New tool from ORNL helps industrial plants track carbon footprints
When it comes to knowing the size of your carbon footprint, not all industries or businesses truly know. It’s not the easiest thing to measure.
But researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have found a way to make it a little easier. They’ve developed an “online tool that offers industrial plants an easier way to track and download information about their energy footprint and carbon emissions,” according to a release from the lab.
Called Visualizing Energy Reporting Information and Financial Implications, or VERIFI, this tool uses what the lab describes as “an open-source framework with a utility dashboard. It allows energy coordinators and plant managers to monitor and improve their understanding of energy and water use patterns including the amount of carbon emitted from industrial processes.”
Plant managers that use VERIFI can also generate automatic reports from an easy-to-use dashboard.
“Industries want to know how to conserve and improve efficiency while reducing costs but often don’t know how to begin or lack the time to track it,” ORNL’s Kristina Armstrong said. “VERIFI provides a user-friendly platform for monitoring energy efficiency benchmarks and baselines and allows for the visualization of energy and utility bills.”
ORNL is testing VERIFI for the Department of Energy’s Better Plants Program, which “works with leading U.S. manufacturers and wastewater treatment agencies to set ambitious energy, water, waste, and carbon reduction goals and commit to reducing energy intensity by 25% over a 10-year period across all U.S. operations.”
