CSR commitments develop from the assessment and the strategy and come into play when the planning turns into doing.
It is clear from the examples given above that measuring sustainability issues with a view to managing them effectively will require access to a great deal of information. The following are just some of the measurements that need to be included:
Energy consumption, system by system and plant item by plant item, ideally on a floor by floor or zone by zone basis
- Water consumption
- Car/van/lorry journeys
- Efficiency of fleet vehicles
- Air travel
- Commuting patterns of staff
- Consumption of everyday consumables (e.g. paper, toner)
- Consumption of cleaning chemicals
- Recycling levels, broken down by separate waste streams
- Percentage of waste consigned to landfill
- Carbon footprint/environmental performance of suppliers
In order to meet reporting criteria, it will often be necessary to have these figures to hand both at a whole estate level and building by building, department by department, etc – month by month and year by year
Accessing this information is very complex because of the following issues:
- The information will be housed in many different systems
- These systems may be operated by other departments or by external suppliers
- The information will be in many different formats (e.g. spreadsheets, manual systems, other software packages and back-office systems)
- These disparate formats will need to be converted to a common format for analysis and reporting
- All data needs to be verified for accuracy and completeness
- Various stakeholders will require reports on different sustainability issues and in different formats
- Analysis and reporting has to be completed in a timely manner so it is current and meaningful
And, in many cases, this work will be over and above existing duties and responsibilities. So it needs to become an integral part of day-to-day activities.