Carbon footprinting is suddenly all the rage. Companies want to understand -- and will soon be required to understand -- their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, their contributions to climate change, and what they can do about it. And they're turning to carbon footprint analysis to figure out how.

But there's a problem: As reported by Carnegie-Mellon researchers in Environmental Science and Technology, U.S. companies are, on average, measuring only 26% of their carbon footprint. What's wrong? What's missing? And what can be done to solve the problem, effectively and economically?

When reporting a company's total carbon footprint, it is an accepted standard to report direct emissions from on-site activities and company-owned vehicles (Scope One) and indirect emissions resulting from the use of purchased electricity (Scope Two). In addition some firms report other indirect emissions (Scope Three) -- but since reporting on these emissions is optional, it is up to the reporting organization to decide what to measure and report. (For more information about scope definitions and categories, check out http://www.ghgprotocol.org.)

For many organizations, these "other indirect emissions" are significantly larger than the combined direct and energy indirect emissions they are required to report under the GHG Protocol. In our view, treating other indirect emissions reporting as optional is not sufficient. Any organization that is serious about addressing its full global warming impact (and the opportunities that addressing it can open) needs a complete picture of its impacts -- at least at a macro-level -- in order to identify major areas of impact across its supply chain.

But how can you create that comprehensive picture without breaking the bank? Tracking a supply chain's impact can be a laborious and costly exercise, let alone tracking down the impacts of all the goods and services an organization uses within its own operations.

One cost effective approach to establishing a first pass map of your full carbon responsibility is to use an accounting approach known as an Economic Input-Output (EIO) based analysis. With an EIO analysis (as provided, for example, by Natural Logic's Footprint Scanner^TM -- see graph) an organization starts with a comprehensive list of expenditures in sufficient detail to enable assigning these expenditures to standard commodity groupings. U.S. economic accounts use many hundreds of detailed commodity codes, but in most cases it will suffice to group commodities together into larger buckets, such as paper products, inorganic chemicals, computers, couriers and messengers, or motor vehicles, just to name a few.

The output of an EIO analysis shows the total carbon footprint associated with an organization's purchases of goods and services, and highlights which supply chain(s) have the highest impacts and what the sources of those impacts are. For example, one Footprint Scanner analysis conducted for a small city showed that its actual carbon footprint is much larger than just the measured impact from city operations; essential city services, such as outsourced construction and maintenance of public infrastructure and operation of owned facilities such as wastewater treatment plants, which would not have been included in a typical baseline footprint contribute significant impacts (as shown in this graph), and need to be addressed in any responsible GHG strategy.

Natural Logic's Footprint Scanner provides a "quick scan" EIO analysis that makes effective use of the information our clients need to shift their practices, reduce their impacts and build their profit, market share and brands.

We are also partnering with other organizations to deliver more comprehensive tools and systems. With these tools, an initial footprint analysis can be completed in a matter of days instead of weeks or months -- at fraction of the cost -- that clearly identifies major areas of concern that call for further analysis. We'll talk more about these tools and partnerships in coming issues.

We've just signed a contract to write The Truth About Green Business for the popular "The Truth About..." series from FT Press, an imprint of Pearson Education.

The Truth About Green Business is a practical handbook, distilled from Natural Logic's decades of experience (and the 3.8 billion years of R&D we draw upon), providing practical guidance for executives, senior managers, financial advisors, and anyone looking to lead their company from environmental compliance to strategic advantage. This will be Natural Logic's first book and will be available in spring 2009.

("Our first book" means our first cover-to-cover, all by us book. We've also been contributors: to the first Sustainable Enterprise Report (from Kyoto Planet, now available online (or we'll send hard copies to the first 20 executives or managers who send us a self-addressed 5"x8" envelope at our mailing address), The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook, which is available from Greenleaf Publishing, and which officially "launches" October 2nd at Farleigh Dickinson University), and the remarkable Worldchanging: A Users Guide for the 21st Century.

Also coming next year, Gil's next new book, Risk, Fiduciary Duty and the Laws of Nature (working title), which will be more big picture, executive leadership focused than TTAGB. More about that one in a future issue of this newsletter.

We've had the pleasure of working with a diverse group of clients this spring. Here are a few:

Natural Logic has been supporting Winehaven Partners in creating an "extreme-green" destination resort and ecological village on a historic shoreline property and former Navy brownfield on the San Francisco Bay. The goal of the Point Molate project is to "regenerate the economy, culture, and environment for the City of Richmond and Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians -- sustaining thousands of long-term, living-wage jobs and extraordinary revenues for the City, preserving and enhancing open space, extending the Bay Trail and shoreline parks, and supporting community programs" -- and to set a new benchmark for green real estate development. Natural Logic's role has been to drastically reduce the projected environmental footprint of the project (so far we've reduced projected energy demand by 70% and water demand by 50%, and we're not done yet!), to help guide an integrative design process that can realize these benefits, and to help Winehaven engage the environmental and green collar jobs communities; our partners at Regenesis have been helping Winehaven look beyond mere site restoration to regenerating the coastal prairie, and the traditional botanical economy of the tribe.

