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Despite the somewhat doom-and-gloom outlook for the world’s economy in 2009,  recent Carbon Management and Offsetting Trends Survey showed that green issues have remained high on the agenda for both senior management and the board.

Many companies have calculated their carbon footprint and are taking action to reduce it, by implementing energy efficiency measures (85 per cent of respondents), recycling activities (79 per cent), and waste reduction (68 per cent). This makes sound economical sense and represents some of the easiest actions that companies can take.

Companies are also showing a strong interest in offsetting; with over two thirds claiming they had already bought offsets or would consider doing so before 2012. This is likely to increase as companies work hard to meet compulsory carbon neutrality targets.

Carbon footprinting and awareness is at all time high, for instance in Paris, when you visit the RATP website (The Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens (RATP) , the major transit authority responsible for public transportation in Paris and its environs. Its operational divisions include the Paris Metro system, the RER, an extensive bus system, and two light rail lines) it calculates the total amount of carbon footprint your journey would create.

On the similar Grounds,  the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, tells tens of thousands of suppliers to start tracking and disclosing the environmental impact of their products, odds are whether they agree or not. That means the companies selling carbon management software will be prepping for a wave of new customers looking to find tools to help them dig through their supply chains and unleash data about how much carbon is emitted or water used during the production and shipping of each product. For a while I have been tracking a few such firms which are leading the market and I also relied on some information from earth2techs’ survey on these firms.

Here’s Verdantix’s 22 carbon software management companies, ranked by “Leaders,” “Challengers” to those leaders, “Specialists,” and “Entrepreneurs.”

Leaders:

Enablon: The French company counts customers like Air France KLM Group, Dell, Del Monte, L’Oréal, McGraw Hill, Symantec, Texas Instruments, The Timberland Company, and Total.

Enviance: Customers include large power and oil companies like CH2MHill, Chevron, Georgia Power, Southern Company, AEP, DuPont, Valero Refining. Founded in 1999, the company is based in Carlsbad, Calif.

ESS: The nearly two decade-old ESS, which has a history of making crisis management software, was recently bought by competitor IHS (see below). ESS says over half of the Fortune 500 and 75 percent of the Fortune 100 have purchased its software.

Hara: The newest and only startup company in the leaders section, Hara, has signed on customers like Coca-Cola, the city of Palo Alto, Calif., and has raised $20 million from venture capitalists including Kleiner Perkins. The company is based in Redwood City, Calif.

IHS: Founded in 1959, publicly-traded IHS provides software for asset management for companies. The company is based in Englewood, Colorado.

ProcessMAP: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida-based ProcessMap sells software for environmental, health and safety compliance with customers spanning across industries.

Challengers (of the leaders):

CA: Founded in the mid-’70s, CA recently scored UK retailer Tesco as a customer for its ecoSoftware. The company is based in Islandia, New York.

Carbonetworks: Founded in 2005 and based in San Francisco, Calif., Carbonetworks raised a $5 million Series A round from NGEN Partners.

Greenstone Carbon Management: Greenstone is a specialist carbon management firm and works with customers like Fujitsu, Ocado, SAB Miller, Virgin Group, ZBD.

SAP: Massive software company SAP bought up 2-year-old startup Clear Standards, which sold software to manage carbon emissions, energy consumption, and water use.

SAS: Another huge software company based in Cary, North Carolina, SAS sells a variety of software including “sustainability management.”

Specialist solutions:

Camco: A two-decade old company, U.K.-based Camco has taken a lead in developing sustainable projects across indutries.

CarbonView: Online market research firm CarbonView offers supply chain expertise, the company was founded by the MVL Group, which is owned by Allied Capital Corporation.

PE International: Founded in 1989, German PE International has customers like Allianz, Bayer, Daimler, Siemens, Toyota, ThyssenKrupp and Volkswagen.

Entrepreneurs (which Verdantix says need to invest in product development):

Carbon Hub: Based in England, the startup says it strictly follows the accounting tool the GHG Protocol.

Cintellate: Founded in 1994, the company makes environment, health and safety software for the building and construction, manufacturing, oil and gas, and power industries.

Foresite Systems: Twelve year old, San Jose, Calif.-based Foresite sells a Global Environmental Management System for companies to manage their environmental footprint.

Green Oak Solutions: Founded in 2004, the Scottish company sells software for companies to deal with waste management and recycling.

Intelex Technologies: Founded in 1992, Intelex sells software for environmental, health, and safety and includes customers like Virgin Atlantic, Volvo, AEP, Heinz, Sara Lee, and Wyeth.

Perillon: Littleton, Massachusetts-based Perillon sells software for audits and inspections including air quality compliance, water and waste, energy tracking, as well as greenhouse gas accounting.

Tradeslot: The only Australian company on the list, Tradeslot offers carbon software to get companies ready for Australia’s unique carbon environment.

Verteego: Founded in January of 2008, Paris-based Verteego says it works with over 300 companies and government organizations.

Image Credits : Earth2tech