Industry Report: PE INTERNATIONAL is again Market Leader

The recently published Enterprise Carbon Accounting (ECA) report, an industry-leading buyer’s guide from Groom Energy, has selected PE INTERNATIONAL as 2013 market leader for the 5th consecutive year.

The worldwide adoption of carbon and sustainability software by large firms continues according to the report. In the past 24 months over 600 large corporations have purchased software - often with extended functionality in environmental reporting, supply chain surveys and energy management - compared to 250 deals in 2010 and 50 in 2009.

The Groom Energy research report especially commended the innovation and continuous development of PE INTERNATIONAL’s SoFi software for sustainability performance management. “Vendors need to serve a diverse market,” according to Paul Baier, author of the report and Vice President at Groom Energy. “Many companies expect basic carbon and environmental reporting in an easy-to-use and proven system. The more mature and advanced firms expect solutions to also support supply chain surveys, energy management, EHS modules and integration with ERP systems,” said Baier. “Currently in its fifth generation, SoFi by PE INTERNATIONAL delivers a convincing software package of energy, carbon, environmental and supply chain sustainability analytics combined with intuitive dashboard reporting that integrates well into existing IT landscapes and has been more than proven through strong growth in customer momentum.”

PE introduces performance to sustainability

Turning sustainability into a competitive advantage sounds good but can be difficult to do. Many companies today still struggle with obtaining reliable data and implementing a central performance evaluation which is the basis for reaping the benefits of higher operational efficiency and reduced cost. This is where SoFi software comes in: the solution streamlines automated and manual data collection and helps visualize, analyze and report on the sustainability performance of the company. Big and complex data is turned into intuitive analytics, reports and planning tools to uncover opportunities for increased energy efficiency and improved sustainability performance.

Growing customer base from Austria to North America

“SoFi software helps us identify the levers for our sustainability initiatives and evaluate the effectiveness of our measures” said Frank Hoelzl, the head of sustainability at the Austrian supermarket chain SPAR, who knows SoFi software from his daily work with over 800 stores and distribution centers. In addition to SPAR, diverse companies headquartered in 14 different countries selected SoFi software in 2012 alone, including Buckman chemicals (U.S.A.), Cleveland Clinics (U.S.A.), Daimler (Germany), Generali Insurance Group (Italy), Rexam packaging (UK) and Uponor heating/ cooling systems (Finland).

 

>> Download your complimentary copy now!

Buckman accelerates sustainability performance management with SoFi

Buckman, a privately held, global specialty chemical company, has selected SoFi, the Enterprise Sustainability Performance solution by PE INTERNATIONAL, to deliver improved sustainability data management, provide access to performance analysis tools, forecasting, benchmarking and content, and streamline their GRI reporting process.

Buckman, who works with worldwide customers in pulp and paper, leather and water treatment, has made a significant and long-term commitment to sustainable development.  After reviewing and assessing potential solutions that would meet the company’s numerous sustainability requirements, Buckman selected SoFi for its intuitive data management capabilities, sustainability benchmarks and best practice databases, and GRI-verified reporting.

SoFi is PE INTERNATIONAL’s powerful software platform for companies to obtain financial-grade sustainability information and manage sustainability performance for their own operations, their supply chain and their products. Buckman is using SoFi to track sustainability key performance indicators and produce its annual sustainability report according to Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, streamlining the cumbersome and often time-consuming data collection process.


In commenting on the selection of SoFi for their sustainability needs, Barry Enix, Corporate Safety Director at Buckman said, “PE INTERNATIONAL brings combined sustainability services and software expertise to the table which offered a rapid and effective deployment of the SoFi Enterprise Sustainability Performance solution. The result for Buckman is that we now have a web based platform that centralizes our data collection, automates calculations of our carbon and energy footprint, delivers point-and-click sustainability reporting, reduces data errors, and incorporates embedded templates for GRI reporting.  All of this translates into greater operational efficiency and reduced risk for the organization.”

A new era of sustainability performance management

SoFi 5, the new Enterprise Sustainability Performance solution by PE INTERNATIONAL, received a warm welcome by customers and market experts alike.

