Kiwi carbon firm's global ambitions

From a loft office at the bottom of Queen Street, a small team is working on carbon accounting software used by clients from BNZ to Ben & Jerry's.

British expat Chris Lindley founded FoundationFootprint in 2007 after a stint in Auckland business incubator The Icehouse. Since then, he's grown the company to 12 employees and worked with 160 customers in 11 countries, including Australia, the UK, the US, Brazil, China, Indonesia and India.

The company's flagship product is a web-based tool to set, monitor and report sustainability goals. A bank, for example, might use it to automatically pull data from building services, office suppliers and travel agents.

Staff can then view, work with and share a running total of greenhouse gas emissions broken down by month, category or location, right down to an individual floor in an office building.

There's a social element, too. Staff can leave notes for each other and upload supporting documents for specific goals or projects.

"Corporates today are even bigger agents of change than governments", Lindley said. "If we can help them be those agents of change - be more transparent with reporting, use fewer of the earth's resources and create less waste... That's why I get up every morning."

Current clients include the National Australia Bank, two banks in the UK, Masdar City - a multi-billion dollar project to build a model sustainable city in Abu Dhabi - and premium ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's. "We don't get free samples, unfortunately."

It took a "baptism by fire" to get to this point, Lindley said. The company landed its first customer in 2008, just before the effects of the global financial crisis hit. He said the change in government that year also had a chilling effect on the sustainability reporting industry in New Zealand. "The appetite for sustainability fell from that moment."

He is optimistic a reversal is on the way. "It's like we reached rock bottom 12 months ago and now there's a bit more interest," he said.

With the company's largest clients paying up to $300,000 for a three-year contract, FoundationFootprint so far hasn't needed outside investment. "We've had to stay in the black for us to grow," Lindley said. "It's a great way to do it but a slow way."

His goal is now to double the company's size by the end of 2015.

International competitors include Enablon and Enviance, as well as German giant SAP, US-headquartered IHS and Hara, acquired by Verisae in 2013.

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