How Do Various Business Decisions Affect the Environment? New Computer Software Tells You

January 5th, 2010 by Zachary Shahan

Lanner, a business software specialist, just launched a new version of its WITNESS software suite in order to help companies evaluate how their decisions will affect the environment.

The new software is “designed to help firms simulate and analyse how corporate decisions will affect the environment,” Tom Young of BusinessGreen reports.

Initially, this company’s software package was set up to help businesses analyze the effects of different business decisions on the company’s financial bottom line. However, this updated version extends that anaylsis to environmental factors. The new softare allows companies to examine potential carbon emissions as well as electricity, oil, water, gas and steam use that would result from different decisions.

Why assume that businesses would be interested in this? Well, they are the ones who asked for it, according to Lanner’s chief executive, David Jones. So, Lanner listened and created it.

“Organisations such as Ford, 3M, BAE, Nationwide, GSK and GazProm must all balance concern for the environment with the realities of business,” he said. ” As a result, the simulation software they use must track and optimise their use of the world’s scarce resources. WITNESS now offers the ability to explicitly address these issues as never before.” Nissan is already planning to use the software for their new “Battery Production Plant” in the UK.

So, the businesses that acquire this new software can now evaluate the short- and long-term effects of potential decisions on their finances, operational performance and the natural environment and then try to strike a proper balance. Looks like sustainability can make its way into the business world much more practically now with this progressive new software.

Of course, businesses still must decide what the proper balance is, and that is the challenge for the business world. This software should help them in thinking about it and incorporating it into their decision-making more, and that is a big step forward, but they still must make the hard, real-world decisions.

via BusinessGreen & Lanner

Image Credit: Kevin Steele via flickr under a Creative Commons license

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Tags: computer, evaluate, evaluation, financial, Lanner, Nissan, software, WITNESS

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

Anonymous

New computer software tells me lots of things,it is really useful to me,thank you.
JJ

The economy and environment are way too complex for software prediction at least that is what the climate deniers say, they told me so on Pox News.

Perhaps this company has a better insight into how things actually work because maybe they studied loads of physics and climate papers and packaged it all up into a neat handy dandy program. How much does it cost?

On the other hand this one in pdf book form is free.

“Sustainable Energy — without the hot air” by David Mackay. I wonder how the software predictions would stack up to this most knowledgeable professor at Cambridge University.
JJ

The economy and environment are way too complex for software prediction at least that is what the climate deniers say, they told me so on Pox News.

Perhaps this company has a better insight into how things actually work because maybe they studied loads of physics and climate papers and packaged it all up into a neat handy dandy program. How much does it cost?

On the other hand this one in pdf book form is free.

“Sustainable Energy — without the hot air” by David Mackay. I wonder how the software predictions would stack up to this most knowledgeable professor at Cambridge University.
- Anonymous
  
  Good,I agree with your points:)