Software start-up ENXSuite today is releasing an updated version of its energy management software, one of many companies trying to bring stricter accounting to costs related to natural resources, including water, waste, and greenhouse gas emissions.

ENXSuite, which has some 24 announced customers, competes with start-ups Hara Software, which launched last year, and C3, a still stealthy company with Tom Siebel and Condoleezza Rice on its board. Companies in more specialized areas, such as building management or demand response, are trying to bring better control over natural resources.

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ENXSuite’s software is designed for understanding energy consumption and managing efficiency or sustainability projects.

The activity reflects how spending on energy is typically not well-understood or actively managed by big organizations, said Beatriz Infante, the CEO of ENXSuite, a former Oracle executive who joined the company in June.

“We’ve been managing energy at the facility level. But at the corporate level, there hasn’t been a system of record of how you’re spending and how you’re managing electricity or the gas bill,” she said. “An important component is being the system of record.”

The company’s software enables businesspeople, either financial executives or sustainability officers, to track usage of electricity, gas, water, waste, or greenhouse gases. Once that data is collected, people can create models to make decisions on energy efficiency initiatives.

For example, a company could compare the payback period of investing in data center virtualization versus an efficient lighting program. Then, companies or municipalities can monitor the progress of these projects and even tie the results to employees’ compensation, Infante said.

Version 6 of the application can now automatically get energy usage data from utilities. ENXSuite partnered with data providers which get data on electricity and gas usage, which is fed into the ENXSuite application, Infante said.

“At large enterprises, a big integration challenge is how you get the data. Think back to before sales force automation, when everybody used spreadsheets,” she said.

Large enterprise software companies are already moving into the energy and sustainability management business. SAP bought a software start-up that tracked energy and carbon emissions last year, which is now part of its sustainability dashboard product.

ENXSuite was originally named Carbonetworks and focused on managing corporate carbon reduction programs. Infante said that the company is now focused on energy and other natural resources because they are direct costs.

Even though an economy-wide cap on carbon emissions won’t be put in place in the near future, companies do need to deal with EPA regulations and the rising cost of energy, she said.

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Officially his title is the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for Future
Generations which sounds beautifully sci-fi. His role is to scrutinise
legislation to ensure that it doesn’t damage the right of Hungarian citizens to
a healthy environment.

This might sound duller than watching the English rugby team, but was in fact
fascinating. The highly entertaining and engaging Dr Sandor made it clear from
the outset that he fights for the rights of citizens to a healthy environment.

This is far different from the UK’s view of an ombudsman who invariably act
as honest brokers in disputes. It was also interesting that he has to consider
the environmental rights of future generations. This inter-generational
responsibility is a whole new area for environmental law to address and is
fraught with complexity.

Finally, it was clear that Dr Sandor’s team are highly effective and deal
with a huge variety of cases. He gave examples of how he helped residents deal
with noise pollution from a local bar right the way through to fighting an
unsustainable new power station which had massive corporate backing.

From the presentation it was obvious that the Hungarian political parties
have created a role which is far more challenging and effective than they had
ever imagined and that Dr Sandor has to tread a very fine line to ensure that
his department is not closed.

Will UK political parties ever have the courage to create a similar role? It
is very hard to see, unless there is a highly effective campaign by pressure
groups which is how the Hungarian role was created.

Credibility

One of the common trends in UK society recently has been a gradual loss of
trust in previously respected institutions such as politicians, the church and
the monarchy.

Charities have also suffered, but not to the same extent as other
institutions. Safeguarding the credibility of charities obviously depends on all
of us who work in the sector, but the ultimate responsibility rests with our
watchdog the Charity Commission.

Bearing this in mind I was horrified to hear the opportunistic
headline-grabbing comments made by Christine Pratt from the National Bullying
Helpline revealing the contents of confidential calls to her helpline.
Intrigued, I looked up details of her charity on the Charity Commission’s
website. The last time the charity submitted accounts was September 2007 when
the income was £1,818 and the expenditure was £852.

