FinancialForce.com, the global leader in online cloud accounting solutions built natively on the Force.com platform from salesforce.com, today announced a partnership with CloudApps, a carbon management specialist, to help companies measure, manage and monetise carbon as an asset. The tie-up comes in the wake of increasing legislation, including the UK Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), which came into effect at the start of April 2010 and the voluntary Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) scheme which many global corporations subscribe to.

The applications were both developed on Force.com, salesforce.com’s cloud computing platform, to seamlessly provide an end-to-end carbon management and accounting solution. This means companies of any size can measure, monitor and account for their current carbon emissions and engage with their employees to dramatically reduce future emission levels and operational costs. Delivered at low-cost, the combined cloud-based solutions allow companies to rapidly get started on their carbon management journey.

The emerging role of Sustainability Officer involves the management and reduction of carbon emissions across the entire company resulting in reduced operational costs, while the CFO benchmarks emission levels against the competition and reports the financial implications to the board. Together they can ensure compliance with voluntary and legislative global climate change requirements, drive significant cost savings and further enhance their brand.

“When managed as an asset, carbon creates a business advantage, yet very few companies do it well.” said Simon Wheeldon, CEO of CloudApps. “The ability to tie accurate and timely carbon management into financial accounting, forecasting and reporting gives customers the ability to manage the emissions, costs and the cash flow implications of carbon. CloudApps’ partnership with FinancialForce.com provides a rapid-response to evolving environment regulations, enhancing products and rolling these out to our customers in days, not weeks or months.”

CloudApps Carbon integrated with FinancialForce Accounting enables customers to rapidly measure their carbon emissions and produce accurate compliance reports. They can benchmark their carbon footprint against others, engage employees to identify and manage carbon reduction programs and smooth cash flow by forecasting future carbon allowance requirements. In addition, it enables them to share their work with all stakeholders further promoting their brand and green credentials.

FinancialForce.com takes the information on carbon emissions from the CloudApps Carbon application and converts it into accounting transaction data so that carbon can be monitored and reported as an asset in its own right. Delivered in the cloud, utilizing a pay-as-you-go subscription model, this offering is easy and inexpensive to install and maintain compared to other offerings on the market.

“CloudApps is delivering an innovative carbon management solution that is helping companies understand what is required of them and how they can accurately monitor, report and manage the reduction of their carbon emissions,” said Jeremy Roche, CEO of FinancialForce.com. “Together with FinancialForce Accounting, this solution offers companies better visibility of their environmental impact and associated cost. It is no longer a question of if they do it, but how they do it, and using integrated cloud applications built on a proven technology platform like Force.com will be a cheaper and less risky alternative to many other offerings on the market today. Responsible businesses of all sizes can benefit from integrated sustainability and online accounting.”

FinancialForce.com