Honeywell launches new carbon management information solution

Honeywell is helping Australian process manufacturers to more easily understand their obligations under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act (NGER) with the launch of its Carbon Management Information Solution. With the next round of reporting due to the government on 31 October 2009, Honeywell is aiding in the reduction of the multimillion dollar risk that many companies may face if they inaccurately report, or fail to meet their obligations under the NGER Act.

The NGER is the national framework for reporting greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption and production by corporations. With recent changes in legislation, an industry report^[1] found that, while there is an awareness of the Act, there is also confusion around compliance requirements, resulting in many companies not ready to report their energy and carbon emissions for the deadline.

Honeywell is working with its customers to integrate multiple data sources into one unified and validated dataset, quickly making this data available for customers to meet their NGER reporting requirements and for support of their business improvement initiatives. By implementing a single emissions and energy data management program, process manufacturers have a single version of the emissions data, making reporting easier by improving the visibility, accuracy and audibility of their carbon and emissions information.

“While many organisations may have corporate teams leading programs to ensure they are accurately reporting both their business results and energy usage, individual company sites carry the risk because the underlying processes are not sufficiently robust to ensure compliance,” said Paul King, Honeywell Process Solutions. “We have seen many companies link together multiple and adhoc spreadsheets at the core of their reporting process. This can lead to errors and misrepresentation of the data, which expose a company to significant financial risk. Process manufacturers need a repeatable, auditable process that provides a timely carbon cost reporting function on a monthly basis, in just the same way other key financial data is required.”

Honeywell’s Carbon Management Information Solution enables companies to tap into bigger-picture thinking, by calculating carbon and energy data and incorporating this data into other reporting systems such as production management, SAP and Oracle. This enables a single reporting system that will keep all stakeholders informed in a timely fashion. In the future, carbon cost integrity will be covered by changes to Australian accounting standards.

“By monitoring carbon and energy key-performance indicators as part of everyday business activity, companies can assess the impact of changing productivity levels on carbon levels and understand how this affects their carbon position. We are empowering organisations to understand their situation, which will result in more efficient business decision-making,” continued King. 

[1] PricewaterhouseCoopers, Carbon Ready … Or Not, Report, June 2009