10 Startups Selling Software to Manage Carbon
When the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, tells (s WMT) tens of thousands of suppliers to start tracking and disclosing the environmental impact of their products, odds are they’re gonna listen. That means the companies selling carbon management software will be prepping for a wave of new customers looking to find tools to help them dig through their supply chains and unleash data about how much carbon is emitted or water used during the production and shipping of each product. Here’s a list of who’s who in the suddenly hot carbon management software market:
| Company | What the Software Does | Funding | HQ, Founded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hara | Software-as-a-service product that gives companies and municipalities the ability to itemize and track all of the inputs (water, electricity, chemicals) and outputs (the product, greenhouse gases, wastewater) that make up the business processes. | $6 million, Series A, Kleiner Perkins | Menlo Park, Calif., 2008 |
| Planet Metrics | Software-as-a-service that helps companies assess energy and carbon use in their business and identify “hot spots” or areas where the biggest emissions reductions can be made. The system connects to other business enterprise software, and taps into deep databases. | $2.3 million, Series A, Angels and Draper Fisher Jurvetson | San Bruno, Calif., 2007 |
| Zerofootprint | The company’s Velo software-as-a-service automates the monitoring and modeling of an organization’s carbon emissions to provide a carbon footprint and planning tool. | Bootstrapped. Zerofootprint has both a nonprofit and a for-profit arm called Zerofootprint Software. | Toronto, nonprofit founded 2005, for-profit founded 2008 |
| Carbonetworks | Carbonetwork’s software calculates and tracks a client’s carbon footprint, and connects a network of partners including carbon traders, verifiers, offsetters, energy analysts and other software developers with the customer. | $5 million, Series A round from NGEN Partners | San Francisco, Calif., 2005 |
| Noblis | Noblis has been offering its carbon emissions analyzer to the GSA and U.S. government agencies for some time but more recently rolled out the software to commercial organizations. | Nonprofit | Falls Church, Va., company relaunched as Noblis in 2007 |
| Clear Standards/SAP | Clear Standards sells a subscription service in which customers pay an annual or quarterly fee for its web-based emissions management tools and services. | $4 million, Series A from Novak Biddle Venture Partners and Kinetic Ventures | Founded 2007, bought by SAP (s SAP) 2009, Sterling, Va. |
| Dakota Software | Dakota has been selling software to help companies management environmental incidents (accidents, health risks, etc.), and more recently has offered carbon management software. | NA | Cleveland, Ohio, 1988 |
| eQuilibrium/EnerNOC | Software-as-a-service that enables commercial, institutional, and industrial companies “to monitor, mitigate, and monetize” their carbon footprints. | Angel-funded by undisclosed private investors, bought by EnerNOC (s ENOC). | November 2007, bought by EnerNOC 2009. |
| CSRWare | Software-as-a-service that enables companies to track their use of resources like power and water. | Bootstrapped, looking to raise Series A. | San Francisco, 2006 |
| Pure Strategies | The company offers a lot of consulting and services around environmental supply chain management. | NA | Gloucester, Mass., 1994. |
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