Enviro software maker Hara allies with community sustainability organization

By | July 12, 2010, 10:20am PDT

Summary: ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability USA, an organization representing more than 600 local governments working on sustainability initiatives, is promoting the Hara environment management software application to its members. Under the partnership, the organization is encouraging the use of the Hara software as local governments working through its Five Milestone process toward establishing baseline measures [...]

ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability USA, an organization representing more than 600 local governments working on sustainability initiatives, is promoting the Hara environment management software application to its members.

Under the partnership, the organization is encouraging the use of the Hara software as local governments working through its Five Milestone process toward establishing baseline measures for energy and emissions management.

One example of a city that is using the Hara software is Palo Alto, which is keeping tabs on 160 different projects related to sustainability, energy efficiency and natural resource management. In the first year of using the Hara software, Palo Alto cut its energy use by 8 percent and reduced solid waste by 22 percent.

Another city that has opted for the Hara application is Las Vegas, which is using the software to pull disparate data into one system.

One big reason to use software like this is pretty simple: it could help your town or city meet the reporting requirements associated with federal funding for energy efficiency and other sustainability programs. Hara’s deal with ICLEI doesn’t preclude these communities from using other software, but it sure helps the software developer from a municipal standpoint.

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Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues.

Disclosure

Heather Clancy

Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I am also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I am covering in my blog.

Biography

Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. In a past corporate life, Heather was editor of Computer Reseller News, where she was a featured speaker about everything from software as a service to IT security to mobile computing.

Heather started her journalism life as a business writer with United Press International in New York. She holds a B.A. in English literature from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and has a thing for Lewis Carroll.

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