Planet Metrics Unveils New Carbon Modeling Tool

• 

  Your Email: *

  Your Name: *

  Send To: *

  Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.

  You are going to email the following: Planet Metrics Unveils New Carbon Modeling Tool

  Message Subject: (Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from GreenBiz.com®

  Message Body: (Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from GreenBiz.com®.

  Your Personal Message: *

  CAPTCHA

  Are you human? Thanks for helping us block auto-spammers.

  

  What code is in the image?: *

  Copy the characters (respecting upper/lower case) from the image.
  
• 
• 
• 

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- Many companies have long conducted life cycle assessments (LCA) to determine the environmental impacts from the various development stages of a product.

Yet LCAs can be difficult and expensive to apply on a broader scale, such as across the product categories of a large retailer, according to Andy Leventhal. His new company, Planet Metrics, offers businesses another tool to help them develop and execute a carbon strategy. Its streamlined carbon modeling and visualization software estimates carbon intensity throughout corporate value chains.

Leventhal and his partner Aaron Dallek launched Planet Metrics today and announced the close of $2.3 million in Series A funding from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and angel investors. The company also scored its first contract: measuring the carbon footprint of the upcoming Consumer Electronics Association trade show in Las Vegas.

The company doesn't expect trade shows to comprise its bread-and-butter, but the contract does offer a glimpse into the potential of the Carbon Information Management (CIM) software, according to Sales Director Craig Ramini. A trade show generates emissions from attendants' travel, food production, logistics and waste. The software can give organizers an idea of the largest emissions sources to help them mitigate impacts at the planning stage.

Ramini said the software offers a conclusion similar to that of an LCA but with less precision and faster results. Planet Metrics is piloting the software with other as-of-yet unnamed companies within its target sectors, including packaged consumer goods, retail, manufacturing, automotive and technology.

In the retail setting, the software could be used to analyze the emissions across product categories. "If they look aisle by aisle and see the average impact by section, they have the ability to focus on hot spots," Leventhal said.

That allows the company to determine where to focus, set targets and innovate to reduce emissions.

The software, which starts at a cost of between $25,000 and $75,000 annually, is based on Economic Input Output Lifecycle Assessment from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as governmental and scientific LCA databases to estimate resource use and emissions of commodities and services from cradle to gate.

Leventhal said most software products on the market are oriented toward carbon accounting and tracking. The majority of potential clients with whom he speaks are using Xcel spreadsheets, not web-based tools. "The do-it-yourselfers," he said, "are our biggest competition."

Share: LinkedIn   StumbleUpon   Digg