February 09, 2009, 11:18 AM — A new environmental toolset for Microsoft's Dynamics AX enterprise resource management software lets businesses find out the carbon footprint of various aspects of their operations.
The free toolset, called the Environmental Sustainability Dashboard, is aimed at letting small to medium-size businesses figure out their environmental impact without having to pay for outside consultants, according to Microsoft.
The software covers four metrics: direct energy consumption, such as of usage of natural gas on site; indirect energy consumption, such as electricity purchased from a third party; greenhouse gas emissions from an organization's total energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from commuting and business travel.
The metrics are based on guidelines from the Global Reporting Initiative, which develops ways to measure environmental sustainability.
Microsoft said the dashboard will let businesses choose good environmental practices as well as let them make adjustments to reduce exposure to fluctuating energy prices.
The dashboard has been designed to work with SharePoint, Microsoft's collaboration and portal software. The dashboard's components also integrate into so-called "role centers" in Dynamics, which are customized views used to manage different kinds of information for different jobs.
