An article in ComputerWorld claims that companies will be spending up to three times what they spent on Y2k, on carbon accounting and sustainability reporting.
Quoting results from analyst and research firm, S2 Intelligence, the article posits that businesses will collectively spend at least US$595 billion on systems to support green accounting.
S2’s managing director, Dr Bruce McCabe, said
to reduce the carbon footprint of businesses we first need to measure it, but green accounting today is shallow, with lots of window dressing and little actual measurement… Even services companies will see all their offices progressively instrumented to capture carbon footprint data
Government regulation–via carbon markets and taxation-will be matched by customer and trading partner demands for detailed reporting.
Carbon labelling in supermarkets is a good example. Led by chains such as Tesco in the UK, this will soon impact what makes it into the shopping basket.
Up until now, most responsible companies have been implementing policies to reduce their carbon footprint. However, putting the metrics in place to accurately report the footprint all the way along the supply chain involves big investments and the potential for lost business for those companies who fail to keep pace.
This new reporting requirement is a huge opportunity for companies capable of writing carbon accounting software.
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