Sustainable business is all about
choices - comparing alternatives. Years ago the US EPA sponsored
the development of financial analysis software to compare alternatives
using an improved environmental framework. The P2Finance
and E2/Finance software includes many environmental costs and
savings that are often neglected from investment analysis. Thus in
many cases the programs give more accurate answers than other tools.
The programs ask you to set up data for two or three alternative
investments. One of these is doing nothing, that is, continuing
the same process or product. The alternatives are your more
sustainable choices (you hope). With data on capital investments,
tax rates, depreciation methods, and inflation, the programs then
calculate Internal Rate of Return, Net Present Value, and Discounted
Payback for investments. They are great tools for anyone who is
going to invest money in a business and apply to any investment
decision, not just "green" ones. P2Finance is a spreadsheet that
works with Excel. E2/Finance is a stand-alone program.
The programs were developed in the
1990s by the Tellus Institute, under
contract to US EPA and the US Dept of Energy (I think). But Tellus
has stopped supporting the programs and removed all links to them from
their website. I, Burton Hamner (webmaster), can't find anywhere
else the programs are "officially" available. So I am making them
available for download here. I understand that these were
developed with US taxpayer money (including my money) so they are public
domain and free for distribution. And, I will add, these are good
programs that the US government paid for and should continue to support.
Until they get their act together, you can download them here.
These are zip files. You can unzip them with Windows XP explorer
or WINZIP or other zip programs:
-
P2Finance: Spreadsheet with macros
that works fine in Microsoft Excel or Lotus 123. Includes
manual. When opening, enable macros or it won't work
properly. The program is safe, scan it first with a
virus/macro scanner first if you have any worries.
-
E2/Finance: Program with
installation instructions. Includes a bigger inventory of
energy costs than P2Finance, but otherwise works much the same.
