The European Innovation Council (EIC) supported EIC beneficiaries in assessing their company’s carbon footprint through the GHG Tool. This tool, created within the framework of the EIC Greenhouse Gas Programme (GHG) that ran from January 2021 until December 2022, proposed mitigation measures and practices compatible with EU objectives. Italian-based company Cherrydata, which offers software data management consulting services to support big data technology (BDT) projects, was one of the EIC beneficiaries that joined the GHG Tool initiative. We met with Chiara Francalanci, Co-founder and Business Developer at Cherrydata, to discuss her participation, so keep reading to see what she had to say!
Can you briefly describe your role in Cherrydata?
My name is Chiara Francalanci. I am one of the co-founders and am also working in business development.
Could you describe your innovation and its positive contributions?
Cherrydata’s innovation is a scalable database. We offer software products and consulting services to support big data technology (BDT) projects. Our database performance is so high that it decreases the need for hardware capacity by a factor of 20, and by reducing its capacity it can contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of the systems the ICT systems built.
Tell us how participating in the EIC GHG Programme has strategically helped Cherrydata so far.
Our company is defining a green strategy, welcomed by many applications and even private tenders with large corporations, particularly in the energy industry. We are all individually sensitive to the issue of carbon footprint, so it's been an easy step for us. Participating in the GHG Programme helped a lot our green strategy. We were able to pinpoint objectives and write a strategy that made practical sense.
Did the EIC GHG Tool help you increase your awareness of the amount of GHG emissions generated by Cherrydata? If yes, could you elaborate?
Yes. For instance, we had a problem with the headquarters: it’s in a block of flats where the heating is centralised. We didn't have the precise carbon footprint or emission values for that nor for the block of the flat heating system. That created some issues and raised problems in terms of boiling down the figures of the carbon footprint of the company to reduce it. The EIC’s GHG Tool helped not to do that alone. When we started using it, we created a baseline and understood the potential of even the simplest action that we could take to make a difference.
What is the status of your participation (regarding the Badges & CO2 Neutral Label/GHG Tool initiative)?
We have the first and second badges.
Did the input received from the GHG experts contribute further towards the green transition journey?
Their role was very important, not only in terms of coordination but also teaching us what to do for our realistic goals. They made me understand what I could get out of the program in the short, medium and long term, so yes, I think they've been very helpful.
What measures did you implement or wish to implement?
So far, we have encouraged working from home and thinking of purchasing an electric company car. Also, we avoid travelling by plane as much as possible and try to extend the lifespan of our IT devices. Moreover, we have two terraces in the company’s block of flats and are thinking of installing solar panels.
How did the measures you implemented affected positively your return on investment (economically, environmentally, socially, etc.)?
I believe that in the long-run, and generally speaking, it will positively affect us, yes.
What are the most interesting elements provided by the GHG tool compared to other similar tools?
Even though this was the only tool we used, it was a great experience, and we managed to understand and know more about what we can do given our use of the GHG tool.
Are there any other aspects you wish to highlight?
Being part of the EIC’s GHG Programme has been great, and I hope initiatives like these keep happening.
More information
If you are an EIC-funded company worried about the climate and want to reduce your CO2 emissions, you can still use the EIC GHG Tool by accessing the following link.
DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.