On Friday, we spent most of the day interviewing auditors for our accounts.
This was an important decision as the charity audit process is incredibly
complex and designed to provide the level of transparency required for funders
and the wider public.

In order to maintain the credibility of the sector, I think that it should be
an absolute minimum that all charities post their accounts on-time on the
Charity Commission website as is legally required.

The public should know which charities haven’t fulfilled this basic function
and it should be the Charity Commission’s role to do this. If this level of
scrutiny had been in place we might never have had to listen to the unwise
uttering’s of Christine Pratt.

The Bigger Picture

On Wednesday, our “Lunch and Learn” session consisted of a presentation from
Sky’s Bigger Picture Team about the work that they are doing and specifically
the excellent new Rainforest Rescue campaign they are running with WWF. The
presentation was part of our three year charitable partnership with Sky and was
designed to keep staff informed of the work of the company.

There is scepticism about corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives
with many people seeing them as a way that companies can retain a positive
external image without having to undergo fundamental change. This is certainly
the case with some companies and we have seen many CSR teams being drastically
cut as a result of the recession.

The Sky presentation demonstrated a very different approach. The work of the
Bigger Picture Team is completely integrated with the needs and ambitions of the
entire company and is seeking to make fundamental change.

Particularly impressive is that training programmes for future leaders place
the Bigger Picture activities at the core of the learning programme. In short,
the CSR objectives seem to be an integral part of the DNA of the company which
might explain why it won Most Admired Company in a recent Management Today
poll.

Ambassadors

One of the great challenges for Global Action Plan is how we can, on a very
limited budget, successfully encourage large numbers of people to live more
sustainably.

Over the past year we have invested in a range of new websites designed to
make it easier for people to act. We have also created new projects – such as
Climate Squad – targeted at specific audiences. Whilst these are clearly
important and do persuade large numbers of people to register an interest, they
are insufficient on their own to translate intent into action.

Overcoming this inertia needs the support, encouragement and help of
enthusiastic and informed people. To provide this element of the equation we
have started to recruit and train Ambassadors who can support the delivery of
our programmes across the country.

The first training course took place a few weeks ago and a number of the
Ambassadors are already actively delivering support in the communities. I feel
sure that this element of our work will grow over the next year.

Trewin Restorick is chief executive of environmental charity and advisory
body Global Action Plan

This article first appeared on his weekly blog
Trewin Says

Author:
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Author:
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Author:
Website: http://edie.net
Link: http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=17727

CA calls the suite EcoSoftware and will launch it Monday, according to Christopher Thomas, vice president of energy and sustainability. I ran into Thomas at the Gartner IT Symposium, where the carbon-monitoring software caught my eye.

There are other efforts designed to track carbon emissions. For instance, Hara and SAP have various applications and others use metering to measure sustainability efforts.

Read more of “CA jumps into eco software market; Plans to launch carbon tracking suite” at ZDNet’s Between the Lines.

Larry Dignan is editor in chief of ZDNet and editorial director of CNET’s TechRepublic. He has covered the technology and financial-services industries since 1995.

Author: Larry Dignan
Website: http://cnet.com
Link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10380355-92.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=GreenTech

The Impact of the October changes to the Carbon Reduction Commitment and Energy Efficiency scheme came under the spotlight at a breakfast briefing in London this week.

Author:
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BusinessGreen.com staff, BusinessGreen, Thursday 22 October 2009 at 15:56:00

Interactive map illustrates dire consequences of four-degree increase in global temperatures

The Met Office has today unveiled a new interactive map designed to illustrate the impact of an average rise in global temperatures of four degrees Centigrade….

Author:
Website: http://businessgreen.com
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The report,
Tackling
Climate Change, argues that even when the jobs lost from carbon
intensive sectors such as coal and oil are taken into account the development of
a low carbon economy will deliver a net boost in employment of around 4.5
million jobs.

