Using software for your Sustainability tasks

Plato Net Zero is a Carbon Neutrality platform to allow you to calculate your Carbon Footprint and produce the reports you’re going to need such as the energy savings opportunities scheme (ESOS), the streamlined energy and carbon reporting scheme (SECR), the Procurement Policy Notice 06/21 (PPN 06/21), and the Greenhouse Gas scope 3 accounting and reporting standard. The software will also integrate the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) corporate Net Zero standard. Plato Net Zero covers all 15 of the Scope 3 emissions with all the subcategories of Scope 3. The software will also integrate the Task Force on Climate Change and Financial Disclosure reporting in early 2022.

If you’re looking for a platform that complies with all the standards, Plato Net Zero is the perfect solution for you. There are more than 2,000 sites in the UK entered in Plato Net Zero, a fact that makes us market leaders in the UK. The software has also processed more than 400 complaint reports. So, if you want a tried and tested software to help you through your Net Zero without using Excel, or a pen and paper, and believe me, this is so much faster than using a pen and paper, or a spreadsheet to work out your Carbon Footprint, Plato Net Zero is your best option.

The software

So let’s just take a quick look at Plato. See what it can do for you. Take you through the key features, and you can decide whether it’s gonna help you in your Net Zero journey

1. It is multi-user.

If you’ve got an organization where you have multiple sites,you will probably need at least one person to enter the data of each site. My strong recommendation is you get people helping you with the project that can actually type in their data for their site. 

2. It creates fully compliant reports. 

As stated previously, the software is compliant with multiple sustainability standards, like GHG and the SBTI.

3. It is easy to use. 

We made our software user-friendly. So whether you are a large company with a large problem or a medium-size or small company, and you want to know your carbon Footprint, but you don’t want to go away and have to get a University degree on how to use the software, then Plato Net Zero is your solution. The software will do all the hard work for you. And you will get the outputs, carbon reports, you live Carbon Footprint, and projections about how you’re going to be complying with the framework you’ve chosen. 

4. It is live and continuously updated.

Everything on Plato Net Zero is live, so if you enter or change the data it just updates straight away, so you can get a live Carbon Footprint and check how it changes from month to month if that’s what you want to do. Some companies just want to update it once a year, which is also possible to do with the software. 

5.Different levels of users

You can have as many users as you need on Plato Net Zero, and moreover, you can assign them different levels. Admin users will be able to change the configuration of the dashboard and other parameters. Standard users can only input and view data but they can not change any configuration parameters. 

6. It is multi-site.

The system itself works on the basis of sites, so the sites can be anywhere and they are linked to entities, and the entities are laid out on the corporate structure. For each site you can enter the site size, the kilowatt-hours that the site sort of consumes, pictures of the site, the maps of the site, etc.

7. It can analyse data from the meters.

So, let’s assume that you’ve got electricity meters, gas meters. You can type that in a very, very, very easy way manually. You can just type the information straight into the cells if you know what it is. However, you can also enter your bills, you just need to type the amount of it. So, you can enter energy data really simply and Plato Net Zero does all the calculations. The conversion factors are updated following the UK Government change of them. 

8.Enter all your transport

It works similar to energy data entry and you can enter any type of transport — large cars, small cars, buses, cars, trains, tugboats, ferries, and others. And you can just tell it how many miles each vehicle class did in a certain period, and again it will work out better the carbon emissions from them. 

9. It covers all Scope 3 categories.

Depending on your company some of the Scope 3 categories might be irrelevant. You can decide which categories apply to your company and it will be reflected on your Dashboard and checklists. We recommend that all beginner users don’t activate the supply chain module, or if they need to just book an appointment with one of the Enistic carbon consultants to ensure data is entered correctly.

10. App integration.

For commuting, there’s an app that feeds straight into Plato Net Zero and you can ask your staff to enter data in the app at the end of the day. It will provide an accurate commuting figure. It includes work from home questions.

11. Customisable reports

Once you have requested the reports, these can be downloaded in office word format so you can add your logo and customise the stats and format of the report. You can deep dive into it and see the calculation system and the calculation methodology behind it. You can have it in different formats or cut and paste specific parts to put them into your financial reports, website, etc.

12. It integrates what-if-analysis. 

So, it’s all very well and good knowing what your carbon footprint is, but what are you gonna do about it over time? With Plato Net Zero you will have what-if-analysis and future projections built into the system. This is useful to understand your journey to Net Zero, what will happen if you take a base year and project it forward using this system over here and use the SBTi Net Zero recommended numbers here to 4.2% to 2.5% for scope 1, 2 and 3. You can see how Carbon Emissions are going to evolve over time. So, to sum up, you will be able to see the impact of each project in the future.

Get a Plato Net Zero 30-day free trial 

There are many other benefits of using Plato Net Zero for your carbon accounting, but why don’t you discover them by yourself? Click on the link to visit Plato Net Zero website and get a 30-day free trial.