environental reporting for organisations

Introduction

An Environmental Strategy Report serves as the central hub for your green action plan. As soon as you have one of these, everything will immediately become clearer and more organised.

In most countries, environmental reporting for large companies has been a compulsory legal obligation for some years and the legislation is increasingly being extended to cover ever smaller companies.

There is also a widespread realisation that environmental reporting is also morally desirable and that it can deliver some very significant commercial advantages.

Failing to develop a suitable environmental strategy could soon see your company being excluded from lucrative business opportunities, as it increasingly becomes a requirement throughout supply chains and as customers flock to more environmentally-aware companies.

On this page we will explain how we can help your organisation develop and implement a first class environmental strategy.

Large companies

In many countries, larger companies have been legally obliged to report on their environmental impact and set emissions reduction targets for some years.

If your company falls into one of these categories, then it’s likely that you will already have some kind of reporting process in place.

If you would like to consider upgrading your environmental reporting to something more comprehensive and elegant, whilst most likely saving a good deal of money, then please do get in touch.

Smaller companies

Many small and medium sized companies are not presently obliged to generate an Environmental Action Report.

However, as the US authorities state, they are “encouraged to produce such reports, in order to become aware of their own impact and let investors and other stakeholders make decisions that would benefit rather than harm a sustainable future”.

It is very likely that medium and smaller companies will be included in the compulsory legislation in the near future. Indications from governments are that the definitions will be consistently tightened over the next few years.

We most commonly work with companies that fall into this category and who want to gain an advantage over their competitors by getting on board sooner rather than later.

If this describes your company, then we strongly recommend that you continue reading.

The benefits of reporting

It is widely acknowledged that when a company introduces environmental reporting, it is likely to experience a wide range of positive effects, many of which extend far beyond simply reducing emissions and cutting pollution.

As desirable as ‘going green’ may be from an environmental, aesthetic and moral perspective, the positive commercial aspects can carry at least as much weight.

Here are some of the benefits that companies commonly experience.

Access to tenders

The straightforward economic case for environmental reporting is well-established. A study sponsored by DEFRA (UK Government) reported that small and medium-sized enterprises which undertook environmental reporting were advantaged by GBP 5,000 in direct cost savings and GBP 15,000 in increased sales per GBP million turnover. So a company with a turnover of GBP 10M was advantaged by GBP 200,000, compared with a cost of reporting in the region of GBP 5,000-15,000. This advantage is likely to have increased greatly since the reporting date (2009) and will continue to accelerate in future years.

Perhaps the primary motivation for many companies to introduce environmental reporting is to gain or retain access to supply chain contracts. Government departments and most large companies have been reporting for years and are increasingly focused on reducing their emissions by ‘tidying up’ their supply chains. If your company does not have a suitable Environmental Strategy, then you may find yourself becoming increasingly excluded from tenders. This effect is spreading fast and is increasingly impacting small and medium sized companies.

Attractiveness to end users

Even if you sell direct to end users, you will not be immune to this phenomenon, as consumer demand increasingly moves towards more ‘environmentally aware’ companies.

Access to finance

Similarly, if you have the kind of company that has external investors or financiers, then you may find that these bodies have increasing expectations of your environmental performance and responsibility. This is particularly true to pension funds and venture capital funds.

Benefits of carbon certification

If you choose to achieve a level of carbon certification (such as Carbon Neutral), then this can have an enormous positive effect on your brand and lead to significant increases in demand, customer loyalty and price flexibility.

Leadership and staff motivation

The DEFRA report also cites that “by initiating a process of Environmental Reporting, the management of a company will be demonstrating moral and ethical leadership”.

The process can deliver huge improvements to staff recruitment, motivation and retention. Most people want to work for a company which is dynamic and responsible.

Reducing risk

Taking action will help you understand your company exposure to the potential risks of climate change, as well as consequential changes to the business environment.

Saving money

A simple practical advantage of Environmental Reporting is that you will become more aware of the efficiency of your expenditure. In most cases, measures that you take to reduce emissions should inherently lead to direct cost savings.

Report contents

Your Environmental Strategy Report will most likely cover six main areas.

• Your overall Environmental Strategy, which will normally contain your ambition to reach net zero emissions by a defined future date.

• An analysis of the emissions calculations for your organisation for the reporting period.

• Reporting on any environmental impacts other than emissions.

• An assessment of the positive actions that you undertook during the reporting period and a list of objectives for the next period.

• Details of any carbon offsets that you may have purchased during the period.

• Details of any carbon certification status that you may have achieved during the period (Carbon Aware, Carbon Neutral or Carbon Free).

The costs

There are three main cost elements to environmental reporting.

For the initial discussions and the creation of the first year report we usually levy a charge which is proportional to your company size, at around GBP 1000 per GBP million turnover (with a lower threshold of GBP 3000).

For the optional attainment of carbon certification, we rarely levy any additional administrative fee, but simply charge you for the carbon credits that you need to purchase. This can vary enormously between companies, but a guide range of GBP 200-800 per employee is typical for the first year.

In subsequent years both of these costs are typically 60-70% lower, since the strategy and report only need modification, whilst any tree-planting only needs to cover for the natural wastage of already-planted trees.

Special offer

Every month we undertake to produce an Environmental Strategy Report for one company free of charge. If you are hesitant about taking action on the environment or are struggling with the costs, then please let us know and we will try to book you in for a free slot.

How to get started

This whole process usually starts in earnest with a simple chat on the phone, in which we can introduce you to the basic concepts, whilst getting a rough idea about your organisation.

By the end of that call, it should be pretty clear to both parties whether or not it might be a good idea to proceed.

Once we get started, it usually takes only around two weeks for us to assess your emissions and produce a first draft of your Environmental Action Report.

Usually within a month we will have arrived at a final draft of the report and be in a position to issue your carbon certification.

The whole process is outlined in much more detail on the page entitled Services and costs.

Click here to get started.

Next article

Carbon certification

The attainment of carbon certification enables you to broadcast your achievements, lending positivity to your brand, motivating staff and driving increased sales.