Sage Group, the Newcastle-based software giant for SMEs, announced it completed the acquisition of Bristol-based Spherics, which it described as “a carbon accounting solution to help businesses easily understand and reduce their environmental impact.”

Sage said: “The acquisition reinforces Sage’s commitment to sustainability, in line with its purpose of knocking down barriers so everyone can thrive.

“Sage has pledged to fight climate change and help protect the planet, by halving its own emissions by 2030 and becoming net zero by 2040, by supporting SMBs to get to net zero, and by advocating for policy and regulatory frameworks to support the transition to a low carbon economy.

“Spherics automates the process of calculating emissions by ingesting data from a customer’s accounting software and matching transactions to emission factors to create an initial estimate of their carbon footprint.

“The software then guides the customer to refine this estimate by submitting further data for a more accurate calculation – supporting SMBs on their journey to net zero.

“Spherics also helps SMBs apply carbon emission factors to procurement categories (such as delivery, accommodation, electricity and travel) to estimate the associated carbon footprint of a transaction. This approach supports customers with spend-based analysis and aligns with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the globally agreed standard for measuring carbon emissions.”