As businesses around the world struggle to figure out how to manage their environmental footprints, Normative, a Swedish start-up backed by Google, has released a free version of its carbon emissions tracker.
The carbon calculator is intended to give a baseline from which small and medium-sized enterprises can take action after entering data into a form.
Today, the climate crisis is mainly resulted from the burning of fossil fuels. However, the world is expected to become increasingly more reliant on energy sources like oil and gas in the next decades, even as national and business leaders reiterate their commitment to energy transition.
Small and medium-sized businesses can play a key role in the push to reach net zero emissions before 2050 as they make up about 95% of all enterprises around the world, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Nonetheless, compared to larger corporations like Google and Amazon, small businesses have a difficult time tracking and mitigating their carbon footprint, especially when it comes to emissions linked to the supply chain.
A recent survey by the SME Climate Hub showed that over half of small and medium-sized enterprises track emissions and have established plans to decrease their carbon footprint. But it also found that two-thirds of small business owners are concerned that they lack the necessary skills, knowledge, funds, or time to combat the climate problem.
Normative's tool is expected to be the game-changer for the market, putting resources in the hands of small businesses that would otherwise only be available to large corporation.
Normative was founded in 2014 and is backed by Lowercarbon Capital, a climate-tech focused fund. In April 2021, the start-up was selected as a grantee of Google.org and received 1 million euros (US$1.1 million) under the organization’s Impact Challenge program.
