KEY POINTS:
A New Zealand organisation that specialises in carbon footprinting has been sought out by a British-based company to provide services to its thousands of clients all over the world.
Achilles Information has signed up with Landcare Research to provide the measurement, management and certification steps of the carboNZero programme to about 30,000 clients in 23 countries.
The deal would see the carboNZero programme licensed to Achilles, with staff seconded to Britain this year for training.
Landcare Research business manager Mike Tournier said the partnership was an example of a New Zealand outfit punching above its weight through exports of information technology and intellectual property.
"This partnership shows that the world is recognising [carboNZero] as being a leader in carbon accounting schemes at a time when there is generally an absence of quality providers."
Professor Ann Smith, carboNZero general manager (technical), said the partnership would initially involve a pilot scheme within the utilities sector and then be rolled out to a wider business spectrum.
"For a global organisation like Achilles to come all the way down to the Antipodes and select our programme is testament to the credibility of the programme and the skills of our staff."
Professor Smith said the carboNZero programme was an internationally recognised greenhouse gas scheme for organisations, products, services and events, offering optional mitigation strategies through the provision of credible and verified offsets.
She said carboNZero was the only New Zealand carbon emissions solution based on solid science and able to meet the demands of emission trading schemes, carbon disclosure projects and emerging world's best practices.
It provided robust tools and processes for accurately measuring greenhouse gas emissions or carbon profiles, tracked business performance improvement of those emissions, and managed the associated business risk and reduction planning.
Achilles chief executive Colin Maund said the company was looking for a credible solution to measuring carbon emissions based on proven academic and scientific research.
"In Landcare Research we have found a partner whose values reflect our own, whose services can be replicated across a whole range of industry sectors and a programme which offers a practical way forward at a reasonable cost."