It also warns that failure to develop effective low carbon policies will lead
to further job losses as emerging clean tech industries migrate overseas.

“If we fail to invest in EE&RE, the United States runs the risk of losing
ground to EE&RE programs and industries located in other nations,” said the
report.

While many clean tech commentators have highlighted the fact that low carbon
industries will create large numbers of high tech jobs, the report notes that
the bulk of employment in the low carbon economy will be in more traditional
sectors.

For example, the report predicts that the majority of new jobs will be
created in the agricultural sector, with 143,000 new jobs representing more than
double the number of jobs created in the next most fruitful EE&RE market -
carpentry.

Power plant workers, steel and iron workers, and architects are the least
likely to benefit from the green drive, the report says. Those sectors stand to
gain just 5,000 jobs each.

Significantly, the 4.5 million jobs – again projected under ideal policy
conditions – falls far short of the eight million jobs that the reports admits
have been lost in the US since the start of the recession.

Author: Danny Bradbury
Website: http://businessgreen.com
Link: http://feeds.businessgreen.com/c/554/f/7118/s/6c67e8c/l/0L0Sbusinessgreen0N0Cbusiness0Egreen0Cnews0C22519460Cfive0Ejobs0Eturn0Egreen/story01.htm

The clean-technology sector was one of the largest recipients of venture capital last year, raising about $3.35 billion in the U.S., according to New Energy Finance statistics in the the “Clean Tech Job Trends 2009” report (PDF).

Unlike most reports from research firms, this one is free to download in full.

The 29-page report, which also draws on statistics from other organizations such as the Pew Charitable Trusts, includes a plethora of useful information for the clean-tech job hunter, including schools offering green career training, job posting and social media sites dedicated to clean-tech jobs, a list of the largest clean-tech employers, and a list of the best
green-tech blogs.

Based on the number of job postings and placements, and public and private investment, the report found the solar industry to be the leading clean-tech sector, followed by biofuels and biomaterials, conservation and efficiency, smart grids, and wind power.

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(Credit:
Clean Edge)

For those willing to move for a job, the report lists the 15 areas in the U.S. where people are likely to find the most clean-tech job activity, as well as a separate list for global clean-tech hotspots.

“Unlike the early days of computers and IT, the clean-tech economy is a highly dispersed phenomenon, with no single place, industry, or professional demographic controlling the sector,” Ron Pernick, co-founder and managing director of Clean Edge, said in a statement.

Not surprisingly, the San Francisco and Los Angeles greater metropolitan areas topped the U.S. list at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. The greater New York metropolitan area (which includes northern New Jersey and Long Island) was No. 3 for clean-tech jobs. Here’s the breakdown:

San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose
Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County
New York-northern New Jersey-Long Island (N.Y.-N.J.-Conn.-Pa.)
Boston-Worcester-Lawrence-Lowell-Brockton (Mass., N.H.)
Washington, D.C.-Baltimore (Md., Va., W.V.)
Denver-Boulder-Greeley
Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton
Portland-Salem
Chicago-Gary-Kenosha (Ill., Ind., Wisc.)
Sacramento-Yolo County
San Diego
Austin-San Marcos, Texas
Phoenix
Detroit-Ann Arbor
Houston-Galveston-Brazoria

The report also contains a comprehensive spreadsheet detailing the type of clean-tech jobs available, the typical degree level required, and the median pay levels. The jobs range in median pay from $36,100 to $106,000.

And while some jobs like project developer or geothermal power engineer require a bachelor’s degree or even a specified engineering degree, most of the jobs on the list were true “green-collar” jobs in that they only require a high school diploma. Those jobs included HVAC service technician, journeyman lineman for smart grid, network operations center technician for smart grid, solar fabrication technician, and solar energy system installer.

In a software-driven world, it’s easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it’s cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. E-mail her at candacelombardi@gmail.com. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET.

Author: Candace Lombardi
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Link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10375796-54.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=GreenTech