The Open Group Launches the Open Footprint™ Forum

The Forum will collaborate to increase accuracy and transparency around industry measurement and reporting of environmental footprint data

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Open Group, the vendor-neutral technology consortium, today announced the formation of the Open Footprint™ Forum, a Forum of The Open Group. This Forum will be focused on developing open and vendor-neutral industry standards to provide consistent and accurate measurement and reporting of environmental footprint data. The initial launch will focus on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data. The Forum will also cover the entire physical environmental footprint to include water, waste, and land data.

“Accurate data on environmental footprint data is critical for modern enterprises – not only for mandatory government compliance reporting and meeting customer and partner demands, but also for taking action,” said Johan Krebbers, GM Digital Emerging Technologies/VP IT Innovation at Shell. “Yet organizations face significant challenges when it comes to managing their environmental footprints such as a lack of consistency, compatibility, and interoperability throughout supply chains, as well as a shortage of standards for recording and processing this type of data.”

To meet the increasing business need for transparent and uniform reporting on environmental footprint data, the Forum will collaborate on the definition, design, and delivery of Open Footprint Data Platform standards. In the case of reporting GHG emissions, accurate data on emissions, consumptions, and base calculations will enable businesses to compare the footprint of goods and services in the value chain across every industry.

Alongside these standards, the Forum will create an open source-based system which will be accessible to all organizations. This Reference Implementation will act as the foundation for organizations to harness their own Open Footprint Data Forum implementations expected to be available from multiple parties.

“There is an urgent need to transform how we manage and report on environmental footprint data,” said Steve Nunn, President and CEO of The Open Group. “By utilizing new digital technologies and drawing on a huge amount of industry expertise, we are dedicated to enhancing reliability, credibility, and accountability around environmental data reporting to benefit businesses, governments, NGOs, and society as a whole. As an increasing number of organizations join the Forum, including operators, suppliers, and academic institutions from all industries, we are set to make substantial headway in helping businesses to better measure, monitor, and report their environmental footprints through the creation of open technology standards.”

There are currently fifteen organizations from multiple industries committed as members of the Open Footprint Forum, including Accenture, BP, Chevron, Cognite, DNV GL, Emisoft, Equinor, Halliburton, Infosys, Intel, Microsoft, Schlumberger, Shell, University of Oslo, and Wipro. Working together, member organizations will take an agile approach to the development of the Open Footprint Data Platform standards.

The Open Footprint Forum is open to all organizations. Information about the Forum and membership can be found here.

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About The Open Group

The Open Group is a global consortium that enables the achievement of business objectives through technology standards. Our diverse membership of more than 750 organizations includes customers, systems and solutions suppliers, tool vendors, integrators, academics, and consultants across multiple industries. Further information on The Open Group can be found at www.opengroup.org.