Carbon footprinting software See all Client services

We offer the following software tools:

• Value chain manager - Value Chain Manager software helps you measure, manage and reduce your value chain footprint.
• Footprint Expert - Footprint Expert product carbon footprinting software enables you to produce fast and consistent carbon footprint measurements for products and services.

 

Value Chain Manager software

Our Value Chain Manager software helps you measure, manage and reduce your value chain footprint.

A unique combination of leading Cloud-based sustainability software with unrivalled carbon reduction expertise and carbon reduction data, based on a decade of Carbon Trust experience. Value Chain Manager helps large organisations measure, manage and reduce indirect emissions and ultimately capture the associated cost and reputational benefits of doing so.

As much as 80% of a company's total carbon impact lies outside their direct operational control and every tonne of carbon emitted needlessly represents a cost of between £200 to £400 to a business, based on today's energy prices. 

To fully understand the total carbon impact of a company's operations, we recommend that carbon footprint measurement needs to go beyond company-owned operating boundaries and reach into the broader supply and distribution chains, or Value Chain, to cover Scope 3 emissions. In accordance with Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, Scope 3 covers reporting categories beyond the direct Scope 1 and 2 emissions of an organisation to include purchased goods and services, business travel and employee commuting.

Based on our decade of experience footprinting thousands of businesses and products, there is clear evidence that having a robust carbon management strategy across a corporate value chain can deliver significant rewards, both reputational and financial.

Where should I start?

The Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard released in 2011 supports organisations in measuring, managing and reporting GHG emissions which arise outside their own operations. However, the value chain is uncharted territory for many organisations; with 15 Scope 3 categories ranging from Purchased Goods to Employee Commuting there is a lot of data to collect, manage and interpret.

Value Chain Hotspotter is a software tool that provides organisations from all sectors a rapid assessment of the carbon "hotspots" in their organisation. The output is an easy to use tool that offers an accessible, reliable and scalable start to evaluating Scope 3 carbon emissions.  Read more about how Value Chain Hotspotter (PDF) can help you.

Value Chain Manager  software enables you to measure the full scope of carbon emissions and show how to reduce the footprint and associated costs. Download the Value Chain Manager software product sheet (PDF) for further information.

Who can use the software?

Users of Value Chain Manager do not have to be specialists in data collation, analysis and interpretation. Value Chain Manager will help supply chain managers or CSR directors to make strategic business decisions with confidence in the supporting data. 

How can Value Chain Manager help my business?

Value Chain Manager helps a business to:

• Identify emission hotspots and cost reduction opportunities
• Categorise suppliers by carbon performance and spend
• Automatically process procurement or travel data from existing systems
• Distribute employee and supplier surveys to gather data directly from first-hand experience (primary data)
• Identify opportunities to reduce emissions, waste and cost
• Communicate performance and business improvement opportunities with interactive reporting tools

Download the Value Chain Manager product sheet (PDF) for further details.

The core Value Chain Manager system is set up in a modular way, with areas focussing on different emissions categories (Purchased Goods, Business Travel, Employee Commuting). The user can set up each module to suit their preferences, controlling the level of detail they want to investigate and according to what business structure is most appropriate for each emissions category. Reporting can also be designed according to how they want to report it for internal purposes. For example, break down emissions of purchased goods by cost centre, but employee commuting emissions by department.

Value Chain Manager is a unique online system that leverages in-built data and models to make informed estimates, supplemented with tools to help a company gather and process primary data unique to its business. Value Chain Manager has been developed from the ground up by Carbon Trust experts and CRedit360's in-house technical team, to integrate an extensive library of data that enables carbon emission factors to be auto-matched to input data, whilst also reporting back levels of data quality. This enables users to make informed business decisions and decides where more input is required to improve data quality.

The unique approach means you can efficiently invest time and resource on the sources of carbon and cost that are material to your organisation, then incrementally improve the quality of your data, engage your stakeholders and implement reductions along your Value Chain together.   

Software demonstrations

Product demonstrations are available by request. Download the Value Chain Manager software product sheet (PDF) for further information.  If you'd like to know more, fill in our contact form, email us on footprinting@carbontrust.com or give us a call on +44 (0)20 7832 4805.

 

Footprint Expert

Our carbon footprinting software Footprint Expert enables you to produce fast and consistent carbon footprint measurements for products and services.

Footprint Expert 4.0 now fully supports PAS2050:2011 and the GHG Protocol Product standard.

What is the carbon footprint of a product or service?

