Microsoft is offering its Dynamics AX 2009 customers a free dashboard that will capture data on energy consumption from the underlying enterprise resource planning software.

Companies that have signed up to the voluntary Global Reporting Initiative will be able to track their progress on core environmental performance indicators identified by the standard, including on-premise fuel consumption and the carbon footprint of their power usage.

"In many cases, midsize organisations cannot retain dedicated consultants to audit their environmental performance," said Kirill Tatarinov, Microsoft Business Solutions vice president.

"By integrating groundbreaking environmental performance management capabilities with Microsoft Dynamics AX, we are bringing that critical information directly to customers as part of their everyday business management. "

Microsoft said that the Environmental Sustainability Dashboard could be configured to a firm's particular requirements.