Software pinpoints emissions throughout value chain

Planet Metric's software offers an emissions heat map.

On June 16 carbon management company Planet Metrics announced the launch of its Rapid Carbon Modeling (RCM) software, which aims to help manufacturers analyze and reduce carbon emissions associated with their products.

The RCM software is different than other carbon footprinting tools, in that it analyzes emissions from a company’s entire value chain, and allows customers to run alternative scenarios based on adjustments in product ingredients, packaging materials or suppliers, Planet Metrics founder and CEO Andy Leventhal says.

For a company engaged in manufacturing, owned facilities and transportation only represent about 10 percent of total carbon emissions, Leventhal says. The bulk of emissions lie upstream, such as in the supply chain and raw materials, which is where Planet Metrics says it can hone in using information provided by the customer as well as its own database.

San Bruno-based Planet Metrics, which launched in late 2008 with $2.3 million in backing from angel investors and Draper Fisher Jurvetson, says it can generally create a company’s carbon model within about a month. It charges an upfront fee for building a model; customers then pay a subscription fee for the software.

Method, a San Francisco-based cleaning products maker, has employed Planet Metrics’ software to analyze five of the company’s product lines, representing about 25 products. Method is on the smaller end of companies Planet Metrics is targeting with its new service, as larger manufacturers typically have access to higher-quality data required for modeling, according to Planet Metrics.

The current economic climate is a good time to for companies to begin to get ahead by reducing their carbon footprints, Leventhal says, especially in the face of rising oil prices and a potential price on carbon. “We’re optimistic that the market is looking for this.”