With the highly anticipated introduction of the software in April 2012, PE enters into a new era of sustainability performance management solutions that leverage sustainability content to help organizations transform sustainability data into insights and implement the most profitable sustainability initiatives. SoFi 5 features 15,000 industry benchmarks; 130,000 impact profiles (emission factors and risk profiles) as well as 130,000 due diligence projects including implementation cost and Return On Investment.

Newest release one year ahead of competition

In previews and launch briefings, industry analysts praised the intuitive gap analysis and powerful benchmarking against industry averages and complemented the effortless drill-down into sustainability performance indicators. Especially, the intelligent diagnostics engine that intuitively produces recommendations based on a company’s industry sector and site location was perceived as “at least one year ahead of competitive offerings” by a market insider familiar with other sustainable business solutions.

Customers are raving about new enterprise solution

In an exclusive webinar series corporate managers experienced live how they can achieve improved Enterprise Sustainability Performance with SoFi 5. Afterwards, participating SoFi clients such as Dole, Adidas and EAC as well as sustainability professionals from other organizations raved about the new software solution. As one client, who currently manages sustainability performance indicators for over 200 sites in SoFi, put it: “The new SoFi 5 software has blown us away. Last year, we chose SoFi 4.3 because it was the only environmental performance management solution that met our expectations. But SoFi 5 has now raised the bar again, going beyond our expectations.”

Join our free SoFi 5 live demonstration

If you missed the SoFi 5 launch webinars and would like to catch up on Enterprise Sustainability Performance, register now for our next webinar “Experience Enterprise Sustainability Performance in new SoFi 5 - live!”

New Enterprise Sustainability Performance Software

PE INTERNATIONAL launches SoFi 5 delivering substantial advances in Enterprise Sustainability Performance (ESP), and takes to market pioneering new standards for corporate environmental footprinting and enterprise-wide sustainability improvement

Sustainable business software provider PE INTERNATIONAL makes with the launch of SoFi 5, the lives of executives tasked with sustainability management much easier. With its new and advanced intuitive functionality, SoFi 5 helps improves sustainability in every element of an enterprise’s operations and supply chain; be they energy consumption, water use, carbon emissions or any other kind of social, environmental and economic impacts.

This latest version of SoFi software is capable of intuitively determining a company’s potential performance gaps and responding appropriately with peer-tested improvement recommendations, fully appraised for cost estimates and expected results.

Manage environmental, social and economic impacts

In a nutshell, SoFi 5 ESP software helps enterprises understand and manage their total environmental, social and economic impacts in five key phases:

1) It builds an information landscape by aggregating all the sustainability data in an organization.

2) It measures current sustainability performance against extensive sector-specific benchmark datasets.

3) It finds performance gaps and identifies, evaluates and cost-benefit-analyses real-world improvement opportunities.

4) It helps build and execute ongoing improvement plans.

5) It helps communicates the results. Armed with this valuable output any sustainability-tasked executive can then communicate the enterprise’s success to customers, contractors, suppliers and stakeholders.

Sector leaders worldwide benifit from this technology

Major companies already benefitting from this technology include Siemens which helped its tier 1 suppliers to reduce energy cost by up to 17%; DekaBank which saved 300,000 Euros in energy and paper costs during the first 6 months alone; Deutsche Post DHL which increased carbon efficiency for its own operations and its subcontractors by 12% over 3 years; as well as similar success stories from Kraft Foods, Adidas and Munich Re amongst many other sector leaders worldwide.

Discover Enterprise Sustainability Performance for your business – watch the Video

New Enterprise Sustainability Performance Software

PE INTERNATIONAL launches SoFi 5 software for ever-improving Enterprise Sustainability Performance (ESP) across company operations and supply chains.

Sustainable business software provider PE INTERNATIONAL makes with the launch of SoFi 5, the lives of executives tasked with sustainability management much easier. With its new and advanced intuitive functionality, SoFi 5 helps improves sustainability in every element of an enterprise’s operations and supply chain; be they energy consumption, water use, carbon emissions or any other kind of social, environmental and economic impacts.

This latest version of SoFi software is capable of intuitively determining a company’s potential performance gaps and responding appropriately with peer-tested improvement recommendations, fully appraised for cost estimates and expected results.

