How much CO2 is in my product?

The climate impact of a company's own products is becoming increasingly important, especially for manufacturing companies. To make emissions management simple and transparent, the startup greenable has developed a solution that calculates the Co2 footprint of products. Dr. Patrick Kölsch, Co-Founder and CEO of greenable, explains in this interview what the software can do and what advantages it offers.

The greenable Team: Lucas Hartmann, Alexander David, Viktor Schiller, Dr. Patrick Kölsch (f.l.t.r.)
Image source: Alexander Sell

How would you explain your solution in three sentences to a professional colleague from the industrial sector?

Do your customers also ask: How much CO2 is in your products? You don't know? With our software solution you can easily balance the CO2 footprint of your products in a standard-compliant way, initiate measures to reduce emissions and thus act sustainably while serving customer needs.

What was the problem that motivated you to found the company?

On the one hand, we saw an increasing market demand for transparency of products, especially in terms of climate effectiveness and the increasingly strict regulations in the area of environmental sustainability for manufacturing companies. On the other hand, in digitisation projects, we repeatedly encountered the questions: "What are we going to do with the data?" In order to calculate CO2 footprints of products, this data is necessary, but in addition also accounting knowledge, which is not yet available in most companies. Intuitive software solutions for quick and trustworthy CO2 balancing were also not available from our point of view.

How do you convince an industrial company to set up a pilot project with you?

Our target customers are primarily small and medium-sized enterprises from the discrete manufacturing industry for which the carbon footprint will become important in the near future (e.g. in the context of the Digital Product Passport). Our software maps the knowledge contained e.g. in the Greenhouse Gas Protocol in an intuitive user guidance. Companies are guided step by step through a standard-compliant accounting process and can thus devote themselves more quickly to their core competencies. Our software offers both the import of measured data from the respective production processes and access to database values, especially to close data gaps from the supply chain. Our software will be certified accordingly in the near future and customer companies will also be able to have their accounting results verified. We are already working with the relevant institutions on this. From mid-2023, you will be able to purchase a licence and see for yourself how user-friendly accounting can be. We and our solution stand for simplicity, speed and trustworthiness.

Prototype greenable
Image source: Alexander Sell

Who are your current customers (groups) and who should be the potential customers?

We are currently talking to small and medium-sized companies from the packaging, automotive, construction elements, plastics and furniture sectors. For these sectors, the Digital Product Passport and thus also the carbon footprint of the products should become mandatory. We have already initiated projects for the PoC here. The focus is currently on the German market in order to establish ourselves and our solution accordingly.

Where do you see yourselves in 3 years and how can 5-HT support you?

We want to be the player in the market for CO2 balancing of products, not only in Germany but EU-wide. We have several ideas that expand our product portfolio and increasingly bring the topic of environmental sustainability into focus for companies. Through 5-HT we get a platform to make the solution present at companies.

We offer new ways for a sustainable future.