What’s the carbon footprint of your handwash?

Reproduced from cnet news. Start-up Planet Metrics is developing software that could give consumers a better read on the embedded energy of everyday products.

The San Francisco-based company on Tuesday released the beta test version of its hosted application, which it calls Rapid Carbon Modeling. It also said Method, which makes eco-friendly home-cleaning products, is a customer.

There are a number of companies writing software for calculating how much energy is linked to a business’ operations and managing carbon emissions. Planet Metrics’ software is geared at manufacturers and makers of consumer packaged goods.

Using Planet Metrics’ software, a person could, for example, see how much energy consumption is associated with procuring the components that make up a cell phone. With that information, a company can then look for ways to cut energy consumption, such as reducing waste or finding another supplier.

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The Elephant in the Room

Intellectual Asset Management has published the article “The Elephant in the Room” by Opperman, Craig P. The article focuses the skyrocketing cost and bloated patent portfolio of American Corporate, Low quality, Marginal relevance, and the process to overcome the same issue e.g. File far fewer applications, clean out that Junk and changing the culture of patenting the all.

Following is the excerpt cited from the article – Fundamentally, patents are assets. Their primary purpose is to protect the innovations underpinning company business. They should be able to function as barriers to entry, withstand competitor scrutiny and, if needs be, survive the rigours of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit. In theory, patents should be robust and valuable assets. In practice, however, the numbers suggest that today’s US patent portfolios, while not quite toxic, are performing poorly.

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