A new partnership between Climate Earth and Summit Energy has as its aim nothing less than offering the ability to measure and manage a company's emissions, no matter where they are generated.

The partnership marries the companies' strengths: Summit specializes in energy management services aimed at a firm's direct carbon emissions -- also known as Scope 1 and 2 emissions -- while Climate Earth's expertise lies in the supply chain, covering Scope 3 emissions.

"Both companies are solving similar but different aspects of problems that companies have," said Frankie Ridolfi, Climate Earth's vice president of marketing. "It just seemed like a natural fit."

If you've never heard of Climate Earth, you've maybe heard of its clients -- including Webcor, one of California's largest contractors, and Pacific Gas and Electric, among others. Last year we reported that Climate Earth is helping PG&E measure and analyze the carbon footprint of its supply chain, which the companies claim is a first for the utility sector. The company has also worked with Webcor Builders to assess the embedded greenhouse gas emissions of construction products and materials to help the contractor make more environmentally friendly design decisions.

Summit Energy, meanwhile, branched out into carbon reporting following its role as a traditional energy management provider, according to "2011 Enterprise Energy and Carbon Accounting (EECA) Software Market: A Buyers Guide," a report from Groom Energy Solutions and GreenBiz. The company, founded in 1991, was one of 10 vendors named 2011 EECA Leaders.

Both companies offer managed services, rather standalone software products, Ridolfi explained.

"Summit makes sure that the right inventory is taken and the database is properly populated," he said. "They're looking at all kinds of records that companies have and making sure it's collected and organized and aggregated right. Basically, Climate Earth does the same thing, but we're focused on Scope 3, where they have been primarily focused on Scopes 1 and 2."

The companies will essentially automate the data collection process. Summit will pull energy, carbon, water and waste data from company invoices and bills. Climate Earth calculates supply chain data using procurement and general ledger records.

From there, Climate Earth and Summit Energy aim to bring customers what Ridolfi called "managed leadership."

"In addition to getting the data set up and the inventory correct, the whole goal for both companies is to translate that into some kind of meaningful and positive result."