Verteego’s cofounder and general manager Rupert Schiessl and Mrs Kosciusko-Morizet has a fruitfuil fireside chat about the French know-how in green software, financing digital green startups, enforcing the REACH regulation, putting a price tag on carbon emissions,… which hopefully is a sign that the French government is determined to help green software giants blossom from France and into Europe, North America, the BRICs and the World.

Obviously, both Carbonpark, the carbon & energy management technology on which an application such as Verteego Carbon is based, and REACH Garden, Verteego’s SVHC traceability-down-the-supply-chain solution, clearly fit in the systems of differentiation category: linking with SAGE’s chart, both solutions enable for better product development as well as optimization of systems and processes. At Verteego we enable our customers to differentiate ie build and foster environmental sustainability as a competitive advantage.

What’s more interesting though is to think of how the Verteego service portolio positions vs. systems of record (our data sources ie legacy systems) and systems of innovation (product and organization reviews). Even though so far our Software Research & Development team at Verteego has done a tremendous job preparing our solutions to be connected with systems of record very smoothly, I believe we’re now at a crossroads where we will start focusing on maximizing interoperability with systems of innovation. Stay tuned!

On top of existing article categories & purchasing families, REACH Garden users may now give each article one or several attributes to better make REACH Garden data fit with the reality of their organization.

A customer in the consumer packaged goods industry who manages, say, 9 brands can create a ‘brand’ attribute type, and 9 brand attributes; and cross those with another ‘site’ attribute type to make sure its 18 industrial sites can access their information rapidly.

Another customer in the aerospace business may integrate its several ‘industrial programmes’ as well as, for instance, a year of fabrication or ‘vintage’.

Customers are not limited by the number of attributes, and the number of relationships they may create for a simpler, more natural, more effective management of their article data on REACH Garden, the online SVHC traceability platform.

Of course, this new capability has nothing to do with a revolution, as they say, and has definitely not cost hundreds of man.days. Nevertheless, REACH Garden will be even more comfortable to work with, starting from today, thanks to this addendum. And we’d like to thank you for your business and expressing your need. And by thank you, we really mean thank you.

As an example, we now guarantee to our carbon management software Verteego Carbon customers that they’ll fill in their Investor CDP 2011 Information Request in less than 2 opened days! and we’re now working on the CDP Supply Chain, CDP Cities & CDP Public Procurement programmes. I believe we’ve built an effective killer feature here that enables our community of users to save time and focus on what, at the end of the day, matters most: reduce carbon & streamline business processes.

We love what they do at the Carbon Disclosure Project! About 2.000 global organizations accounting for about a third of anthropogenic GHG emissions are Carbon Disclosure Project stakeholders. The Carbon Disclosure Project is a carbon performance & information enabler, a catalyst for better transparency & accountability, as well as a fantastic tool for benchmarking, and a platform for pushing the most reluctant decision-makers to actually do something because their competitors are already there. According to the Wikipedia page for the CDP, “the process of companies having to respond to CDP delivers real changes in business practice resulting in lower energy use”.

With this new, killer feature (remember, less than 2 days!), we now expect to attract more and more Fortune 500 corporations onto the Verteego carbon & energy management platform, as well as long thinking mid-sized, innovative enterprises.

1. we’ve launched REACHGarden.com, co-developed with world leading aircraft landing gears manufacturer Messier-Dowty (a SAFRAN company) and fashion apparel manufacturer René Derhy, a fully fledged hazardous chemicals in general, and REACH candidate list in particular traceability platform for manufacturers & retailers;

2. CarbonPark.com is now available to developers as an API where ISVs, system integrators and information system departments can access an extensive database of GHG consolidation methodologies & carbon emission factors to integrate carbon accounting indicators into existing information systems;

3. Verteego has extended its network of implementation partners and deepened its relationship with its existing certified channel partners: indirect sales is a key strategy at Verteego, and a major source of competitive advantage for our company;

4. we’ve basically doubled our engineering headcount in 2010 by opening an offshore software development center in India, which down the road enables us to serve our customers even better;

5. Verteego and software powerhouse SAGE have signed a worldwide partnership to provide environmental management extensions to SAGE ERP X3; this is a huge opportunity for Verteego to benefit from the growth of the SAGE ERP X3 installed base, as well as for SAGE to effectively compete with other large software vendors who differentiate their offers with environmental management modules;

6. Leading industry analysts, Pike Research, Groom Energy, Verdantix, and Forrester among others, have mentioned Verteego in their surveys. True, it may look like a little achievement here, but considering the number of players on a market that is about to consolidate, it is good to feel analysts understand the value of what we do here at Verteego;

7. Leading business intelligence consultant & system integrator Business & Decision and Verteego have agreed on working together in a close partnership to provide even more powerful solutions to their customers;

8. Verteego is frequently contacted by policy makers looking for insights on how regulations should evolve. Verteego actively takes part of worlwide talks on Climate regulation and Hazardous Chemicals risk management talks at national & continental levels;

9. Our international expansion strategy has matured and we’re ready now to not only win market share, but also generate sound margins in a number of countries;

10. We aren’t afraid to claim that Verteego Carbon is the most flexible carbon management software available out there. Thanks to Verteego Carbon’s modular architecture, Verteego now perfectly adapts to verticals such as, among others, construction, airports, large retailers, and hotels.

