Safeway selects Hara

Safeway plans to use Hara software for all its stores.

Energy and carbon management software startup Hara has added Safeway Inc. (Nasdaq: SWY) to its list of customers, the company announced in February.

Redwood City-based Hara’s Environmental and Energy Management software allows companies to track consumption of resources, such as energy and water, and measure outputs, such as greenhouse gasses and wastewater.

For Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway, that means creating a centralized platform to collect information from about 1,800 locations, including stores and distribution facilities. That would allow the grocery giant to better understand its energy usage and determine ways to reduce both costs and carbon emissions, according to Joe Pettus, Safeway’s senior vice president of fuel and energy,

Founded in 2008, Hara released its software-as-a-service product in mid 2009, with the City of Palo Alto and The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) among the ranks of its early customers. The company, which now has about 30 customers, has received $20 million in funding, from investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, JAFCO Ventures and Nth Power.

A 2010 report by renewable energy and energy efficiency consultants Groom Energy Solutions identified about 60 vendors offering enterprise carbon accounting software—up from about 40 vendors in mid 2008. The report estimates that the number of organizations using such software will increase 600 percent by 2011.