New IFS solution helps businesses cut cost and carbon

IFS, the global enterprise applications company, today launches its Eco-footprint Management tool to provide organizations with unprecedented control and transparency on the environmental impact of their operations. The tool offers customers for the first time an enterprise standard methodology to help them control costs and meet an urgent need to prepare for compliance with environmental legislation.

Eco-footprint Management will be added to IFS’s software suite, IFS Applications. Users will be able to configure IFS Applications to capture environmental impact information from throughout their business just as easily as they configure their financial system to capture cost. IFS customers will be able to track the impact of a broad spectrum of activities ranging from raw material sourcing to product design to logistics and emissions – helping them analyze their operations, learn environmental patterns and plan for urgent legislative requirements.

“Existing components within IFS Applications that capture financial cost will now be able to monitor carbon monoxide, lead, sulfur and other environmental impacts as an additional cost,” IFS Vice President of Product & Marketing Thomas Petersson said. “For example, users will be able to assign different carbon footprints to various methods of transport helping them see the environmental as well as the financial cost of shipping materials by train versus truck, and compare the carbon footprint of local versus offshore sourcing.”

The new application will support IFS customers around the globe who are under increasing pressure to comply with upcoming environmental legislations such as Europe’s EuP Directive, the Environmental Liability Directive and the EU Restriction, Evaluation, and Authorization of Chemicals (REACH) regulation as well as Australia’s National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Regulation and the US Climate Action Partnership’s recently proposed ‘Blueprint for Legislative Action’ against climate change.

Industrial Professor Bo Hjort Christensen of the Norwegian School of Management said he has seen a growing demand for enterprise software with integrated environmental footprint. “Companies are looking for environmental footprint solutions to provide green branding with credible measurement, respond to governmental requirements and to identify possible cost-cutting opportunities. IFS’ customers will be the first to benefit from this functionality as part of an integrated applications suite.”

Executive Vice President Brad Roderick of IFS customer InkCycle, a leading recycler of toner and ink jet cartridges, said he is looking forward to the availability of this functionality.

“InkCycle has aggressively reduced its environmental footprint and we are now faced with the challenge of documenting our environmental efforts for our customers,” Roderick said. “With a great number of environmental legislations impending, this functionality will help us prove the environmental case for our recycled printer cartridges and our low-footprint grenk cartridge product – helping us create a very compelling proposition for our customers.”

IFS AB President and CEO Alastair Sorbie said, “Whether our customers are complying with government mandates to reduce their environmental impact or are executing on a proactive sustainability initiative, this is precisely the kind of tool they will need. IFS is able to rapidly develop and deploy this fully-integrated, enterprise standard functionality because we have structured our product and our company with agility and speed to market in mind. This tool will help our customers manage board-level risk, position themselves in the market and comply with those more stringent regulations. That is why environmental foot-printing is a high priority for IFS.”
The Eco-management Footprint tool is available to early adopter customers as of today.

The EuP Directive: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/eco_design/index_en.htm
The Environmental Liability Directive (Environmental Liability Directive 2004/35/ EC) (ELD) http://www.netregs.gov.uk/netregs/legislation/future/63682.aspx
The REACH regulation Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemical substances. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/reach/reach_intro.htm
National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Regulations 2008: http://www.climatechange.gov.au/reporting/index.html
US Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) Blueprint for Legislative Action http://www.us-cap.org/blueprint/overview.asp

About IFS
IFS is a public company (OMX STO: IFS) founded in 1983 that develops, supplies, and implements IFS Applications™, a fully-integrated, component-based extended ERP suite built on SOA technology. The company has more than 2,000 customers in 54 countries and focuses on seven main industries: aerospace & defense, utilities & telecom, manufacturing, process industries, automotive, retail & wholesale distribution, and construction contracting & service management. IFS has 2,700 employees and net revenue in 2008 was $383 million.

IFS Applications is a trademark of Industrial and Financial Systems, IFS AB (publ). All other referenced company or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.