There’s a new tool for companies looking to decide just how changes to their transportation and product policies could reduce their CO2 emissions: the Carbon Tradeoff Modeler. IBM developed this tool to help weigh the consequences that companies face, depending on their actions — including the key tradeoffs that lowering carbon emissions can create.

One of the key issues many businesses have faced when trying go greener has been analyzing the effects of their decisions — whether changing a transport policy may slow down deliveries or if a new type of packaging might prove too expensive to produce. The problem is fairly large; the number of variables is mindboggling. The Carbon Tradeoff Modeler is meant to handle those factors, and bring problems to the attention of decision makers before they actually occur.

This tool is basically the first of its kind, and IBM’s global leader of supply chain management, Sanjeev Nagrath, seems confident it will meet companies’ needs: “To achieve a carbon efficient supply chain, companies need to assess the CO2 emissions impact of their end-to-end …By incorporating Research-based tools to model the cost and carbon impact of key steps in the supply chain, organizations now can take action to reduce CO2 emissions and influence suppliers' behavior toward reducing their own greenhouse gas emissions."

IBM has reportedly launched their own internal test program, but the results don’t seem to be available at this time.