Manage environmental, social and economic impacts

In a nutshell, SoFi 5 ESP software helps enterprises understand and manage their total environmental, social and economic impacts in five key phases:

1) It builds an information landscape by aggregating all the sustainability data in an organization.

2) It measures current sustainability performance against extensive sector-specific benchmark datasets.

3) It finds performance gaps and identifies, evaluates and cost-benefit-analyses real-world improvement opportunities.

4) It helps build and execute ongoing improvement plans.

5) It helps communicates the results. Armed with this valuable output any sustainability-tasked executive can then communicate the enterprise’s success to customers, contractors, suppliers and stakeholders.

Sector leaders worldwide benifit from this technology

Major companies already benefitting from this technology include Siemens which helped its tier 1 suppliers to reduce energy cost by up to 17%; DekaBank which saved 300,000 Euros in energy and paper costs during the first 6 months alone; Deutsche Post DHL which increased carbon efficiency for its own operations and its subcontractors by 12% over 3 years; as well as similar success stories from Kraft Foods, Adidas and Munich Re amongst many other sector leaders worldwide.

Discover Enterprise Sustainability Performance for your business – watch the Video

Italian industry turns to sustainable development in response to economic crisis

Captains of Industry seek to capitalize on opportunity to boost brands and profits through  a strategy of sustainable development.

For over a decade now Italian economic growth has stumbled and to a large extent even more so than other European countries. In light of these challenges Italian businesses are increasingly recognizing the opportunities offered by adopting and deploying the right sustainability strategy to help boost growth and customer preference for their products and services.


In response to this growing demand, PE INTERNATIONAL, a global provider of sustainability performance solutions and its Italian strategic partner for the last 10 years,  FEBE-ECOLOGIC have galvanized their resources and expertise to form PE INTERNATIONAL Italy S.r.l. which was established at the end of last year and is already attracting new customers.


The newly established operation will offer a blend of software for corporate and product sustainability software as well as consulting services aimed at large and mid-market enterprises across all industries.


“There is a strong demand for integrated consulting services and technology solutions that allow clients to identify cost savings and take advantage of new revenue and growth opportunities,” said Emanuela Scimia, Managing Director at  PE INTERNATIONAL Italy S.r.l.. As one organization we have the experts, enterprise sustainability solutions and capabilities to enable valuable business transformations for our customers.”


PE’s solution portfolio includes GaBi software solutions for product sustainability (life cycle assessment and product footprints) and SoFi software solutions for managing corporate sustainability.

Masdar City Chooses SoFi to Monitor Carbon in Buildings

Masdar City has selected PE INTERNATIONAL’s SoFi system to monitor carbon embodied in buildings for its ambitious project to construct one of the world’s most sustainable cities, the two companies announced today.

Masdar City, one of the integrated units of Abu Dhabi’s multi-faceted renewable energy company Masdar, has captured enormous worldwide interest by demonstrating how sustainable cities can be developed. SoFi is PE INTERNATIONAL’s high performance tool which provides a central platform for benchmarking and forecasting sustainability performance and developing sustainability strategies. The system plays a key role in helping Masdar’s supply chain team and contractors to track and monitor the carbon embodiment of building materials, thereby calculating the amount of carbon associated with construction activities.

Having now implemented SoFi, Masdar has the capability for target setting and monitoring the evolving project. The city can also use SoFi for benchmarking against targets and comparing how much CO2 would be involved in producing a building in the city compared to a standard building in, for example, London, Paris or New York.

Hybrid buses - Research for environmentally friendly and energy-efficient mobility

© SSB

As part of the “Model Region Electromobility” initiative, sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development, PE INTERNATIONAL has spearheaded research work for the platform "Innovative Drive Bus" which deals with the marketability of hybrid buses and their contribution to environmentally friendly and energy-efficient mobility.

Aside from the detailed operational data acquisition and analysis of 59 hybrid buses operating in seven model regions using SoFi software, life cycle analyses and acceptance surveys among drivers, passengers and pedestrians were performed.

