Zerofootprint challenges corporations, governments and individuals to
calculate, reduce and offset their impact on the environment

Published in the Ontario Ministry of Small Business and Consumer Services’ Think Green report: Seizing Green-Based Opportunities for Growth, LEADING GROWTH FIRM SERIES 2009

Zerofootprint Inc. has a lot on the go, but then it has a lot going for it. The three-year-old Toronto company develops software that helps businesses measure and manage their carbon emissions. It also creates customizable online widgets and Web sites that allow students, teachers and whole communities to track their environmental impact and connect with others around shared goals . More ambitious still, it is trying to kick-start into existence an online market for carbon offsets that would allow energy- hungry companies to reduce their overall carbon footprint by funding projects that result in verifiable emissions reductions.

If that looks like a mixed bag of good intentions, Ron Dembo, Zerofootprint's founder and CEO, will quickly set you straight. The strategic goal underlying all these activities is measurement. Zerofootprint is committed to encouraging consumers, businesses and entire cities to measure their actual impact on the environment, from the total cost of air conditioning or commuting to the amount of coal burned when downloading a song from iTunes. Measurement, says Dembo, is the essential first step to solving pollution, global warming and the rest of the world's environmental problems. "You can't manage what you don't measure."

Like burning a bag of charcoal
"Producing a kilogram of steak consumes 15,000 litres of water," notes Dembo . "Downloading 100 megabytes is like burning a bag of charcoal. We don't know these things because we don't measure them, and because we don't measure them, we go on doing them."

A former Yale University professor and expert on risk management, Dembo founded Toronto-based Algorithmics Inc., whose financial software helps banks manage portfolio risks. After he sold the company in 2005, he promised himself that from then on, "I would only do things I am passionate about."

At a conference two weeks later, he was dismayed to see how casually his fellow executives wasted energy. Analyzing the potential environmental havoc that could result if the industrial world didn't slash carbon-dioxide emissions, Dembo realized that climate change "is the mother of all risks." So he developed his vision of a company that would help people see how they add to the problem every day.

Established in 2005, Zerofootprint now encompasses three related companies: Zerofootprint Not-for-Profit uses Web technologies to engage communities, including schools, governments and other organizations, in climate change. Zerofootprint Software develops carbon-management software and consulting services that enable multinational organizations to measure and manage carbon consumption throughout their organizations and up and down their supply chains. Zerofootprint Carbon, incorporated in June 2008, is building a portfolio of carbon-offsetting projects that enable organizations to mitigate their harmful impacts by investing in sustainable, long-term projects such as forest restoration, tire recycling and landfill gas recovery.

Leveraging technologies
The heart of all three companies is Zerofootprint's Carbon Engine, software developed by a team of programmers in Canada. Dembo describes it as "one technology leveraged many ways." At one level, for instance, the software lets schoolchildren analyze their families' carbon footprint, then gives them the opportunity to make pledges to recycle and turn off their computers at night.

The enterprise version of the software teaches corporations similar lessons. Dembo believes governments around the world will soon be requiring companies to measure carbon emissions from every corner of their businesses: every building, every vehicle, every business trip. Zerofootprint's enterprise software, which sells for $25,000 and up, eases this overwhelming task by offering automated data collection from diverse sources, flexible reporting and audit trails, customizable alerts that point out anomalous findings and multiple levels of security. "If you know your footprint, you can change it," says Dembo. "We're making the world smarter."

Dembo believes that once these newly empowered companies start managing their carbon use,climate breakthroughs will come. He looks forward to an era of wired buildings that manage their own energy use and smart grids that "dial down" energy consumption at peak load times.

Zerofootprint's client roster includes such blue-chip names as Air Canada, RBC Financial, Roots, Enbridge and Strathcona Paper. Cities signing up for the company's services include Toronto, Ottawa, Edmonton, Boulder (Colorado) and Seattle (Washington). As for competitors, Dembo likens the carbon-software market to the risk management market he conquered a decade ago: "There are two or three big software companies trying to get in, but no one owns it yet."

The market potential is huge. The U .S. Department of Energy says 40 per cent of total energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions come from operating buildings. With its for-profit business less than a year old, Dembo won't reveal revenues, but admits the company is losing money. "Sales will be in the millions within a year," he promises. "And hopefully, we'll be in the black."

After leaving behind two previous careers, can Dembo see himself walking away from Zerofootprint? Not likely. "I can't imagine ever letting go of this," he says. "It's endless."

Read the full Think Green report: http://www.sbe.gov.on.ca/ontcan/sbe/downloads/wisdom_exchange/think_green_en.pdf

The Ontario Ministry of Small Business and Consumer Services: http://www.sbe.gov.on.ca/ontcan/sbe/en/home_en.jsp