Access Adds Green XML For Financial Carbon Footprints

Access, a mid-market consulting and software provider, is prototyping BASDA Green XML as a complement to its Accounting for Carbon Emissions (ACE) module within its Dimensions & FocalPoint financials and reporting suite.

Green XML is the latest addition to the BASDA (Business Application Software Developers Association) schema which was initiated in 1999. The de facto standard has been adopted by financial systems developers as a protocol to allow applications to exchange orders and invoices electronically. The green extension allows sustainability information to be interwoven with the data.

Invoiced Carbon Costings

Two years in development, Green XML was launched in July and the Access implementation was announced by Richard Benyon, the Minister for Natural Environment, on a visit to @UK PLC earlier this month. The Access module became generally available today.

“We’ve been prototyping BASDA Green XML to provide greater flexibility in capturing the full spectrum of carbon emissions including the facility to analyse and budget for Scope 3 carbon emissions,” said Kevin Misselbrook, director at Access.

“With companies such as @UK PLC including a product’s carbon cost as part of the electronic invoice, it makes it simpler for those companies wishing to participate in carbon accounting. BASDA Green XML is a major step forward in enabling efficient interchange of carbon data between companies,” he added.

The Access Dimensions & FocalPoint software is based on a Microsoft SQL Server database and Microsoft ha already incorporated a sustainability dashboard in its Dynamics AX (Axapta) business management software.

At the earlier October announcement Benyon said, “Access and Microsoft have solved the challenge of embedding carbon accounting in mainstream finance systems with their products Dimensions and Axapta. The introduction of the BASDA Green XML standard has gone a long way in standardising the green electronic messaging system, and providing organisations with a cost-effective means of carbon footprinting.”