The platform "Innovative Drive Bus" reflects the cooperation of 40 partners, including 21 transport companies, 6 bus manufacturers, 4 component manufacturers, 4 research institutes and 5 consultancies.

This final report provides insights on practicality, operational readiness, fuel consumption, climate change effects and the acceptance of hybrid buses.

Download the full report with the results from 2011 here (German language)

Singapore-based Noble Group punches above weight in first-time carbon disclosure score

PE’s consulting team has something to celebrate. Thanks to its tailored SoFi Software solution for carbon footprint data collection, analysis and reporting, Singapore-based Noble Group has scored the second highest disclosure score submitted to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) in its region for 2011.

The outstanding result was out of 400 Asian companies asked to participate – and this on the company’s maiden outing. Noble is a global supply chain manager of agricultural and energy products, metals and minerals, with more than 100 offices across 40 countries in 5 continents.

With a disclosure score of 92 Noble ranked just two points behind industrial giant Samsung Electronics. In order to help Noble Group achieve this exceptional result the PE consulting team started by analysing and integrating all of the company’s existing  emissions data. These provided the raw data required to kick-start the greenhouse gas management process with SoFi Software; allowing a high quality and verifiable report to be completed on time. As a result Noble Group has now a tailored solution for ongoing carbon management.

 “We are delighted that our team was able to help Noble Group and that their emissions management efforts are recognized by the CDP”, said Johannes Partl, principle consultant at PE. “We helped them simplify and codify a process that many companies find particularly daunting and unwieldy and enabled them to incorporate reliable and ongoing carbon management into their business model.”

It is expected that following their breakthrough success, Noble Group will now be seen as a champion of the emissions management movement in Asia.

Dole has partnered with PE INTERNATIONAL

Dole Food Company, Inc. will rely on PE´s SoFi software to consolidate the Company’s sustainability data into one software system. The software will assist Dole to calculate key performance indicators and will enhance Dole’s ability to establish, manage and meet program objectives at locations worldwide.

“SoFi will not only contribute to improving our sustainability reporting,” said Roberto Vega, Director of Sustainability at Dole Food Company, Inc. “It will also increase the efficiency of managing the Company’s information related to sustainability and allow us to set and achieve global objectives, instead of focusing on each operation separately.”

PE INTERNATIONAL is working with Dole on the implementation of SoFi, a central sustainability platform that transforms data from corporate activities into meaningful performance information. Dole is in the process of refining its key sustainability indicators, including the company’s carbon footprint, which will then be consolidated into SoFi and reported on a regular basis.

“Dole’s sustainability program is well established,” said Michael Betz, CEO at PE INTERNATIONAL. “With PE’s experience in the food and beverage industry we will assist Dole in bringing all the elements together to integrate sustainability as a key component of their day-to-day business - from enhancing processes and products through to reporting. We look forward to working together to achieve Dole’s sustainability objectives including lowering energy consumption and carbon emissions, benchmarking operations, and mitigating risks.”

For more information please contact Jeff Slye

EAC selects leading Sustainability Reporting System from PE INTERNATIONAL

EAC has chosen leading sustainability expert PE INTERNATIONAL to provide a sustainability reporting system featuring its class leading SoFi software. This will be used by 70 data collectors to enable EAC to document sustainability in a project that will be a cornerstone in bringing its UN Global Compact commitment forward.

Deka-Bank: A business case for environmental and sustainability management

Many large organizations are facing demands to adopt environmentally responsible and sustainable business practices. Various stakeholder groups including investors and customers are calling for a stronger focus on sustainability. But can a business take ecological and social good into account and be economically successful at the same time?

Read how DekaBank saved half a million Euros in two years by implementing an Environmental Management System and centralizing sustainability management using the SoFi Software solution. To the Case study or contact Markus Michalzik

Best Practices and Performance Management now in SoFi

The new SoFi Software 4.3 has been released, the most-widely used enterprise solution for sustainability management,  featuring 100,000 best practices in energy and resource efficiency from over 12,000 companies.

The Best Practice Library provides insights into investment costs versus benefits and enables clients to easily find improvement projects that have been successfully implemented by their peers in the same industry or geographical region.

