Managing Carbon Risk Across Borders: Inside ClearBlue’s Vantage Position Optimization Platform

The global maturation of compliance carbon markets is challenging multi-national businesses to shift from a short-term compliance focus to a long-term strategic approach, one that integrates global carbon risk management and keeps pace with evolving jurisdictional policy. In step with this evolution, ClearBlue Markets offers a one-stop solution: Vantage Position Optimization.

In this spotlight interview, Dave Janisse, VP Global Advisory, ClearBlue Markets, joins us for a discussion about the platform and how it addresses the changing needs of regulated industrial emitters.

Read also: ClearBlue Markets Elevates Carbon Compliance to the C-Suite with New “Executive View” for Vantage Position Optimization Platform

Q: Dave, carbon markets have evolved rapidly over the last few years. What is the single biggest challenge you see industrial leaders facing right now?

Dave Janisse: The sheer volume and fragmentation of data. Most organizations we work with operate across multiple jurisdictions—maybe they have assets in California, Ontario, and the EU. Traditionally, they’ve managed these obligations in silos. You have an environmental manager at one site using a spreadsheet, a procurement lead at another site using a different system, and a CFO trying to piece it all together at the corporate level.

The challenge isn’t just tracking emissions; it’s translating those emissions into financial exposure in real-time. When prices fluctuate or regulations shift, those static spreadsheets don't update themselves. That’s the gap we built Vantage Position Optimization to fill.

Q: Let’s dig into that. What exactly is Vantage Position Optimization?

DJ: Vantage Position Optimization is our carbon intelligence platform designed specifically for regulated emitters. Think of it as your "single source of truth." It ingests your facility-level data—emissions, production, and credit inventory—and combines it with ClearBlue’s proprietary market data, like price forecasts and regulatory policy intelligence.

The result is a unified dashboard that shows your exact compliance position across every facility and jurisdiction. You can see, at a glance, if you are "long" or "short" on credits and what your financial exposure looks like today and in the future.

Q: Many companies already have processes and spreadsheets to track their emissions. How is "Position Optimization" different from standard methods of carbon accounting?

DJ: That is a crucial distinction. Carbon accounting is typically retrospective—it looks backward to tell you what you emitted last year. It is primarily a short-term compliance activity.

Vantage Position Optimization is a commercial tool. It takes that emissions data and layers on the financial reality: your inventory of banked allowances, your eligible offsets, and the specific compliance rules of each market. It doesn't just tell you, "You emitted 100,000 tonnes last year." It tells you, "You are short 20,000 tonnes against your compliance obligation, and at today's market prices, that is a specific financial liability.” It bridges the gap between the sustainability team’s data and the finance team’s income statement and balance sheet.

Importantly, Vantage Position Optimization doesn’t just focus on the upcoming compliance deadline. It helps to forecast and value compliance positions long-term and across multiple scenarios.  This long-term view helps with decarbonization project assessments where you need to evaluate the cost and benefits of a major capital project today and how that will impact carbon positions over the total life of the project.  

Q: How does the platform handle the complexity of different regulations? For instance, a client operating in both the EU ETS and Canada’s Federal OBPS?

DJ: That’s where our "Jurisdictional Aggregation" capability comes in. The rules for the EU ETS are completely different from Canadian Output-Based Pricing Systems. Vantage is pre-loaded with the regulatory policy logic for all major North American and European markets.

It normalizes the data so you can compare "apples to apples" across your portfolio. You can drill down into a specific facility in Alberta to check its TIER position, and then zoom out to see your total global carbon liability in a consolidated view. This eliminates the inefficiencies of siloed tracking and empowers corporate teams to make holistic capital allocation decisions.

Q: Many clients struggle with knowing when to buy credits. Does Vantage help with that?

DJ: Absolutely. One of the unique value props of ClearBlue is that we aren't just a software company; we are market analysts and advisors. Vantage is fed by our Market Intelligence.

So, when you look at your position in the platform, you aren’t just seeing your deficit; you’re seeing it alongside our price forecasts and supply/demand analysis. You might see that you have a deficit coming up in 2027, and our forecast indicates a supply crunch that year. Vantage gives you the signal to procure those credits now, potentially saving millions compared to waiting. It’s about optimizing timing as much as volume.

Q: A common concern with new platforms is the implementation effort. Is setting up Vantage a heavy lift for client teams?

DJ: We designed the onboarding process to be as low-burden as possible. We don't just hand you a login and wish you luck. Our team handles the configuration, data ingestion, and validation. We work with you to collect the historical data, and then we build the baseline positions for you.

For the client, it’s mostly about providing access to the data; we do the heavy lifting to turn that data into a live position. We want you focused on strategy, not data entry.

Q: Is Vantage a standalone software tool, or does it come with human support?

DJ: It is very much a hybrid solution—what we call "technology-enabled advisory." While the platform provides real-time visibility, our analysts review that data with you on a quarterly basis.

We sit down to discuss the implications: "Here is how the latest regulatory change in Washington impacts your position," or "Here is why we recommend hedging a portion of your obligation now." You get the efficiency of software backed by the judgment of senior carbon market experts who understand your specific business context.

Q: To wrap up, if you could summarize the primary benefit of Vantage Position Optimization in one sentence, what would it be?

DJ: It gives you the confidence to make decisive, defensible financial decisions by turning complex, fragmented carbon data into clear, strategic intelligence.

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