In an effort to help organizations get a handle on their swelling carbon footprints, Sun today is launching OpenEco.org, an online community providing free tools and resources for calculating, tracking, and comparing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. With OpenEco.org, organizations can calculate on a granular level the GHGs related to their facilities and vehicle fleets, based on standard, approved carbon accounti With OpenEco.org, organizations can calculate on a granular level the GHGs related to their facilities and vehicle fleets, based on standard, approved carbon accounting standards. They also can track trends and their progress, and compile reports suitable under programs such as the EPA Climate Leaders, according to Sun. “This project came about because we were trying to calculate our own carbon footprint … and we found that the tools out there were proprietary or expensive, or else companies were building spreadsheets [to calculate their footprint] on an ad hoc basis,” said Dave Douglas, vice president of eco-responsibility at Sun.The company decided to draw on its open source roots and make publicly available a set of measuring tools it developed in house. Participating companies’ footprints will be viewable to other members- anonymously, as an option. That way, organizations will be able to see how their carbon footprints compare to those of other similarly size organizations. “People will start to get comparisons and know how they’re doing against one another. They’ll know what working and what’s not,” said Douglas. Being a community-oriented site, it also features forum tools for organizations to interact.As the green tech movement has picked up steam, companies are feeling both internal and external pressure to be more mindful of their impact on the environment. “One reason companies are measuring their GHG emissions is that people are asking them too. Increasingly, large investors are asking them to report them, no questions asked,” said Douglas. “Some of our largest customers are asking us about our carbon emissions.”Additionally, Douglas said that if the U.S. adopts a carbon cap and trade system, similar to that in Europe, tracking and reducing carbon footprints “is going to become an important part of doing business, period.” Moreover, Douglas noted that measuring an organization’s carbon footprint at a granular level — such as on a building by building basis — can help that organization prioritize its energy-efficiency strategy. “We use it internally to highlight what to go after. The first step in an energy-efficiency project is to figure out where the energy is going in the first place.” For more information, or to join, go to OpenEco.org. Technology Industry