It was recently announced that around six times as many organisations will be captured by the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC EES) as originally estimated. According to Steve Dingley of Integrated fm, there is a real danger that many of them will be taken unawares and possibly subjected to heavy fines.

“While a lot of companies have been preparing for the CRC ESS, there are many more who are in for a shock – not least because of the frequent changes and complexities of the legislation. A particularly challenging aspect is the vast volumes of energy consumption data they are going to have to pull together for submission,” he warns.

Qualifying organisations are required to register for the scheme between April and September 2010 and submit data for energy consumption. Failing to register by September may result in a £5,000 fine plus £0.05 per tonne of allocated allowances per working day beyond the deadline. In addition, where submitted carbon emission details vary by more than 5% from actual, a fine of £40 per tonne of allocated annual allowances (compared to £12 per tonne of first phase allowance costs) – and where an evidence pack is incomplete or not up to date - £5 per tonne of allocated allowances.

“Measuring energy consumption in a meaningful way is only part of the problem – you then have to make effective use of the energy both to report and to form the basis of an energy reduction strategy. That means dealing with huge volumes of data sufficiently quickly that it is still current. In turn, that will require specialist software that can take care of the number crunching,” Dingley explains.

“However, the software is just one part of the solution, it needs to be combined with a deep understanding of the complexity of data harvesting validation, analysis and reporting. So it’s equally important to partner with the right supplier and one that is conversant with the sustainability/CSR agenda,” he continues.

Sustainability iQ, from Integrated fm, is an online sustainability/CSR management tool that is backed by over 20 years experience of data management. It is highly customisable, provides true auditing of data and incorporates advanced analysis and reporting tools that turn weeks of work into just minutes.