We are delighted to be featured in the April edition of Computing magazine and on their website, www.computing.co.uk, in two articles about carbon and energy management. The first, an essential guide to the topic and making sure you choose the right solution, features comments from Ecometrica CEO Dr. Richard Tipper and Janet Lin from industry analyst Verdantix.

The second contains a case study of how FTSE-100 insurance giant RSA Group use Ecometrica’s environmental accounting software Our Impacts to reduce their emissions, meet regulatory requirements and compile otherwise complicated CDP reports.

Use the link below to view the articles in full on www.computing.co.uk:

Essential Guide to Carbon and Energy Management >

Emissions management case studies: RSA and Swiss Post >

Pratibha Syntex Ltd is one of the world’s largest full vertically integrated suppliers of all types of knitted textile products. The company works with around 30,000 farmers, hires 8,000 employees and supplies renowned global apparel brands from over 20 countries, including Nike, Walmart, Hanes, Lee, Ralph Lauren, Zara, Kathmandu and Woolworths.

Pratibha Syntex has won accolades domestically and internationally, produces around 60 million garments every year and has a strong ambition to be seen as a leader in driving societal and environmental responsibility.

Read the full case study below:

The National Magazine Company, commonly known as “Natmags”, is one of the UK’s largest magazine distributors, publishing twenty mainstream titles including Cosmopolitan, Country Living, Esquire, Good Housekeeping and Harper’s Bazaar. The company has been operating for over 100 years and has a readership of over 14 million across all titles.

Ecometrica has been working with Natmags to monitor their emissions profile since 2008. During this time, Natmags has seen its overall emissions reduce consistently every year due to undertaking formal carbon accounting on a recurring basis, generating reduction plans and taking action – specifically taking steps to reduce their electricity, landfilled waste, air travel and hotel stays.

Read the full case study below:

Ecometrica has worked with RSA for the last three years, having been engaged to carry out GHG calculations for their inventory and assist with CDP submissions. This year we were pleased to use the Our Impacts web-based GHG accounting solution to complete RSA’s CDP submission because we were convinced it would save time and improve accuracy. You can read RSA’s full Corporate Responsibility Report online, featuring expert comment from Ecometrica Senior Analyst, Charlotte Wylie.

Petkim Petrochemical Holding A.S. is the largest petrochemical complex in Turkey with 14 plants and 17 product lines with 7 auxiliary plants. The company’s share in the domestic market is more than 25% and it competes with Chevron and ExxonMobil internationally. The petrochemicals sector is amongst the most energy-intensive sectors, with up to 70% of the total energy cost coming from production.

In partnership with Gaia Carbon Management, Ecometrica implemented the Our Impacts platform to measure, calculate and report Petkim’s 2009 GHG emissions for disclosure to the CDP in May 2010.

Greenergy International Ltd. is a London-based fuel company that supplies around one-fifth of the UK’s road fuel, as well as being the country’s principal supplier of biofuel.

In June 2010, Ecometrica worked with Greenergy to quantify the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their operations for the financial year 2009/10. The entire process took only three weeks.

In 2008, BP undertook a project to allow their customers and website visitors to accurately account for their energy and carbon footprint, both now and in the future. The project formed part of BP’s vision of a lower energy and carbon future by allowing consumers to understand their environmental impacts.

From this brief, Ecometrica supported the technical development of the calculation algorithms, data models and emissions factors used to create the BP Energy Lab.

Working with Imperial College London, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Forest Research, and Aberdeen University to investigate the mitigation potential from biofuels and bioenergy, avoided deforestation, and afforestation/reforestation. Ecometrica assessed the economic, social and environmental impacts of avoided deforestation, and compiled a number of case studies to identify real-world constraints to achieving the technically available mitigation potential. This was a two year research project funded by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council.

In partnership with Brooklyndhurst, Ecometrica is working for the Scottish Government to review the Scottish Climate Challenge Fund (CCF). The fund aims to “empower communities to take action to reduce their carbon footprint and make a real difference to the local and national environment by significantly reducing their carbon emissions”. Ecometrica is quantifying the carbon savings achieved by eight of the CCF projects using the WBCSD/WRI methodology for carbon project accounting. Ecometrica is applying scenario analysis to address the uncertainties associated with future carbon savings and behaviour change interventions.

We are developing a tool to assist agri-industrial companies to identify threats to carbon stocks from their activities, and opportunities for interventions that are beneficial to ecosystem services. We are developing interactive maps of global carbon stocks, threats to carbon stocks, and identifying areas of opportunity to restore carbon to more productive levels. Through an interactive web-based interface, end users will be able to identify the impacts and benefits of their activities, and use the outcomes to report on compliance with regulations, and inform management decisions.

In 2009 Ecometrica worked with Royal Mail to revise an existing carbon calculator, used internally by the Royal Mail sales team, to demonstrate to clients the greenhouse gas emissions and waste saving benefits of the Sustainable® Mail initiative. Royal Mail’s Sustainable® Mail initiative is designed to offer guidance to customers on how to prepare their mail to have the least environmental impact and is aligned to PAS 2020 standard.

Working with Cranfield University to calculate a national greenhouse gas inventory for UK food consumption. Ecometrica developed a methodology for estimating the direct and indirect emissions from land use change (LUC) caused by UK food consumption. This was a “top-down” approach based on total global LUC emissions, the proportion of LUC caused by agricultural expansion, and the total land area associated with UK food consumption, using world average yields. The inventory was used to develop a set of mitigation scenarios for reducing emissions from UK food consumption by 70% by 2050.