What does custom sustainability software cost?

Start with a Tool Sprint: a working prototype in two to three weeks, for $12,500. That’s under the $15,000 federal micro-purchase threshold, though your local purchasing rules may set a lower limit. What a full build costs depends on your data, the systems it connects to and who runs it, so try our project estimator for a first number.

Should we buy a platform instead?

Sometimes, yes. If an existing product already supports the decision you need to make, buy it. We build when your method is the point: a scoring approach, a calculation or a workflow no product handles well. And if a better spreadsheet and a clear owner would solve the problem, we’ll tell you that instead.

Is a working prototype in two to three weeks realistic?

For one bounded workflow, yes. The Tool Sprint produces software you can use on your own data, not a slide deck. A prototype isn’t a finished production system, though: integrations, security review and rollout are scoped after you’ve used it and decided it’s worth building out.

What do you need from us to get started?

One workflow and the people who know it: who enters the data, who checks it and who makes the decision. A sample of the records, with nothing sensitive in it, is enough for the first conversation. Our one-workflow build brief walks through the questions worth answering before we meet.

Who runs the tool after launch?

Your team does. We host it for you, or hand it over with documentation and training written for the people who use it every day. When your method or a reporting standard changes, the change ships as its own scoped release, starting from the same question: what is slowing the program down now?

Can you build tools for our members, grantees or customers?

Yes. The free calculators and scorecards on this site are CF Labs builds: public tools on published sources, with the factors shown and nothing to install. We build the same kind of tool for organizations that want to hand their members, grantees or customers something useful, under their own name.

What if our method is still changing?

Build for the version you run today. A tool built around one workflow is easier to change than a platform built around everything, and each change ships as its own release once you know what the new version needs. Waiting for a final method usually means waiting indefinitely.

Custom Sustainability Software Development

Name: Council Fire Labs in 30 seconds
Uploaded: 2026-10-23
Duration: 30 s
Description: Many sustainability plans stall. Council Fire Labs builds the software and AI that put them to work: a strategy page rebuilds itself into a running app, followed by three tools CF Labs has built.

CF Labs

Turn the spreadsheet your program depends on into software your whole team can run.

Start a Tool Sprint

Estimate your build

The problem

Your best methodology lives in one person’s workbook.

Many sustainability programs stall in the tools underneath them: the baseline calculation only one analyst can update, the assessment nobody has time to score, the intake form that lives in someone’s inbox. When that person is out, the program waits.

A platform asks you to adopt its method, and a generalist developer has to learn yours before writing a line of code. CF Labs is part of Council Fire, so your tool is built with nearly two decades of sustainability strategy and implementation behind it.

CF Labs in 30 seconds

0:30

On screen: a page of a sustainability strategy reads “Many sustainability plans stall here,” with notes for an eleven-week reporting cycle, two of nine trusted sources, and nobody owning the number. “We build the software that puts them to work.” The page rebuilds itself into an app where those numbers resolve: reporting goes live, nine of nine sources connect, and the Resilience Office owns the number, while an AI draft waits for a person to approve it. Then three tools built by CF Labs: Aptation, the resilience planning platform, and Trovance, each in its own brand with a screen from the live product, and the Stakeholder Engagement Manager. Closing: “Bring the plan. We’ll build the system that runs it.” Scope your build at councilfire.org/labs.

What we build

5 kinds of build

Tools for the work your team repeats every cycle

#1
Calculators and estimators
Emissions, savings and payback math your team, members or customers can run themselves, with every factor and its source in plain view.
#2
Scorecards and diagnostics
Your methodology as a short assessment that returns a score, the biggest gaps and a first step for each. Results can land in an inbox as a full report.
#3
Data pipelines
The connections between the spreadsheets, surveys and systems you already use, so the figure in the board report matches the figure at the source.
#4
Internal tools and portals
Intake forms, review queues, supplier data portals and client portals, shaped to how your program runs from first submission to board report.
#5
Models you can rerun
Scenario and ROI models that live in software instead of a fragile workbook, so next year’s update starts from last year’s logic.

Low cloud drifting over wind turbines on green hills, seen from above

Built by CF Labs

The calculators, scorecards and planners on this site were built by CF Labs on public, sourced data. Try one, then ask us for yours.

How it works

4 steps, in order

From bottleneck to working tool

#1
Find the bottleneck
We start by listening, then name the one step slowing your program down and the smallest tool that removes it.
#2
Prototype it in a Tool Sprint
A working prototype on your own data in two to three weeks. You judge the tool by using it.
#3
Build it with you
Weekly demos on your data from the first week, so you always know what works, what’s next and what changed.
#4
Hand it over
Your team runs it. We host it, or hand it over with documentation and training written for the people who use it.

Proof

All case studies

Six tools we built are live on this site. Try one.

Carbon Footprint CalculatorFree toolA year of emissions for a household or small office, worked out from bills and travel. Every factor comes from EPA’s GHG Emission Factors Hub and is shown with its source.

Stakeholder Engagement ScorecardFree toolTwelve statements built on the AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard and the IAP2 Spectrum. Your score and three biggest gaps appear at once, and the full report arrives by email if you want it.

ESG ROI CalculatorFree toolEnter what you spend on energy and water and get a savings range for common efficiency measures, with five-year totals. Each measure is tied to the published study behind it.

Where to start

Fixed price, fixed scope

See it working before you commit to the build.

The Tool Sprint is a fixed-price start: a working prototype of your calculator, scorecard or internal tool in two to three weeks, for $12,500. That’s under the $15,000 federal micro-purchase threshold, so many public buyers can start without a full RFP.

Compare all three starting points

Start here2–3 weeks