A dramatic reduction in the country’s carbon footprint has been put at the forefront of the government’s agenda. The government has allocated close to 50 billion dollars for the green industry with the interest of encouraging businesses, such as energy management software companies, to create environmentally friendly processes and products.
Individual states have also been giving out tax credits and rebates for individuals to want to install solar panels. Although many people are sincere in their intention to reduce their footprint, most are unaware of the actual amount of energy they use in their daily lives. Since they can not identify how much they use, it is difficult for them to determine where and how much they need to decrease.
Companies have identified this interesting phenomenon and created energy management software systems to help individuals and businesses understand how much energy they use.
The energy software systems monitor the various processes that use energy in a home or a business such as the HVAC, lighting systems, and electrical appliances. The energy management software systems can detect patterns or anomalies to the help the home or business owner identify areas where energy usage can be decreased.
For example, the energy management software can show the homeowner how much energy can be saved over a month if the temperature is increased or decreased by one degree and set optimal climate controls. A change in one degree of temperature will barely be noticed by the residents, however these energy management software recommendations create large long term energy savings.
The energy management software industry is a growing market. Although it was originally populated by smaller green tech companies, the large corporations are recognizing the importance of increasing consumer awareness and creating their own energy management software systems.
Microsoft, Google, and now GE have all created their own version of energy management software. However, even with the entrance of these heavyweights, small energy management software companies have retained a strong market presence as they offer systems that are customized to particular customers as well as 24/7 account managers that monitor the systems and ensure quality control.
Find out more about energy management software
By: Adam Steinberg
Posts Tagged ‘Consumer Awareness’
Energy Management Software- Reducing Global Warming One Degree a Time
January 1st, 2010Environmental "green" Accounting Primer
August 20th, 2009As we all know, businesses are formed to deliver services or produce products in order to earn a profit. In the 21st century accounting goes beyond the bottom line of black or red – – it includes “green”, too. With the growing green consumer awareness, companies are more than ever expected to align its business strategies with environmental initiatives. Environmentally conscious companies have already discovered that they can generate business strategies to help them reduce their carbon footprint, minimize their environmental impact, make the best use of natural resources, become more energy efficient, reduce costs, and exhibit social responsibility – all at the same time.
Companies who are ready to become an integral part of President Obama’s Green Economy through governmental initiatives will need to expand their accounting staff by hiring accountants who specialize in “green” or environmental accounting.
Definition of Green Accounting
The term, green accounting, has been around since the 1980s, and is known as a management tool used for a variety of purposes, such as improving environmental performance, controlling costs, investing in “cleaner” technologies, developing “greener” processes and products, and forming decisions related to their business activities.
Green Management Accounting
According to the EPA, green or environmental management accounting is “the identification, prioritization, quantification or qualification, and incorporation of environmental costs into business decisions.” Green Management Accounting uses “data about environmental costs and performance for business decisions. It collects cost, production, inventory, and waste cost and performance data in the accounting system to plan, evaluate, and control.”
Environmental management accounting thus represents a combined approach which provides for the transition of data from financial accounting and cost accounting to increase material efficiency, reduce environmental impact and risk, and reduce costs of environmental protection.
Green or Environmental Accountants
Green accountants are held responsible to identify and track green costs often times working with site, research and development, and production managers when planning their budgets. In the past, such costs were buried in overhead preventing a clear picture of the cost savings and benefits to the product, process, system or facility responsible for the green initiatives.
Green accountants help management recognize that the tax benefits, rebates and lower costs of being environmentally friendly add up to a real bottom-line reward for doing the right thing.
“Public environmental, social and sustainability reporting is the main route through which corporate accountability and integrity can be demonstrated,” claims the London-based Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in its report, Environmental, Social and Sustainability Reporting on the World Wide Web.
By: James Hamilton
