How to Create A Sustainability Report of Your Renewable Energy
Sustainability reporting has become a mainstay in the annual reporting requirements for many companies. Historically, the need for reporting has arisen through compliance with company reporting regulations, such as in the United Kingdom, where large companies are mandated to report on carbon each year. More recently, climate conscious companies have also taken to voluntary reporting, for example under the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) framework. Whatever the driver is for sustainability reporting, it’s clear that having a sustainability report is something that will remain important and become even more important in the future.
What is a Sustainability Report and Why is it Important
According to GRI, a sustainability report is a report published by a company about the economic, environmental, and social impacts caused by its everyday activities. The topics discussed in a sustainability report can vary greatly. A typical report covers carbon emissions, energy usage, water usage, waste production, and recycling. In the next section, the energy usage aspect of reporting, and more specifically, the levels of renewable energy used within a company will be discussed.
Reporting on renewable energy in sustainable reporting is an important topic. This is due to many factors but the primary reason is that renewable energy has been identified as a key metric when assessing a company’s contribution to tackling climate change. According to the latest Eurostat figures, over three-quarters of the GHG emissions in the EU-27 are due to fuel combustion alone. Whilst water and waste reduction etc. are important for a company’s sustainable development, it’s clear that renewable energy is the key solution to large scale emissions reductions.
The latest annual report from RE100 — an initiative which strives to facilitate the achievement of 100% renewable energy — shows the extent of the growth in popularity of renewable energy reporting and targets.
Source: RE100 Progress and Insights Annual Report (Dec 2019)
There has been exponential growth in the number of companies signing up to these standards. Companies run the risk of reputational damage if they’re not seen to be joining initiatives like RE100 and creating targets for renewable energy. The same level of public scrutiny isn’t applied to waste reduction or water usage, for example.
Therefore, it’s vital for a company that is currently not reporting on renewable energy to take action and create a strategy to achieve high-levels of clean energy usage. To create a sustainability report on renewable energy, a company has a range of options to choose from.
How to Create a Sustainability Report
A company could choose to create their own in-house sustainability report and decide what information they choose to analyze and highlight in the report. Another option would be to sign up to a voluntary sustainability reporting framework such as CDP or GRI. These frameworks have developed around the GHG Protocol guidance from the World Resources Institute (WRI). They have a very structured set of sustainability-related questions and data requirements. A benefit of complying with sustainability reporting standards, such as the CDP, is that companies are scored on an annual basis. This allows a company to measure their progress and compare sustainability performance with competitors.
Committing to CDP or GRI reporting on an annual basis requires a significant amount of work and company resources. The reports typically require input from a vast array of different stakeholders within an organization. It’s a daunting task for a company just beginning their sustainability reporting journey. Thus, it’s best practice to start by creating an in-house sustainability report and gradually progress to submitting to reporting frameworks when data has been properly tracked and verified.
How to Effectively Report On Renewable Energy
Let’s look at the steps a company with no sustainability report could take to effectively report on their renewable energy.
Read about the steps to take in FlexiDAO’s website!