The new release also features an advanced module for sustainability performance management - Strategic Planning & Forecasting - that is designed to help sustainability professionals identify the most suitable projects for their own operations based on the highest return on investment. The module enables decision-makers to develop the optimal action plan that meets their corporate sustainability targets by employing  advanced analytics such as cost abatement curves, benchmarks and projected performance against targets.
For more information please contact Neil D´Souza.

PE INTERNATIONAL at the Siemens PLM Connection Americas User Conference

The Siemens PLM Connection is the 4th in a series of conferences on Product Life Cycle Management tools and it will be held this year in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 2-5, 2011. This important user conference serves as a forum for business, software developers and users to come together to address the growing use and application of PLM software and add-on tools.


PE INTERNATIONAL, will be a leading participant in the conference. We have a lot planned and want to invite you to attend all the activities including:

Presentations & Sessions

Partner Roundtable Session – Product sustainability – Tools and techniques for embedding sustainability into the product creation process

Day/Time: Wed. 2:30-3:10

Room: Palma G

Learn about some of the latest in sustainability tools and solutions. Presentations and demos will be conducted by PE INTERNATIONAL’s experts and will focus on product sustainability and the tools and techniques for embedding sustainability into the product creation process. Check out the conference website for the full list of presentations and posters topics and sessions.

Exhibit Booth

Stop by booth #26 on Monday or Tuesday, to learn about new features and functionality within our life cycle assessment software platform GaBi 4 or to pick up a free demo version!

Learn about some of the latest in sustainability tools and solutions offered by PE INTERNATIONAL.

Talk to our GaBi and SoFi software experts to understand how these platforms can help you understand your business practices, improve their sustainability performance, and to ultimately succeed in the marketplace. 

We will have short scheduled demos throughout the day on GaBi 4, i-report and GaBi DfX.

Join us for a demo or setup a time to discuss a specific GaBi or LCA topic with us!

Any questions about presentations please contact the GaBi Software Sales and Support team at; +1 (617) 247-4477 x2 or email p.canepa@pe-international.com.

Siemens PLM Connection Americas 2011

Date
May 2 - 5, 2011

Location
Las Vegas, USA

Organizer
Siemens PLM

More information
www.plmworld.org

PE INTERNATIONAL becomes CDP gold partner and launches CarbonExplorer

PE INTERNATIONAL has signed a gold partnership agreement with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the leading independent registry for climate change information. PE INTERNATIONAL has been working with the CDP since September 2009 and the gold partnership will further strengthen the collaboration between the two organizations.  For the growing number of companies participating in the Carbon Disclosure Project PE INTERNATIONAL has launched the SoFi CarbonExplorer solution. SoFi CarbonExplorer enables clients to develop a high-performance carbon management and reporting program quickly and in a cost-effective way. The new solution combines the proven carbon management capabilities of the SoFi Software solution with PE’s leading carbon consulting to help clients overcome challenges such as resource constraints, lack of internal expertise and dispersed incomplete greenhouse gas emissions data. With the easy and secure web access SoFi CarbonExplorer enables an easy start for a solid carbon management program that supports strategic company objectives.

Learn more about SoFi CarbonExplorer

New report ranks PE as Enterprise Energy and Carbon Accounting Leader

On February 8, 2011, Groom Energy Solutions released its report entitled “The 2011 Enterprise Energy and Carbon Accounting (EECA) Software Market -- A Buyers Guide”. The report evaluates 75 vendors across several dimensions to determine the strength of the technology and of the company. The main focus was on customer deployments and quality of customer references, along with the solution capabilities for carbon management and energy management.


“We selected PE INTERNATIONAL as a 2011 EECA leader for the fourth time in our report because the capabilities of the SoFi Software solution reflect the 20 years of sustainability domain expertise and market insight of the company, “ said Paul Baier, Vice President Consulting at Groom Energy Solutions.  “The large number of new customer deployments in various sectors and regions confirms the ability of PE INTERNATIONAL to provide enterprise sustainability solutions that deliver superior business value for its clients.”

PE and Tata Consultancy Services partner for integrated sustainability management

PE INTERNATIONAL launched a partnership with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading IT services, business solutions and outsourcing organization. We will collaborate on the further development of our corporate sustainability solution SoFi and jointly implement integrated corporate sustainability management solutions for customers worldwide.

