Carbon modeling startup Planet Metrics on Tuesday announced the beta release of its Rapid Carbon Modeling software.

The software-as-a-service product will allow companies to track and model their carbon and energy throughout their entire supply chain, which will in turn help them lower their carbon footprint and save money, according to Planet Metrics.

“A lot of people focus on buildings and transportation when it comes to carbon, but that’s a low-hanging fruit,” said Planet Metrics CEO and founder Andy Leventhal. “If you step back and look at the real carbon contributions, 90 percent of it comes from the supply chain.”

With the software, a company could look at various scenarios, such as changing the size of the bottle or changing the manufacturer from Mexico to Poland, and Planet Metrics’ software will show the effect of the change on carbon footprint. The program makes no judgments, either. There is no “too much” or “just right” – Planet Metrics' software merely interprets the data. It is up to each company to decide what they plan to do with the information.

The detailed breakdown applies from the very first step in making a product to when it’s sold. So Planet Metrics focuses on aspects such as ingredients, manufacturers, suppliers, packages, and shipment. Once it’s in the consumer’s hands, though, it’s not Planet Metrics’ concern.

In that sense, the company software is primarily geared toward businesses and  results. Mr. Leventhal cites an unnamed vendor that had 400 suppliers, but identified with the software that a third of its carbon came from only 10 of those 400. The vendor could then focus more on those 10 suppliers and decide whether to discuss ways to innovate or to simply find someone else.

This one example is just one of many; companies generally have a lot of suppliers providing materials.

“There’s very little visibility,” added Mr. Leventhal. “If you don’t understand where your carbon is in that supply chain, there is an enormous amount of risk.”

Although Planet Metrics is unable to disclose most of its customers, it has announced that Method Products, the maker of environmentally friendly cleaning products such as soap, has been using its software for the past couple months.

Not a bad start considering that the company just launched in November. Its software is currently offered at an annual rate depending on the complexity of the model and the size of the company. Everything is calculated on Planet Metrics’ side, and the client itself is easy to use, making it hard for companies to justify not taking a hard look at their carbon footprint.

The company launched with $2.3 million from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and angel investors.