30 Sep 2010 07:00
Under embargo until 7am
30 September 2010
@UK PLC
("@UK" or the "Company")
@UK PLC and CenSA Collaboration Agreement
@UK, the AIM-traded provider of eProcurement software and The Centre for Sustainability Accounting ("CenSA") in York, have agreed to pool their respective technologies to create two new areas in sustainability analysis, targeting both the public and private sector:
·; GreenInsight, which uses @UK's SpendInsight spend intelligence data, combined with CenSA's Input-Output models, to provide a fully automated sustainability analysis of every individual item purchased; and
·; GreenMarketplace which uses @UK's automated and manual classification e2class to identify all the products on the @UK marketplace. Combined with CenSA's Input-Output models GreenMarketplace provides carbon footprints for all the individual products being purchased through the marketplace.
The two services will be available to users of @UK's online eMarketPlace. @UK and CenSA will market these services to both public and private sector organisations to enable those organisations to reduce purchasing costs, speed up purchasing processes whilst gaining a far greater insight into the sustainable nature of their purchases.
GreenInsight income share
The income from GreenInsight will be shared between @UK and CenSA on a 50/50 basis. There are approximately 5,000 public sector bodies of a significant size. Previously an analysis such as Green Insight for the NHS would have taken a number of years and would only provide aggregate figures by product category. The @UK CenSA collaboration means that SpendInsight is able to analyse the spend in a matter of days to a much higher level of accuracy by specific product. The input-output data from CenSA is then used to build up the sustainability impact as soon as the SpendInsight data is available.
This breakthrough in cost, speed and accuracy is also available to private sector companies, and allows CSR reports to be quickly generated to a much higher level of accuracy. Further information is available at http://www.green-insight.com.
Green Marketplace and carbon footprint calculation income share
All income from calculating the carbon footprint of products will be shared between @UK and CenSA on a 50/50 basis. There are approximately 3.6 million artificial intelligence classified products in the @UK system. These need to be analysed to e2class before the carbon footprint can be calculated. The manual classification to e2class costs @UK's customers approximately £3 per product (although @UK PLC is providing a 50 per cent. discount to its customers as part of the Green Marketplace launch). Carbon footprints are charged at a further £1 per product per year. Further information is available at http://www.beta.uk-plc.net.
Ronald Duncan, Executive Chairman of @UK PLC commented:
"The combination of our granular proprietary spend analysis software with CenSA's Input-Output models for sustainable accounting mean that suppliers of products in our Green Marketplace are able to demonstrate the carbon footprint of each and every product, whilst purchasers of those products will be able to demonstrate their commitment to sustainable accounting through the offset of that carbon. We are excited about the potential of these services and believe that by making universal carbon accounting possible we are removing the barriers to Green Accounting."
Enquiries:
@UK PLC
Ronald Duncan
Chairman
Tel: 0118 963 7000
Beaumont Cornish Limited
Roland Cornish
Tel 0207 628 3396
Threadneedle Communications
Caroline Evans-Jones, Alex White
Tel 020 7653 9850
Notes to Editors
@UK PLC is the UK market leader in Platform as a Service using Platform Generator and provides secure cloud based ecommerce, eprocurement and email services to business and the public sector with over 1 million users.
Platform Generator provides a leading UK electronic marketplace, has formed over 200,000 companies using the SiteGenerator ecommerce engine. @UK's SiteGenerator ecommerce, part of the Platform Generator, allows suppliers to trade with all major finance systems, @UK's marketplace and other leading marketplaces.
@UK has a Buying Solutions framework contract for the provision of its new "Spend Insight™" Spend Analysis services, that allows its services to purchased by any public sector body with out the requirement for a further tendering process.
@UK's Platform Generator software speeds up secure software development and allows @UK to provides a secure internet eMarketplace enabling buyers such as local authorities, schools and hospitals to buy online from commercial suppliers ranging from large corporations to small to medium enterprises ("SMEs"). This allows buying and selling to take place with no paperwork and a reduced chance of errors through transposition, achieving major savings throughout the supply chain.
@UK has a key competitive advantage as an ecommerce based marketplace it ensures that prices are correct from requisition through to payment, where catalogue based marketplaces are unable to support carriage, complex pricing and configurable products.
@UK also offers services to new businesses, including incorporation, company secretarial services and filing annual returns.
@UK is included in the Software and Computer Services Sector (9530). For further information please visit www.uk-plc.net
About CenSA
The Centre for Sustainability Accounting (CenSA) in York offers integrated sustainability accounting for companies and organisations in the UK. CenSA co-develops, promotes and applies TBL2 UK, a powerful software tool for Scope 3 carbon footprint analysis, triple bottom line accounting and corporate sustainability reporting. Scientifically robust assessment and advice from CenSA is the basis that informs organisational decisions and actions on the way to a more sustainable future.
CenSA is involved in leading-edge research for sustainability accounting tools and applications for environmental and broader sustainability issues. Its aim is to continuously develop and improve scientifically rigorous, quantitative, consistent and comprehensive approaches for integrated sustainability accounting.
CenSA supplies supply chain (scope 3) greenhouse gas emission factors to the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
ENDS