In a bold move to draw attention to the urgency around greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, a new carbon counter has been installed on the corner of West 33rd and 7th Avenue in New York City. Sponsored by Deutsche Bank, the digital tracker provides a real-time reading of the total amount of greenhouse gasses in the earth's atmosphere. At 70 feet tall, the carbon counter will be difficult to ignore. Currently, it’s estimated that we generate about 2 billion tons of greenhouse gases every month, resulting in approximately 3.6 trillion metric tons to date. MIT scientists helped develop the calculation methods, which includes all 24 gases named in the Kyoto and Montreal Protocols.

The timing couldn’t be better for this new greenhouse gas tracker given ongoing discussions about the Waxman-Markey bill recently introduced into Congress and an increased amount of activity in the technology world on helping companies find solutions for managing their carbon risk.

While getting a handle on enterprise carbon accounting may seem daunting for C-suite executives and IT professionals, it’s a very manageable problem with the right set of tools. Companies that are able to control, measure and reduce carbon emissions, will be the real winners as the practice of greenhouse gas reporting becomes a true competitive advantage.

The carbon counter can also be accessed online and is available as a downloaded widget.

On March 16, 2009, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson issued a memorandum halting the Performance Track Program. In her memo, Administrator Jackson recognizes accomplishments of Performance Track. However, she says, and I quote, "Now it is time to pause and reflect on Performance Track's achievements and opportunities for improvements. Performance Track was developed in a different era and may not speak to today's challenges. There has been much recent discussion about the benefits of the program. Members of Congress and stakeholders have also asked us to pause and consider what approaches might be best for the future. Therefore, I have decided to halt the current Performance Track Program with the intent of refining those concepts that can lead us to a stronger system of environmental protection as we go forward."

The "different era" was one of relaxed enforcement of environmental regulations during the previous Administration. It appears that the current Administration is going to step up its level of inspections and enforcement activity. It seems that swinging the regulatory hammer is more important than encouraging voluntary initiatives via incentives that include less scrutiny and regulatory oversight. To me, this is confirmed, by Administrator Jackson's comment earlier in her memo where she states, "These stewardship initiatives should not take the place of our regulatory framework but should augment it by bringing to bear advanced technology and innovation to achieve progress on emerging problems that our regulations do not yet address."

For those of you who have participated in the Performance Track program with success, thank you for your leadership and your commitment to going above and beyond what's required by statute and regulation. I hope that your successes led to improved performance, reduced operating risk, and enhanced compliance. Please do not stop the value-added business activities Performance Track catalyzed just because US EPA may not continue the program and its incentives.

Now what? With the potential for increase in US regulatory enforcement, the growing demand for Greenhouse Gas reporting and Carbon Accounting, and the push to make our businesses Sustainable, we need to efficiently manage data and information that the regulators will use to evaluate compliance, and that our stakeholders will use to evaluate our business and environmental performance. We want to collect that data and information once and report it many times. To that end, we deploy a central repository for our EHS compliance requirements, GHG emissions inventory, and Sustainability initiatives. The repository provides us the digital means of determining compliance, making sustainable business decisions, and submitting reports to our multiple stakeholders. And, the most cost effective and technologically savvy vehicle today is an Internet-based EHS Management Software as a Service delivered through the clouds. Contact Enviance to find out more.

While it’s uncertain how the Waxman-Markey energy bill will progress after passing through House committee, one thing is for sure: greenhouse-gas regulation is now on the C-level agenda. This week, Businessweek.com published a very informative CEO guide that illustrates how leading companies are using sophisticated tools to measure their environmental impact and meet emissions targets. As you might expect, Enviance is discussed as a leader in enterprise carbon accounting.

A long-time customer of ours, American Electric Power (AEP), was interviewed as well. As one of the largest emitters of CO₂ in the country, AEP is a shining example of how to manage and report GHG. Using Enviance, AEP was able to develop one system to consolidate GHG data and generate reports with a wide range of requirements. For more background on our work with AEP, check out our case study.

If it’s good for business then do it right? In an interesting twist, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore are urging chief executives to push politicians to agree to an ambitious global deal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and combat climate change. Their contention? That its going to be in their companies' best interests.

"With your support and through your example we must harness the necessary political will to seal the deal in December," Ban told participants at the World Business Summit on Climate Change, which included hundreds of business executives as well as Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. "A strong message from the business community to governments worldwide may make all the difference."

Copenhagen will host negotiations in December aimed at forging a new U.N.-backed climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. The World Business Summit will issue a two-page recommendation on Tuesday which will be presented to the Danish government to take to the December talks.

Gore said, "We have a very short window of opportunity. If we want to limit temperature increase to about 2 degrees Celsius, then emissions globally must peak by 2015."

Ban said some companies have understood the challenge and have sought to turn it into a business opportunity, but he sharply criticized other companies that have not yet committed to dealing with climate change.

"Too many are sitting on the fence, waiting for others to act or waiting for the clear policies that will signal a level playing field," he said. "For those who are directly or implicitly lobbying against climate action, I have a clear message: Your ideas are out of date, and you are running out of time.

"Sooner or later there will be a higher price on carbon, imposed either by policy or by market forces. Any multinational business that doesn't have a strategy in place to deal with climate change will end up on the losing side of history."

Yesterday, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso told the conference a climate deal would bring big economic opportunities, with investments in green technologies estimated to produce a million new jobs in E.U. countries alone.

This approach may be just the thing we need to turn the tables and get the deal done. I applaud Gore and U.N. Secretary General Ban for their efforts in discussing an element of the issue that few focus on: the business opportunity. Throughout the history of U.S. industry, it has been these methods that have worked best – talking more about the positive changes and less about the cost to business. The benefits will far outweigh any investment. All the visionaries and those who know the issue can see that. And we’ll have a viable mother earth as well.

As of today, Democratic leaders do not have enough votes to move the Waxman-Markey legislation forward. They were hoping for a House subcommittee markup this week on the energy and global warming bill.

This bill would establish a cap-and-trade system to curb greenhouse gases and also promote development of renewable energy production.  Reps. Henry Waxman and Ed Markey, the committee's Democratic leaders, said they will complete their work on the legislation before the Memorial Day recess. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was recently asked what his biggest concern is between now and the 2010 elections. He said, "Global warming. ... Health care is easier than this global warming stuff." Almost all Republicans are not in favor of the cap-and-trade bill.

Back in the House, about a dozen moderate Democrats are still questioning the size and scope of a 648-page draft of the Waxman-Markey legislation. Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) told reporters earlier this week that he wanted Democratic committee leaders to schedule another hearing on the bill once they fill in a blank section from the draft that explains how to distribute emission credits among industries.

Rep. Charles Gonzales (D-Texas), another swing-vote lawmaker on the subcommittee, credited Waxman and Markey for not pressing forward on a subcommittee vote before the time is right.

"I think the chairman just has to work on something that has a chance of passing," Gonzales said. "I don't think you can afford a false start. You have to have some measure of success here, and I think a lot of us are willing to move in that direction, recognizing the need of the legislation. But there has to be some movement."

Another delay would not upset the Environmental Defense Fund. "It's more important to have a very strong, acceptable agreement," said Tony Kreindler, the group's spokesman.