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GreenInsight
Research Project, Richard Barraclough, Mark Bishop and Sebastian Danicic
This is then combined with the publicly verified information for products and industries to build up an organisations environmental impact from the bottom up.
As data improves over time, the accuracy of the analysis improves, however the baseline data is maintained so that an organisation has an accurate starting point."
The @UK PLC Green Marketplace was launched in Aldermaston, on October 7th 2010, by Richard Benyon, Minister for Natural Environment.
"Berkshire based ecommerce supplier, @UK PLC had a double celebration yesterday as they celebrated the launch of their new green marketplace, and their first green customer. The culmination of over three years research and development, the new green marketplace provides organisations with tools that enable them to measure and account for their environmental impact.
Richard Benyon, Minster for Natural Environment said “As Minister for the Natural Environment I look forward to seeing industry continue to contribute to the arena of assessment and measurement tools for environmental impacts, and increasing uptake by business.”
The @UK PLC electronic marketplace has been in existence since 1999, and has over 1 million users throughout the UK in both the public and private sectors. @UK PLC is also a leading Company Formation and Company Registration agent with over 200,000 companies formed. The addition of a new green aspect has meant for customers that now they can:
-View of the cost to the environment as items are purchased, and the carbon footprint of items purchased
-GreenInsight – an analytic tool that evaluates an organisation’s spend, compares the items against the e2class classification system on the marketplace and calculates the environmental cost of the spend in considerable detail, to product line level.
At the launch, a number of key organisations from public and private sectors could see the functionality of the classification tools, and their ease-of-use. The company’s e2class classification system is the result of a three year collaboration between CenSA, SEI (Stockholm Environment Insitute), and the Universities of Goldsmiths and Reading. It builds on the NSV standard classification that has been in governmental use for over 30 years, adding in vital environmental data, carbon footprints and ethical supply information.
Also at the launch, @UK client, Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS Trust, demonstrated how their use of the GreenInsight tool has delivered surprising results in revealing the major carbon culprits within the operation.
GreenInsight is charged at £12,000 per organisation, and provides a detailed breakdown of the environmental impact of all expenditure.
“It’s difficult to know where to begin in implementing a carbon reduction programme, but GreenInsight has revealed exactly where the carbon culprits lie” confirms Brian Pinnell, Strategic Procurement, Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS Foundation Trust.
“We would have expected that the greatest environmental impact came from Mains Electricity (30%) but were very surprised that the next two largest carbon culprits were Medical and Surgical Instruments and Prescription Drugs,” he said.
GreenInsight and its savings focussed companion tool SpendInsight cost £12,000. There are approximately 5,000 public sector bodies that could purchase GreenInsight, and many more in the commercial sector.
“We expect there will also be considerable interest in the @UK Green Marketplace from the commercial sector, as there has already been from the public sector,” Mr Duncan said.
@UK PLC’s customer base includes a number of large local bodies – Devon County Council, Gloucestershire County Council and a number of organisations within the NHS. Suppliers to the @UK Marketplace include a most major brands and more than 5,000 SME’s, many of whom are active participants in the public sector supply chain. "