IBM is looking to develop a greenhouse gas meter capable of measuring output by industries and devices.  It is working with Enterprise Information Management and Evergreen Energy on the project, which is dubbed GreenCert.  The project integrates IBM Websphere tools and applications with a central engine from C-Lock (a subsidiary of Evergreen Energy).

The resulting program uses the varied logistic information it gathers from the Websphere tools to create a snapshot of the company's current usage and calculate an approximate figure for usage.

The program promises financial rewards as companies who use the system can make improvements to their infrastructure and then use the tool to take an "after" picture which will provide companies with proof of their cuts which can be used to obtain carbon credits to be traded on the carbon market.

IBM will release the final version of the software in 2008, but for now it is available for beta test from C-Lock is beta testing it.

As the software seems very vague and abstract, and IBM is keeping much of the details under wraps; it is hard to say how serious IBM is about this project as a business venture.  IBM insists that companies will see real financial benefits by utilizing this program, though.

Cutting CO₂ production is the hot item in the science and tech industry today.  Grey-matter heavy Oxford University, the U.S. Congress, and now, IBM are among the power players work to develop efforts to help solve this problem.

IBM is constantly coming up with wild products and ideas -- everything from supercomputers, to in-DVD advertisements, and patents for efficient job outsourcing.  It also recently came up with a new way to recycle silicon.