Streamlining Carbon Data Collection
Current business systems are financially focused and are not designed to handle non-financial data with accuracy.
In the past 12 months, businesses have been stepping up and taking measures to be more aware of their carbon emissions. Governments, customers, investors and employees are demanding it. In fact, that they are accountable for their impact on the community and the environment, particularly carbon emissions, is becoming more and more part of an organisation's social license to operate.
With the impending arrival of the CPRS, energy and carbon will become key drivers of the economy. Some sources are claiming energy prices are expected to double in the next five years, and the Federal Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will attribute an economic value to carbon and carbon-equivalent emissions.
With the CPRS just around the corner and increased stakeholder and customer demands for business to be transparent about carbon emissions, the ability to measure and report on carbon is essential. We have to transition to a low carbon economy, and the main legislative vehicle for this is through the CPRS and other federal and state operated energy reduction initiatives. However, many organisations already feel there is a heavy legislative and compliance burden on them and measuring carbon is a chore, not a necessary business process.
There is already a load on businesses that try and ‘do the right thing'. Many organisations will not fall under the auspices of the CPRS, but have or intend to undertake the somewhat arduous process of measuring and reporting on their carbon emissions. This is still a somewhat arbitrary process, it can be time consuming and prone to human error. Better systems for the reporting and tracking of carbon are required.
There's a common saying that what you can measure, you can manage. However, current business systems are financially focused and are not designed to handle non-financial data with accuracy. For too long, energy and carbon have been invisible resources in our economy and our businesses. We need to make the invisible visible. There are inherent challenges in the collation of carbon data and the ‘carbon footprint' measurement process highlights clearly the issues in collecting this data. Many companies are finding that they literally just put the pen down on measuring their baseline footprint for a year, then have to pick it up again to start the process for the next again year. Often, business systems and processes need to change within an organisation to ensure easier ongoing collection of this data.
This is where an enterprise approach to carbon management can be beneficial. With appropriate software that helps deal with data collection challenges, and provision of reporting to ease the burden on time poor and under-resourced departments, effective, accurate measurement of carbon can take place. With robust systems in place, carbon data collection becomes a simple, essential part of business process. Carbon can then be managed and ideally, significantly reduced.
Of course, new technology exists that allows for automated access to essential carbon data through smart metering and the like, but the cooperation of energy utilities is required to make this effective for organisations. If more organisations and buildings track their energy and carbon data, better information and public benchmarking can be provided around appropriate levels of energy and carbon use in a building or business. It will not be long before we see benchmarks, target setting and reporting on carbon sitting alongside standard management reports, just a part of everyday business in a low carbon economy.
Gaby McDonald has a background in communications and has spent the past 5 years focusing on environmental communications, following completion of her Post Graduate Qualifications in Sustainability. She has developed environmental communications and energy and carbon reduction strategies for large multinationals in manufacturing, FMCG and professional services.
