The Dynamics AX Environmental Sustainability Dashboard Is Only the First Step in Long-Term Carbon Footprint Tracking

The Environmental Sustainability Dashboard Microsoft introduced for Dynamics AX 2009 earlier this year was no ordinary add-on. Rather, it signifies a profound shift in the way Microsoft approaches its ERP lineup, Jennifer Pollard, a Microsoft Senior Product Manager, told a gathering at Convergence 2009. 

"There's been a massive paradigm shift in the way that business looks at sustainability," Pollard explained. The shift means there is now "a triple bottom line," she said. Instead of focusing only on financial results, companies increasingly must measure their results in terms of the impact on people and the environment as well.

Pollard noted that Microsoft is in the process of extending the Environmental Sustainability Dashboard to its Dynamics NAV and GP applications-both should be available shortly, either through partners or directly from Microsoft.

She explained that Microsoft developed the Environmental Sustainability Dashboard in response to growing demands from consumers, government regulators, and corporations alike to break down energy and related costs so as to track the "carbon footprint" of products and supply chains. Such data will become increasingly important as carbon usage is tracked and traded.

Not surprisingly, the tracking has turned out to be easier said than done, Pollard explained. As one example, she pointed to the complexity of Wal-Mart's supply network, with 66,000 suppliers. "Supply chain reporting is an issue of staggering complexity," she said.

She used an example of a cashmere sweater to illustrate her point. Sheep in Mongolia produce wool that goes to a fiber mill in China; from there to a knitting factory in China, and then to a garment factory in Italy, a distributor in the U.S., and finally, a retailer like Wal-Mart in the U.S. At each location, transportation by truck, ...