We've entered Phase Two of our work with HDR/BrownVence for the City of Los Angeles -- developing the city's Zero Waste plan (formally known as SWIRP -- the Solid Waste Integrated Resource Plan). Our focus: bringing a pragmatic business perspective -- based on our research with businesses across the city -- to the development of policies, programs and incentives that will actually work, and actually be embraced by the business community.

Our Regional Sustainability Dashboard initiative, which we've written about in prior newsletters, is moving steadily forward in the Bay Area (the probable pilot site, though other jurisdictions as far away as Australia are starting to quietly clamor). One exciting variation is the National Carbon League, which works with pro and college teams and their enterprise partners to inspire, measure, and celebrate large-scale carbon savings by fans; check out the video!

(Our sustainability dashboards are built on Business Metabolics^TM -- the sustainable business indicators platform that inspired and guided OpenEco; please contact us to find out how Business Metabolics can bring new insight to your company's sustainability initiatives.)

OpenEco, Natural Logic's collaboration with Sun Microsystems to provide a next-generation GHG dashboard, will be one year old this month, and will mark that event by offering a new, powerful set of functionality to the site, including:

• Ability to record and track greenhouse gas emissions from all sources in their organization or home
• Basic view and expert view option -- users can choose to view their emissions sources using simplified categories (Basic) or grouped according to the World Resources Institute Corporate Accounting Standard (scope-based based) system (Expert)
• Report functionality which will allow for an organization to export their dataset into comprehensive, printable PDF documents
• New enhanced charting features allowing to more granularity when charting data
• Easy to use data entry pop-up screens allowing for monthly or yearly data entry

Natural Logic now is a consulting and services partner of Vancouver-based Visible Strategies. Visible Strategies' see-it^TM software is a visually compelling web-based tool that saves time and money by allowing organizations to turn their initiatives, best practice plans, and reports into something capable of engaging all their constituents. It helps reduce the staff time required to communicate an organization's vision, its strategic plan, and the progress toward meeting goals set in the strategic plan. Natural Logic provides consulting and tools for organizations, public entities, and businesses that help them create strategic plans and improve the effectiveness of their plans.

And in other dashboard news, be sure to add your favorites to our Carbon Calculator Compendium on Squidoo!

Gil Friend keynoted UCLA Extension's first sustainability conference (Long Beach CA); spoke on the sustainability indicators panel at the Sustainable Brands conference in (Monterey CA) and at the first Lean & Green Summit (Boulder CO), which Natural Logic co-sponsored; and was part of the design team (along with Natural Logic board member Jane Byrd) in Urban Re:Vision/Rocky Mountain Institute design charrette: Framework for a Sustainable Urban Block.

We're speaking at -- and co-sponsoring -- the Lean Accounting Summit in Las Vegas September 17-18. (The first seven people to register using the "natlogicvip" discount code will receive $1000 off their registration fee.)

Join us at West Coast Green (San Jose CA) September 25-27, where Gil, AgileWaves CEO Peter Sharer and Warren Karlenzig of Common Currents will explore "Measuring What Matters: How Sustainability Dashboards and Generative Feedback Can Help People and Organizations Change Habits."

We're also sponsoring CSR Performance 2008 in San Diego October 1-2 and the Global Solutions Leadership Summitin Beijing November 21-22. Other upcoming events include:

• Green Media Show (Boston, MA), October 2
• "Getting a Grip on Carbon" at the October 15th annual meeting of the Pacific Industrial Business Association (PIBA)(Foster City, CA)
• SustainPro (Chicago, IL), October 29-30
• Sustainable Brands (New York, October 29, and Miami, December 9-11)
• Behavior, Energy Climate Change (Sacramento, CA), November 16-19
• Corporate Water Management December 2-3, 2008 in San Francisco. Gil will speak on an expert panel discussing emerging water issues (which we see as "the next carbon," and clients Dean Foods and our Quaker-Tropicana-Gatorade (through our client, StopWaste) will discuss their companies' water initiatives.

Early warning: Gil will be in Florida twice in March 2009, to keynote the Electric Utility Cost Group semiannual conference (in St. Petersburg FL) and to speak at Green Cities/Orlando (the first of a series from Seven Star Events). We'll be announcing other events soon. Be sure to check our speaking schedule at the link below. Bring Natural Logic -- and natural logic -- to your company by inviting us to speak at your next event. Contact our speakers bureaus, BigSpeak! and EcoSpeakers, to book us for your upcoming events.

And still more events!
The sustainability conference business has heated up so much this year that we can't get to every event. Here are a few favorites that we're not attending this year, but that are well worth your attention: SRI in the Rockies, Business for Social Responsibility, Net Impact... and so many others!

David Jaber, Natural Logic employee #2, has decided to move on, after seven years of dedicated and invaluable service, and take some time to take stock of where he -- and the world -- are now. In his own words: "We've got a fundamental shift in mindset that needs to happen. Things that are negotiable now, like acceptable levels of environmental damage, will increasingly become non-negotiable. I wish everyone all the best in transforming your organizations and yourselves."

We'll miss having him aboard, but wish him well, and look forward to working with him on a project basis in the months and years to come. As a first transitional step, David has accepted an invitation to be interim co-chair of Tribal P2, a web portal for tribes that brings together a wealth of information and resources to support pollution prevention. Tribal P2 is supported by the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable, and is online at www.tribalp2.org.