions by “combining OMRON’s sensor capabilities and experience in traffic control, vehicle weight measurement, and transportation distance and loading ratios systems with the advanced mathematic calculation technologies of IBM’s Virtual Routing Planner and Modal-Shift Transportation Planner offerings.” This partnership is aligned with IBM’s “The Smarter Supply Chain of the Future” vision, where “information that was previously created by people will increasingly be machine-generated, flowing out of sensors, RFID tags, meters, actuators, GPS and more.” The initial focus of their work will be in Japan, where mandatory emissions reporting requirements already exist.
Of course, savvy logistics service providers (3PLs) will also exploit this “green” opportunity. As I highlighted in a recent posting, some customers will look to their 3PL partners to gather carbon-related data, validate it, and transform it into the right format for filing (see “A New Business Intelligence Solution…from a 3PL!“). And as I noted back in December, Ryder stated the following in its Carbon Disclosure Project filing: “As new, more stringent regulations are adopted, we believe there is the potential for increased business opportunities for Ryder. Many companies are realizing how expensive it is to implement transportation initiatives in order to comply with new regulations. Not only are there bigger investments required in equipment, but there are additional costs associated with training and finding the right resources to manage these programs. In this environment, companies see the benefits of outsourcing, where they can tap into the existing infrastructure of a company like Ryder that has the experience and expertise to manage these programs for them.”
Last week, the U.S. Senate passed an amendment, by a 67 to 31 vote, which would prevent Congress from fast-tracking cap-and-trade using the budget “reconciliation” process, which only requires a majority vote instead of 60 or more votes. Translation: cap-and-trade regulation will likely pass at some point, but only after much debate and lobbying.
In the meantime, I expect the IT, 3PL, and consulting industries to come up with new solutions, services, and three-letter acronyms related to managing carbon. Cap-and-trade may be viewed as anti-business by some companies, but it’s a stimulus bill for others.
