Epicor unveils on-demand carbon accounting solution

Epicor Software Corporation has announced that Epicor Carbon Connect, a software as a service (SaaS)-basedcarbon accounting solution to help organisations address sustainability and the ever increasing associated government regulations. Epicor Carbon Connect provides companies with the ability to identify, analyse, audit, track, manage, benchmark and report on their carbon emissions /environmental impact and energy consumption.   

Coupled with Epicor enterprise resource planning (ERP) utility invoices and production schedules drawn from current or forecasted orders, companies can use EpicorCarbon Connect to calculate expected emissions output and budget for environmental cost factors. Epicor Carbon Connect is a fundamental part of an overall financial management and accounting system to enable companies to engage in emissions accounting for regulatory, public relations, marketing, and operational efficiency purposes.

Automated Reporting Equals Measurable Cost Savings
For the budding green economy to have meaningful impact and sustainable change, organisations must have a valid means of measuring its worth to justify continued investment. Epicor CarbonConnect provides automated reports that demonstrate measurable savings and provide meaningful measurement of sustainability initiatives; this validation translates to justification of further investment and expenditures.   

"Financial management applications are the central hub toward effective management of sustainability challenges," said Matt Muldoon, vice president, product marketing for Epicor. "Deploying an enterprise-class carbon accounting solution in the Cloud will empower our customers to meet evolving reporting and regulatory requirements, while optimising the performance, cost and value of their governance, compliance and risk efforts."

Increased Emphasis on Environmental Sustainability
Gartner research vice president Stephen Stokes recommends in his recent report, "Sustainable Business Systems, Part 1: Enterprise Sustainability for the Low-Carbon Economy," published October 25, 2010, that organisations start developing carbon-emission inventories now.  "The emergence of carbon as a newly commoditized asset class, price volatility, uncertainty of a future supply of conventional energy, and concerns over other factors, including an acute focus on energy efficiency,water availability and quality, waste, hazardous chemicals, and product accountability and traceability across the supply chain, have driven sustainability and its attendant business risks up the corporate agenda to an unprecedented level."  

Availability and Pricing
Epicor Carbon Connect is currently scheduled for release in December 2010, on-demand or on-premise, with Epicor's next-generation ERP suite. Carbon Connect will be available for all other Epicor products as an Extend application.