Groom Energy Research Study Reveals Carbon Software Growth
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., January 25, 2010 — Locus Technologies was recognized as one of the leaders in software for greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting and reporting by Massachusetts-based research firm Groom Energy Solutions. Their Enterprise Carbon Accounting (ECA) report is titled “2010 Enterprise Carbon Accounting: An Analysis of Corporate-Level Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emission Reporting and a Review of GHG Software Products.” This report comes only weeks after UtiliPoint International, Inc., a key utility and energy industry analysis and consulting firm, in a similar report recognized Locus as one of the oldest and most comprehensive providers of GHG software.
“We are very pleased that some of the leading industry analysts, first UtiliPoint, followed by IDC, and now Groom Energy, have recognized Locus as one of the most established and versatile companies in the sustainability and environmental software space,” said Dr. Neno Duplan, President and CEO of Locus.
Founded in 1997, Locus pioneered the use of the Internet’s power to manage all aspects of environmental business, focusing on environmental information management (EIM) developed on a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform and delivered through Cloud Computing. In addition, ePortal, the Locus environmental executive dashboard, brings key environmental information to the user’s desktop in a Yahoo!-style single sign-on (SSO) interface, providing the ability to drill into the data when a more in-depth view is needed.
“With our suite of diverse but well integrated products offered through an SSO, along with our stellar client list who manage environmental information in real time using Locus Cloud Computing software at over 36,000 sites around the world, Locus is well positioned to continue to lead the environmental software market,” added Dr. Duplan.
Thirteen years after Locus’ founding, environmental software has become a multi-billion dollar industry with new players entering almost daily. In its report, Groom Energy stated that more than $46 million in venture capital was invested in ECA startup companies in 2009, while large software companies like Microsoft and SAP also entered the market. The research also confirmed that the number of corporations disclosing GHGs increased significantly in 2009 and predicts that ECA software purchases will increase 600 percent by 2011. To distinguish Locus from competition, Locus offers a proven track record of delivering complex environmental information management and compliance solutions over the Internet for over 10 years.
The New York Times, in commenting on the Groom Energy Study, reports that the current ECA industry leaders are a mix of longtime software players and startups. The newspaper predicts that winners will be the companies that can integrate various applications that not only manage GHGs but also provide management of other, mission-critical environmental data and information, such as water quality and consumption management.
The analyst reports highlight Locus’ experience in Cloud Computing, not only for the company’s GHG emissions management, but also for its general leadership in the complex space of environmental sustainability software, including water quality management.
Locus is an industry leader in providing Web-based Cloud Computing information technology to help manage data and information related to water supply and quality to meet the growing need for clean water.
Any climate bill before the U.S. Congress is almost certainly to be delayed after the 19 January 2010 special election of Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown to fill the U.S. Senate seat of the late Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy. However, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last December declared greenhouse gases a danger to public health. The “endangerment finding” announced by EPA will allow EPA to manage GHG emissions under the 1970 Clean Air Act, and opens up large emitters such as power plants, oil refineries, chemical plants and metal smelters to regulations that limit their output of carbon dioxide and other gases. Managing GHG under the Clean Air Act will be more costly to the industry. The biggest threat of huge new energy taxes and government controls right now comes not from cap-and-trade legislation, but from the existing regulation such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. As a result, the industry will focus on the broad spectrum of existing environmental compliance issues, all of which require specialized software and a deep knowledge of regulations, all of which Locus developed and deployed over the last 13 years.
Requirements for environmental compliance have existed for years. The Mandatory Reporting of Greenhouse Gases Rule of September 2009 represents yet another element (and a relatively small one at that) in a long list of environmental compliance activities to which U.S. companies are subject. In particular, oil and gas companies are facing increased regulation and enforcement by the EPA.
As a result, many companies are revisiting their environmental, health and safety (EH&S) strategies and are looking for software applications not only to manage GHG or environmental data, but also to improve operational efficiency and reduce operating costs.
“Locus has served this market exceptionally well since 1997, and maintains the leading position in many of its segments,” noted Dr. Duplan.