2010 was good. 2011 is set to be even better. I suggest you keep an eye on Verteego.

Some of the main new features include:
- an enhanced carbon & energy reporting console, with a special focus on emission sources and dynamic analysis;
- GHG emissions reduction forecasting capabilities;
- an embedded support center, with full online documentation.

We also made sure we removed the least used features: we see no reason our customers should pay for features that are potentially not useful to them. This methodology enables Verteego to keep its applications simple and effective.

Last but not least, the user interface was lifted to integrate a client side Javascript framework, and better charts coming from a new technology supplier.

The Verteego Carbon product development team, managed by my partner Rupert Schiessl, worked like crazy to release this new version of our carbon accounting software on schedule, on budget. I would like to take this opportunity to offer them my deepest thank.

A strong distribution and implementation partnership has been established in fast-growing Brazil with top-notch project management and sustainable construction consultancy Proactive Consultoria, whilst discussions with potential partners are still in progress in Spain, Turkey, Argentina, Chile, and India.

As you may have already noticed, taking Spain apart, emerging economies are on the Verteego agenda. We strongly believe that emerging economies are on the verge of reducing the gap with the US & the EU when it comes to fighting climate change - and we’re behaving as such.

We make a strong point in selecting our partners carefully, and making sure our partners choose Verteego for our values and commitment to innovation, and customer satisfaction.

To explore partnership opportunities with Verteego, drop us an email stating your motivation.

REACH Garden enables manufacturers to track Europe’s “Candidate List” of ever evoling substances of very high concern (SVHC). Under Europe’s new chemical law REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization of CHemicals), manufacturers are now required to provide information on the presence of these SVHC in their products to customers ASAP, and to consumers within 45 days of any inquiry.

The European CHemicals Agency’s SVHC list includes substances with “intrinsic hazardous properties” such as carcinogens, mutagens and substances that are toxic to reproduction. ECHA has been regularly incrementing the number of chemicals to the list, which is expected to grow to more than 1,000 substances.

The REACH law encourages manufacturers to seek safer alternatives for these hazardous chemical substances. Europe will ultimately restrict their use in products. Well before they are restricted, a “blacklist” effect is expected to remove many of these substances from the market to reduce healthcare costs and environmental risks. As a result, SVHC pose a significant business risk to manufacturers.

To manage this risk and ensure compliance with REACH, manufacturers must track and report the presence of SVHC in their products: those targeted today and those that are likely to be targeted in the future. This task is complicated because products can contain thousands of chemical substances spread over thousands of articles bought from several hundred suppliers. REACH Garden makes this task easier and turns the regulation into an opportunity to abide by REACH faster, at a lower total cost of ownership, enabling engineers to start removing hazardous substances before competitors do.

REACH Garden enables users to:

• Gather REACH data from thousands of suppliers automatically;
• Identify and track any unofficial or rumored SVHC in products. REACH Garden users can build custom lists of substances of concern, which they can update and manage on an ad hoc basis;
• Build and maintain an SVHC audit trail that provides evidence of compliance and due diligence for authorities and customers;
• Easily integrate with existing information systems, both upstream (ERP, supplier relationship management, MRP,…) and downstream (Product Lifecycle Management).
  

Generally speaking, the partners Verteego is looking at are not mere distributors but people who will share Verteego’s mission to enable organizations to deploy environmental performance goals & strategies and can add sound customer value, in other words implementation partners, with:
- either carbon & energy management know-how and the ability to “make a difference” when it comes to engaging CxOs and help them come up with climate change strategies for their organizations;
- or system integration expertise, be it on the supply side (data collection from ERPs, MRPs,…) or the demand side (business intelligence), or both…

I would like to take the opportunity to thank, on behalf of Verteego, Andrew Wiltshire of VerteegoANZ for his contribution to evangelizing carbon management software in Australia & New Zealand, particularly in the Sidney area, and invite all the potential partners whom with a discussion was engaged to resume talks with Verteego’s corporate headquarters in Paris, France. A special email address was created just for you: anz (at) verteego (dot) com.

Last, a “managing your GHG emissions with Verteego” webinar was just scheduled for Australia & New Zealand potential customers and partners on October 6th 2010, 6 pm in Sidney. To register for this webinar, please use the same email address: anz (at) verteego (dot) com.

We hope to see you there.