Michael Betz, CEO of PE describes the partnership: “We are delighted to partner with TCS. As a pioneer in the area of information technology, TCS has a large global client base in the IT space as well as access to very well trained professionals who will be instrumental in scaling the deployment of SoFi around the globe.”

 

The partnership will blend TCS’s IT services, business solutions and outsourcing expertise with PE’s 20 years of experience in helping client’s understand and improve sustainability performance. “With this unique combination we can offer our clients a leading corporate sustainability management solution coupled with world class IT services” said Betz.

Lakshminarasimhan Srinivasan, Head of Eco-Sustainability Services at TCS, explains:”SoFi is the most flexible corporate sustainability solution to manage complex business requirements on the market today. We currently are deploying SoFi for our own operations and have found that SoFi significantly increases the efficiency of corporate sustainability information management within TCS.”

SoFi first verified software solution by GRI

On May 19th 2010 PE INTERNATIONAL’s corporate sustainability solution SoFi became the first verified software by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The GRI program for certifying software and digital tools started in the beginning of 2010 and aims to ensure the correct usage of GRI content, such as the GRI Sustainability Reporting Framework. “GRI is pleased to confirm that SoFi contains precise GRI content, “explains GRI’s Director of Learning Services, Dr. Nelmara Arbex, “it is the first sustainability reporting tool which has fulfilled all the requirements of the GRI Certified Software and Tools Program.”.

Enterprise Carbon Accounting will see explosive growth

A new research report by Groom Energy Solutions predicts that despite the slow economy software purchases for Enterprise Carbon Accounting (ECA) or Corporate Carbon Footprints will grow 600% by 2011. The research report identifies three main drivers for the future growth: customers and investor demanding improvements in company image, cost savings from sustainability initiatives and supply-chain programs like Walmart’s Supplier Sustainability Assessment.

Meanwhile, the number of ECA solution vendors has grown to 60 and the research report aims to guide decision makers in choosing the right offering for their needs. The report evaluates vendors using the following criteria: number of customer deployments, technology features, market vision and financial stability.  

PE INTERNATIONAL has been identified as an Emerging Leader based on these criteria for the second consecutive year. Paul Baier, vice president of consulting at Groom Energy and author of the report confirms “With its large ECA customer base and global organization, PE INTERNATIONAL is ideally positioned for success in the market.”

CO2 - the new currency

1.2 tons of carbon dioxide have been caused by Andreas Große Habuer, Tobias Bayer and Joachim Zepelin through their research for the story „CO2- the new currency“, published in the november edition of the business magazine Capital. PE INTERNATIONAL calculated a carbon footprint of about 1.2 tons as the result of every journey, telephone call and piece of paper, which the journalists needed for their research.

Among others, they communicated with Deutsche Post, one of our SoFi software customers. „Years ago, as we were experimenting with carbon- accounting, we were even sneered“, says Michael Lohmeier, CO2 manager of Deutsche Post. Nowadays, nobody laughs. „Because of the extensive system of numbers we now exactly know how to save CO2 and therefore money“.

The big problem in accounting CO2 is, that Deutsche Post is just able to detect and have an effect on 20 percent of their emissions. The big rest arises from the suppliers, who have to make up the balance for the emission of CO2 for themselves to enable Deutsche Post to provide significant data. „We just started to ask our business partners for their emissions of CO2“, says Lohmeier.

Factoring primary products and supply chains which provoke emissions of CO2 into the own accounting of C02 gains immensely in importance. In the future, the huge trading company Wal-Mart claims C02 data of its 100.000 suppliers, for instance. Therefore, selecting a supplier will become a question of C02 emissions.

„Now, questionnaires are sent back and forth around the world“, says Michael Spielmann, Coordinator Carbon Management at PE INTERNATIONAL. „It will not take much longer and  the smallest companies will have to expose their C02 emissions“, mentions Spielmann. „Soon each company will be affected by the topic of C02 – in effect, carbon dioxide is developing itself into a currency. The sooner companies adapt themselves to it, the better“.

read the full article (german)