From Platform to Proof: What Is the Business Driver for Carbon Accounting?

Transcript

Jay's involvement in sustainability was almost an inevitability, coming from a family of environmental lawyers. Energy, climate and sustainability were topics that often came up at the dinner table, and so it remained a subject near and dear to his heart. Initially, Jay thought he would remain in the academic world, studying polarization and exploring how energy intensive industries think about sustainability. He found his enthusiasm spiked when working directly with companies and individuals on these topics. As a result, he broke out of the academic world to join forces with a few technology leaders to develop a solution to help businesses measure and reduce their emissions.

Jay founded Gravity 4 years ago (2021). It provides a carbon and energy management platform, which assists businesses with compliance to the alphabet soup of sustainability legislation currently in effect, such as CSRD and TCFD. This platform also uses the data collected to help businesses find and invest in projects to help reduce their emissions, which ultimately saves on energy, costs and utilities. Their aim was to make it easier for businesses to report their emissions, by streamlining the collection process, and using the data to pre-qualify potential vendors that would fit the businesses needs when it comes to the reduction phase.

Jay initially started with emissions heavy industries such as construction, manufacturing logistics, utilities, metals, mining, energy etc. These are industries where data collection can be very challenging, so it provided a very solid base for their software so that it could tackle these challenges first and provide a way for them to work with various e-commerce, software companies and financial institutions, all within one system.

Historically, back in the 70's, 80's and 90's, sustainability was often wrapped up in the wider corporate social responsibility movement. We've seen a lot of change in the last decade, where we used to have strictly voluntary schemes such as CSR, that are now transitioning into a requirement. Whether that be by stakeholders or legislation. We've also seen a greater interest in ESG metrics, which require solid figures to back up your claims.

It wasn't too long ago that sustainability professionals were lumped in with groups that managed general social responsibility. We're seeing more dedicated and senior roles in relation to sustainability, such as 'Chief Sustainability Officer'. These roles now integrate with most every branch of an organisation, from the financial reporting to the general strategy for the business.

There are many benefits for carbon accounting: saving energy (energy prices are volatile, and often on the rise; carbon accounting allows you to have a full view on what you're consuming and where you can reduce), building in sustainability from the top down, and opening new opportunities for innovative technology, partners and investment.

Jay states an example of where Gravity managed to save a US-based aluminum foundry over $400,000 in energy costs from their initial assessment. This was achieved through identifying energy hotspots and finding vendors and initiatives to help reduce the energy use and costs.

Data collection is hard, getting the data where you need it to be can be a nightmare, especially when multiple departments are involved. Having a centralised location makes this task a lot easier. Calculating this data into something usable is also tricky, and would likely require a skillset that you won't have readily available.