GreenInsight AI

About

The Co2Analysis Story Co2Analysis is a family-ran business and its flagship service, GreenInsight, is a unique AI designed to go through large sets of procurement data to provide detailed information on how an organisation can reduce their carbon emissions, cut waste and save money. GreenInsight is built primarily to present solutions for scope 3 emissions (as defined by the GHGP) which account for between 70-95% of most organisations carbon emissions. GreenInsight is fast and accurate, and after analysing our competitors we found that we offer some of the highest value on the market. In a sector filled with ‘greenwashing’ and vague promises, our clients are pleased by our fact-based methods and proven solutions. Lyn and Ronald Duncan began work creating Co2Analysis in 2020, with the onset of covid. They personally bought the technology which formed the base of GreenInsight from their previous company and have self-funded the set-up and growth of the business. 2020 was spent refreshing GreenInsight and adding tools to make the data outputs actionable. 2021 was our first year of active trading and we began to grow. We found that despite being the crucial bulk of most organisations’ emissions, scope 3 was not at this time considered a priority. As such we were market-making and our customers were early adopters. We focused on the NHS as they were actively beginning to address scope 3 and had formed the bulk of the previous company’s client base. By the end of 2022 we had a business, albeit a small one, and our turnover was £350k for the year. We continued to invest in the technology and team resulting in a small loss. Our previous company was quoted on the AIM market and we did not want external funding so growth was to an extent constrained by finances. However, as we enter 2023 it is clear with the rising focus on AI and scope 3 worldwide that our solution is now mainstream rather than a niche which only attracts early adopters. Over the past two years we have presented to over 500 organisations and many are now re-engaging as scope 3 becomes their next priority. Our January booked revenue is 42% higher than the total revenue of the previous year, with a realistic forecast of £2m for 2023-2024. As such we are a high-growth business in a fast-growing sector. Regarding measurable impact of the sustainable changes we are pushing, it is difficult for us to bring quantitative data as all our progress in this area comes through the actions of our clients. However, we can provide examples of how these clients have cut their emissions and waste. Heidi Bernard, head of sustainability at the Norther Care Alliance, was tasked with cutting emissions and decided to utilise our service, which she would later say marked a turning point in her efforts. She was able to enact various changes as a result of the information the analysis brought to light, one of which was stopping purchase of unneeded masks and preventing the loss of ones in storage. With the onset of covid, the Trust was given free supply of PPE respiratory masks from NHS Supply Chain. However, when Heidi looked at the data we provided, she found the Trust was still buying masks in huge numbers and had been since the start of covid. She tracked these masks down to a storage area where they placed and forgotten about. It transpired that procurement had not received the memo about the free supply of masks, so the purchases continued. Heidi put a stop to this and ensured the masks were used before passing their use-by-date. You may have heard stories of vast amounts of unused, misplaced PPE being burned after passing its use-by-date by NHS Trusts. Chains of events like this lead to such situations, which can be easily rectified if the right people are given the right information and software such as GreenInsight, as took place here. Other examples include the office which continued to buy stationary throughout covid, despite all staff working from home so the stationary simply piled up, unused and unnecessary. Or the NHS Trust where nurses had been passing down an out-of-date policy of opening two packs of identical supplies for every single surgery or routine operation, so that in the even of any problem they would immediately have two available. As processes had improved, this led to a situation where the second package was almost always unused and then tossed as once opened they cannot be re-used. After the analysis this practise was identified and stopped. A final example comes again from Heidi and the NCA, as it was decided during covid to switch to digital messaging for all patients in order to save paper. However, to ensure no one slipped through the cracks they opted to continue with paper messaging for the first couple of months after beginning this policy. Unfortunately no one remembered to stop the letters after these two months were up so despite the switch to digital, they continued to send letters. By the time of the analysis and Heidi finding this issue, the Trust had already sent 1.2 million letters they should not have sent, a huge waste of carbon that would have continued were it not for Heidi and GreenInsight. So, though we cannot give exact numbers on how much we have helped save, examples like these should make it clear that we punch well above our weight and have allowed for tens or even hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon to be saved in only the short time we have been active.