The global market in so-called 'carbon credits has been much in the media lately. In short, governments and conservation agencies, under the UNs Kyoto Protocol, have imposed CO2 emission limits on companies who consume fossil fuels, such as utility and industrial companies.

Since updates of physical facilities and equipment or the rebuilding of new factories may be too costly, these companies are allowed to pay others to store carbon in exchange for the right to release CO2 in excess of the imposed limits into the atmosphere. This is where the new 'carbon credits market has arisen.

According to recent estimates by consulting and auditing firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, local companies stand to earn at least R5,8bn over the next 10 years from the sale of such carbon credits earned on projects to reduce harmful carbon emissions.

The estimate is based solely on those SA projects that have either been approved or are in the final stages of approval by the executive board of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the global system set up to allow trade in reductions of carbon emissions by signatories to the Kyoto Protocol.

Many other such projects are waiting in the wings in SA, in different industries, and momentum is building for companies in industries with carbon emission challenges to find creative and cost-effective solutions not only for legislated reasons, but as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility agendas.

Now Radical, the UK-based supply chain software company recently acquired by Barloworld Optimus in the Barloworld Logistics stable, has come up with an offering in its CAST supply chain modelling suite, which aims to help to model in advance the carbon emission picture and environmental impact of any companys total supply chain network.

Developed in collaboration with Future Forests Limited, a UK company dedicated to finding strategies to reduce the environmental impact of business activity, CAST-FE is an optional module of the CAST software licensed globally by Radical that helps to calculate the environmental impact of any supply chain modelled in CAST.

The software incorporates industry standard data together with user input to estimate the carbon footprint of a supply chain distribution network. The carbon footprint is defined as the CO2 emissions produced as a result of operating the supply chain concerned. This takes into account both transport and storage facilities.