Tririga offers full rebate on $49K carbon accounting software

Real estate management software developer Tririga has unveiled a sweet offer it hopes large organisations with lots of buildings will not be able to refuse.

The Las Vegas-based company will give 100 per cent rebates on the $49,000 base module of a software line designed to help organisations measure, manage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their large real estate holdings. The promotion of the Tririga Real Estate Environmental Sustainability (TREES) Metrics software runs through to 30 September.

The Metrics software is TREES' foundation application, used to establish baseline and benchmark environmental data, such as energy use, efficiency, carbon intensity and solid waste recovery, among other indicators. With this critical data in hand, organisations can then devise a reduction strategy, John Clark, Tririga's director of climate change solutions, explained in a telephone interview yesterday.

"What TREES delivers is a framework for measurement of an organisation's environmental impacts to identify underperforming locations, provide a set of analysis tools that evaluate different abatement options and manage those through completion," Clark said. "It includes a set of maintenance processes to keep equipment operating at peak resource efficiency."

The full TREES suite can be implemented from $400,000 for smaller accounts, and upwards of $1m for large organisations. The rebate is paid when the TREES system goes live and does not require the purchase of other Tririga licenses.

TREES is ideally suited for portfolios with 50 or more buildings, Clark said. It consists of three components: measure, manage and reduce. The Metrics software covers the "measure" process. A second module helps organisations put in place reduction strategies. A third piece helps to carry out the reduction plan while also constantly monitoring the process in order to create improvement opportunities.

The promotion comes at a time of increasing attention on corporate environmental footprints.

Last week, Walmart announced it would seek greenhouse gas emissions and resource use data for tens of thousands of its US suppliers, while the Securities and Exchange Commission signaled its intent to consider new disclosure standards for public companies that may include emissions data and climate change-related risks and opportunities.

Companies are also seeing that reducing environmental impacts can lead to leaner operations with larger bottom lines.

Clark estimates a theoretical customer using TREES to monitor 100 buildings stands to save as much as $7m annually. Tririga counts among its customers roughly a third of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as organisations such as the Denver Public Schools, American Family Insurance and real estate consultancy Michael Baker Corp.

He estimates about 40 per cent of TREES customers are existing Tririga clients adding on the environmental component. The rest are likely new customers seeking to deploy the TREES software from a sustainability perspective.

The company has seen a flood of interest in its offerings this year in light of several developments, Clark said, such as growing stakeholder demand within retail and consumer products sectors. Other drivers include the transparency and accountability requirements organisations must meet to secure energy efficiency-related stimulus funds, and pending climate change legislation and regulations that will directly impact carbon-intensive industries, such as utility and energy companies. The federal government, energy and utility sector, and retail and consumer products companies comprise Tririga's top industry segments.

This article first appeared at ClimateBiz.com