Green Wombat

Sun Microsystems today unveiled a web site where corporations can share greenhouse gas emissions data. A cross between a social networking site and an open-source software platform, OpenEco aims to encourage companies to collaborate on the best strategies for taking carbon out of their operations. Sun’s (JAVA) software lets companies upload greenhouse gas data from spreadsheets and other corporate documents, set greenhouse gas reductions targets and track their progress. Crowdsourcing  carbon is an intriguing idea but the big question is whether companies will be willing to give competitors an inside look at their operations. Some clearly will. Sun and chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) have revealed their carbon footprint while Google (GOOG) has calculated and verified its greenhouse gas emissions but closely guards that data for competitive reasons. So far the only organizations to sign up with OpenEco are Ceres, a coalition of investors and public interest groups focused on environmental issues, and Natural Logic, an environmental consulting firm. Still, pressure is growing on companies to drop the corporate veil when it comes to global warming. Today the Carbon Disclosure Project – a non-profit that collects greenhouse gas emissions data from major corporations – reported that a record 77 percent of companies responded to its annual survey this year.