A LIMERICK-BASED firm has developed software to help businesses meet their requirements under the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.

The idea for the ManageCO2 software started around two years ago when Adrian Fleming was reading about the guidelines, produced by the World Resource Institute, and looking at a spreadsheet explaining what a firm should include to measure its carbon footprint.

“I was just astounded by the complexity and I started thinking there must be an easier way for this to be done rather than trawling through a 3,000-page document.”

He saw that the work could be done by the right software quite simply. While larger companies use a combination of off-the-shelf health and safety software packages and to report to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the burden of complexity on smaller firms using this method is significant.

Fleming uses the analogy of Sap business management software for larger firms and Sage which caters for smaller ones. His solution is a bespoke software package which is currently being trialled by two companies based in Limerick, one a pharmaceutical company and the other a medical devices firm. “Our technology tells these firms what their carbon footprint is at each of their facilities and will break it down by activity type, business function and business unit and location, which can then be broken down to units within buildings.”

The trial will run until the end of January at which point a modified version of the software with additional features will be released.

The company joined the Leap programme in the Limerick Institute of Technology Acceleration Centre earlier this year and Fleming was also accepted for Cord funding from Enterprise Ireland in June. This pays the equivalent of 50 per cent of your previous year’s salary (Fleming used to work for Dell) while you are in pursuit of a project or a concept.

manageco2.com