The company has created a digital platform which helps SMEs to get to Net Zero by providing the knowledge and tools they are missing, leveraging new innovative technologies from a partner ecosystem, and inspiring employees to take positive sustainability actions.
The platform has been specifically designed to be easily integrated into SME finance and accounting teams who will own carbon accounting and reporting. It includes carbon footprint analysis, automated project recommendations, staff education and engagement activities, and a ‘decarbonisation actions’ partner ecosystem.
The platform has been built with simple workflows and enables SMEs to manage their carbon accounting and take direct action quickly, rather than promoting a simple carbon off-setting solution.
This addresses a key issue for SMEs on how to engage staff, customers, and partners in decarbonisation activities, improves ethical transparency and enables proactive approaches to reducing overall carbon footprint.
The company is looking to partner with SME organisations under a commercial agreement with technical assistance. This is in order work with new SMEs to test and validate workflows and new modules within the carbon accounting platform.
A core functionality of the platform is to provide several options in order to calculate the full carbon footprint of the business and track the progress of carbon reduction in real-time and assess impact / benefits.
The platform intelligently profiles the business to identify specific environmental hotspots and retrieves the most pertinent actions from an AI-driven library of over 180 potential corrective actions which align with specific industries.
The platform supports a range of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) reporting and demonstrates sustainable business credentials to staff, customers, and other stakeholders.
The platform has been designed to meet the needs of SME business operations managers, HR managers and financial managers who are increasingly required to own SME carbon metrics, carbon reduction plans, and influence on supply chains. The platform tools are easily aligned with standard accounting workflows and technologies.
Additional benefits include improved staff engagement as they are encouraged to take part in carbon reduction projects, as well as national and commercial compliance and policy requirements.
In particular, industries of interest are: digital service providers, manufacturers, and renewables.
Ideal partners will be SMEs that have less than 500 staff and have a senior manager who is responsible for organisational carbon accounting and reduction plans.
Commercial partners will support the testing and validation of new ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) modules within the platform which include supplier audit, staff engagement and wellbeing, as well as other social impact measurements.
This validation activity will be both technical and user experience focused and include onboarding, data integration, workflow testing, and benefits capture.
The companies are expecting to work together to build long-lasting commercial relationships which underpin the integration of new carbon-reduction capabilities for SMEs, to help expand the solution into international markets, produce mutually beneficial case studies, and bring the benefit of their carbon accounting platform to those countries.
Preferably, the sought partners are expected to have:
– Capacity to integrate and use the platform.
– Some data relating to existing direct and indirect carbon footprint i.e. purchased energy, carbon usage of facilities, product supply chains, product distribution, staff travel and commuting, etc.
– Good communication skills.
– Flexibility in terms of delivery.
Fuente: Enterprise Europe Network