Salesforce Launches Carbon Credits Platform as Businesses Turn to SaaS to Fight Climate Change

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Organizations worldwide and across industries are joining the fight to counter climate change. That includes big names in the SaaS industry. Vendors are continuously developing SaaS climate change solutions, from sustainability software to open-source apps that help track carbon emissions.

Global CRM provider, Salesforce, is leading the pack with the recent launch of its carbon credit marketplace. Called the Net Zero Marketplace, the project is a first-of-its-kind carbon credit solution. It aims to make buying carbon credits easy and transparent for organizations.

While experts project the global voluntary carbon market (VCM) to grow p to $50 billion by 2030, many organizations still don’t know how to create a carbon credit portfolio. Buying carbon credits can be confusing. Also, it can be hard to know which projects producing carbon credits really have a positive impact.

Connecting Buyers and Ecopreneurs

With the Net Zero Marketplace, organizations that want to achieve their emission reduction targets can use the marketplace to buy carbon credits and support their goal. On the other hand, ecopreneurs can use the platform to offer a catalog of 3rd-party rated carbon credits. They’ll have a seamless e-commerce process of selling these credits to buyers.

Net Zero Marketplace, therefore, offers transparency so that organizations can make better decisions when buying carbon credits. Additionally, they can choose which credits are most suitable to support their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals. A number of carbon credit providers have joined Salesforce as inaugural partners. These include 3rd-party rating companies, Calyx Global and Sylvera, Climate Impact Partners, Lune, Cloverly, and Respira International.

“Net Zero Marketplace brings together Salesforce’s values, technology, and commitment to ecopreneurs to create a trusted market so organizations can transparently source carbon credits and accelerate climate action,” said Salesforce Chief Impact Officer, Suzanne DiBianca.

The Salesforce Net Zero Marketplace will start selling carbon credits in the US in October this year. The platform will later expand to other markets in 2023.

More Tech to Fight Climate Change

SaaS and tech’s role in countering climate change can also be found in a variety of open-source database projects. The Global Registry of Fossil Fuels, for instance, has gathered data from more than 50,000 oil, gas and coal fields in 89 countries. This covers 75% of global reserves, production, and emissions.

Nonprofit energy transition think tank Carbon Tracker and San Francisco-based non-governmental organization Global Energy Monitor (GEM) collaborated on developing the database. It can be used as a centralized tool “to support policymakers and investors in making sensible, 1.5°C-aligned decisions around future fossil fuel production.”

Meanwhile, private companies are also using SaaS and technology in their own initiatives to fight climate change. For example, more than 376 companies in 34 countries across industries have signed the Climate Pledge. Founded by Global Optimism and Amazon, the commitment aims for net-zero carbon by 2040, as well as meeting The Paris Agreement 10 years early.

Signatories to the Pledge use data and sustainability software to regularly report and measure greenhouse gas emissions. Their data helps them implement decarbonization strategies aligned with the Paris Agreement. These strategies include using renewable energy, improving efficiency in business operations, and other carbon emission elimination strategies.

These projects are a clear indicator that climate action is happening. Software and data will play a critical role in helping organizations and governments mitigate the negative effects of climate change and adapt to its irreversible damage.