Cleartrace is a US-based energy and carbon accounting software company headquartered in Austin, Texas. The company provides a data and analytics platform designed to give organizations granular visibility into their energy consumption and the resulting carbon footprint. Cleartrace's core mission is to accelerate the transition to a decarbonized economy by providing the digital infrastructure necessary for companies to accurately measure, manage, and report on their environmental impact. By delivering real-time, auditable data, the platform empowers energy buyers and suppliers to move beyond traditional annual carbon offsets and towards verifiable, 24/7 carbon-free energy consumption.
Founded in 2017, initially as swytchX, the company has evolved from leveraging blockchain for energy data to offering a comprehensive suite of solutions that address the complex needs of the modern energy market. Cleartrace serves a diverse range of clients, from Fortune 500 corporations and large real estate portfolio owners to data centers and renewable energy suppliers. High-profile organizations like JPMorgan Chase, Brookfield Renewable, and Iron Mountain trust the platform to provide a single source of truth for their decarbonization efforts.
What the Company Does
Cleartrace operates at the intersection of energy technology and sustainability reporting. The company's primary function is to ingest vast amounts of complex energy data and transform it into actionable carbon intelligence. It solves the critical problem of data fragmentation and lack of transparency in the energy sector, where companies have historically relied on estimations and annual averages to calculate their carbon footprint. Cleartrace replaces this outdated model with a dynamic, high-fidelity view of energy usage and its environmental impact on an hourly basis.
The core activities of Cleartrace can be categorized as follows:
Granular Data Collection: The platform connects directly to energy generation and consumption sources, such as smart meters at buildings and generation sites, via APIs or other secure methods. This allows it to collect highly granular, time-stamped energy data.
Data Enrichment and Carbon Accounting: Once collected, the raw energy data is enriched with crucial metadata, including location-specific grid carbon intensity, market prices, and weather data. Cleartrace then applies advanced, transparent methodologies to calculate the carbon impact for every hour of energy consumed, providing an accurate and auditable carbon footprint.
24/7 Load Matching: A key function of the platform is to perform "load matching," which involves tracking a company's hourly electricity consumption against the hourly generation from specific carbon-free energy sources, such as wind or solar farms. This demonstrates precisely when and how much of a company's energy demand is being met by renewables.
Auditable Reporting and Compliance: The platform creates an immutable system of record for all energy and carbon data. This provides businesses with verifiable proof of their sustainability claims, which is essential for mandatory climate disclosures (like the EU's CSRD), investor relations, and preventing "greenwashing."
Portfolio Management: Cleartrace provides a centralized dashboard for organizations to manage their entire portfolio of energy assets, Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), and carbon credits from a single, unified platform.
Products and Services
Cleartrace's offerings are structured into a suite of software solutions tailored to the distinct needs of both energy buyers and energy suppliers. The platform is designed to foster a collaborative ecosystem where both sides of an energy transaction can work from the same transparent and reliable data.
Solutions for Energy Buyers (Corporations & Real Estate)
For companies looking to decarbonize their operations, Cleartrace provides the tools needed to strategize, execute, and prove their impact.
Hourly Carbon Accounting: This core service offers a near real-time view of an organization's Scope 2 emissions (indirect emissions from purchased electricity). It moves beyond annual estimates to show the carbon impact of energy consumption for every hour of the day across an entire portfolio of facilities.
24/7 Carbon-Free Energy (CFE) Tracking: The platform enables businesses to pursue and verify advanced procurement strategies like 24/7 CFE. It visually demonstrates how well their renewable energy purchases match their actual consumption patterns, identifying gaps where they are still reliant on fossil-fuel-based grid power.
Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) Management: Cleartrace helps companies manage their REC portfolio with greater precision. It allows them to understand the true source, time, and location associated with their RECs, ensuring they are only buying what they need to cover their residual emissions and optimizing their procurement for maximum carbon impact.
Sustainability Reporting: The platform automates the generation of detailed, auditable reports required for compliance with regulations such as California's SB 253 & 261 and for voluntary frameworks like the GHG Protocol. This simplifies the reporting process and provides stakeholders with trustworthy data.
Supply Chain Decarbonization: Cleartrace helps companies evaluate potential energy purchases and procurement strategies based on net carbon impact, enabling more informed decisions that align with their overall decarbonization goals.
Solutions for Energy Suppliers (Utilities & Retailers)
For utilities and other energy suppliers, Cleartrace offers solutions to meet the growing demand from customers for greater transparency and cleaner energy products.
Enhanced Customer Reporting: The platform equips suppliers with the tools to provide their commercial and industrial customers with detailed reports on the carbon content of the energy they are being sold. This simplifies complex customer requests for emissions data.
Clean Energy Product Development: By providing granular data and analytics, Cleartrace enables suppliers to design and offer innovative clean energy products, such as 24/7 load-matched renewable energy plans, helping them differentiate themselves in a competitive market.
Operational Efficiency: It provides a centralized platform for aggregating and managing data from disparate systems and spreadsheets, breaking down internal silos between sustainability, operations, and customer service teams.
Compliance and Risk Mitigation: The platform helps suppliers navigate and comply with the increasing number of regulatory requirements related to emissions reporting and clean energy standards.
Please note: This information is generated by AI. For legal use, verify with company sources.