A carbon footprint of a product of service is an assessment of the greenhouse gas emissions that are released as part of the product's lifecycle. This lifecycle consists of all the activities associated with that product, and typically includes the following stages:

Raw materials input	Manufacturing	Packaging	Distribution & Retail	Use & Disposal

Why should I calculate the carbon footprint of my products or services?

There are many reasons why calculating a carbon footprint of your products and services can be beneficial for your organisation. It can enable you to:

• Identify cost savings across the supply chain
• Identify opportunities to reduce environmental impact through reductions in material use, water, waste and energy
• Inform innovation for low carbon and sustainable product design
• Understand supply chain risks
• Prepare for future legislation
• Enhance your brand and win tenders with business-to-business customers though better environmental credentials, carbon labelling and communications.

How can Footprint Expert software help me?

Footprint Expert is a software tool that enables you to calculate the greenhouse gas emissions at each lifecycle stage in a simple and consistent manner, to generate an overall carbon footprint for your products or services.

The tool leverages the knowledge of the Carbon Trust to reduce both the time taken and cost of calculating the carbon footprint and has been designed to comply with the globally-recognised product carbon footprinting standards, PAS 2050 and the GHG Protocol Product standard..

You can use Footprint Expert by purchasing a 1-year licence, which gives you access to all the components of the toolkit, including:

• A framework that enables primary data to be entered quickly and easily.
• A large database of secondary data that is compliant with the PAS2050 and GHG Protocol standards, and which is regularly updated.
• A set of calculators that are designed to minimise complexity and ensure consistency. They cover common activities such as domestic refrigeration, supermarket storage, road transport and paper manufacturing, and new calculators are added in each release.
• A guide that provides straightforward, prescriptive and comprehensive guidance and rules on how footprint assessments should be conducted.
• A hotspot calculator designed to calculate a top-line footprint extremely quickly, without the need for a comprehensive data-gathering process.

Contact us for further information about a licence for Footprint Expert.

Your 1-year licence will entitle you to free upgrades during this period, including new data, calculators and guidance information.

How do I purchase Footprint Expert?

Applying for a Footprint Expert licence is a simple process:

1. E-mail us at footprintexpert@carbontrust.com for an application pack
2. Once you have completed the application pack, we will provide all the files you need to run the software.

A standard single licence provides access for two named users, although any number of additional users can be appended if required.

For direct customers, a 1-year licence for access to Footprint Expert costs from £1,500+VAT, with a renewal fee to receive updates in subsequent years from £1,000 plus VAT.

For consulting company users, a separate fee schedule applies. Contact us for further information on fees and reseller options.

Our track record

The Carbon Trust are leading experts in product carbon footprinting, having developed the PAS 2050 standard in partnership with the British Standards Institute (BSI) and the UK government. This was the first standard to establish a consistent methodology to assess the greenhouse gas emissions associated with a product or service throughout its entire lifecycle.

In addition, the Carbon Trust set up the first global carbon labelling scheme, the Carbon Reduction Label, which has so far been used by over 90 brands in 19 countries, with a combined annual sales revenue of over £2 billion.

Footprint Expert incorporates the valuable experience and learnings from all projects that have passed through the Carbon Reduction Label scheme since 2008. It has been used by over 200 organisations from 26 countries, including the following companies:

       

Training

Footprint Expert training

Many users of Footprint Expert find that attending one of our training courses is an invaluable help when starting their first product carbon footprinting project. These courses are designed to give a good overview of the fundamentals of carbon footprinting, and provide practical advice on how to manage a footprinting project. Delegates learn how to use Footprint Expert to calculate the carbon footprint of a product or service, and gain practical experience through a case study.

These training sessions are held in London and include lunch and refreshments. The course costs £900+VAT per person and the Footprint Expert licence is a prerequisite to the training course.  The next training session will be held on 11 & 12 June 2013 - see more details on the event page.

If you're interested in attending a Footprint Expert training course, please email footprintexpert@carbontrust.com for further details.

Carbon footprint training

We also offer one-day carbon footprint training courses for organisations looking to calculate and report on their carbon footprint.  The key focus of the training course is to:

• Understand the principles of carbon footprinting
• Be able to define, collate and calculate a basic carbon footprint
• Produce a basic carbon footprint report
• Be aware of the main footprinting standards, including the Carbon Trust Standard

Training course cost: £400 +VAT which includes all training materials, tea, coffee and refreshments throughout the day and lunch.

See more information and how to book your place: one-day carbon footprint training courses.

 

Get in touch

Contact us to find out more or to arrange a software demonstration - fill in our contact form, email us on footprinting@carbontrust.com or give us a call on +44 (0)20 7832 4805.