Avis CSR

 For all the times I have said “Data collection – how hard can it be?” I take them back. Every single one. For the past few months I have undertaken the role of data gatherer for our company greenhouse gas (GHG) assessment and it has proved to be much more of a challenge than I anticipated. Flashbacks to my school days have haunted me as I have battled with imperial and metric unit conversions, percentages and fractions of numbers that have to be rounded up or down accordingly. Then there are the honest souls who inform me they only joined the company in March, moved house in June or started cycling to work in July so their data will be varied. Nothing is simple, straightforward or indeed consistent for the twelve month stretch of data I require and this is going to be quite a project even for a company of our size. Where to begin?

A greenhouse gas assessment is always the first place to start with any credible sustainability or environmental programme. Once you know what your carbon footprint is, you can begin to understand the emissions associated with your business at a more granular level and look at ways to improve efficiency and set reduction targets. The process is identical to that of a diet where you have to start by completing a ‘food diary’ over the period of a week so that you can then analyse exactly what you’ve eaten and the calories associated.  For me, it was the two sugars I had in every cup of tea and coffee consumed that were deemed totally unnecessary for my waistline.  I wonder what the equivalent will be for our company...

A good starting point for me was taking full ownership of this project and not getting too many people involved or indeed relying on others too heavily for information. I also made a realistic deadline for myself to get each section completed by so that I was still able to manage my day-to-day workload and make it more of an achievable task.

Lastly, I chose a system where I could input and save data as I went in one place that could then be easily accessed by a third party assessor for review. The best platform for this was an online solution. The offline method is still a valid way of conducting a GHG assessment but it is more time consuming for both data gatherer and assessor. The time spent collating a number of spreadsheets and having to juggle different types of data in various formats is saved and the ongoing email exchange with an assessor is no longer relied upon as a way of tracking progress.  Online has the advantage of a more sophisticated system that frees up time to focus on other elements of the environmental strategy, while also promoting insight into how the assessment is building.

Once the system is selected it’s time to begin the task of data entry. First, I sought out all energy bills from our finance department for all three offices (London, New York & Singapore) from which it was straightforward to obtain our annual usage in kWh and GBP, USD or SGD spent. Next it was waste, which for London was the easiest section to complete as our waste management company already send us a monthly report that breaks down the volume by land-filled, composted and recycled waste. For New York and Singapore I had to ask that they monitor their waste disposal over a week and let me know what the total amount of bin bags (landfilled and recycled) was. From here I was then able to extrapolate this figure over a 12 month period.

The business travel section is where this whole project became more of a challenge and where my mathematic skills were really tested. This is the section of the food diary where the sugar in my tea, biscuits, wine gums and chocolate bars (yes, all plural) have to be recorded. Ouch.

The data supplied was in £/$/€ spent, litres of fuel used as well as miles/km travelled and was a mixture of staff expense forms and reports from a travel management company.  Such a confusion of information called for a fresh approach. Therefore I decided to implement a new system. Now, every employee has to state the number of miles travelled for each journey as opposed to simply listing destinations and costs associated. Come the end of 2011 things should be a lot swifter. Not only does this mean that employees are involved in the process of helping me collate data but they also become more aware of how their business travel, be it via road, air or rail, contributes to the overall carbon footprint of the company. My hope is that this will also encourage everyone to evaluate each trip and ensure they make the most of them. Watch this space...

So the results – what are we? The most significant thing to mention is that over the past three years our emissions have decreased. This is encouraging but there are certain areas we can still look to improve. Business travel is always an area of dense emissions for a high percentage of our clients and one that is not always as straightforward to tackle as switching off lights and monitors. Unless some significant, immediate investment is made either in something like video conferencing equipment or hybrid vehicles, it is challenging to make substantial emission reductions. Business travel is often an area many companies choose to offset the associated emissions. It is difficult to justify not travelling to see a client, prospect or colleague when the benefits far outweigh the handicaps of doing so. In a growing company where emission reductions can be made more easily elsewhere in the business, an offset strategy is a solid solution to this perennial problem.

And, after all my hard work, what happens next? I think my first objective is to relay to the company what our total footprint is and ask for suggestions on how we think we can improve. It is important to engage employees at this level as they are each responsible for a percentage of the total and are a key part of the process in making sure this number continues to decrease.

Watch this space for a follow up on internal engagement ideas, but in the meantime, here are my top 5 tips for an easier GHG gas assessment process:

• Select a project leader 
• Continue to gather data monthly/quarterly/bi-annually rather than doing it all at once
• Set realistic deadlines for completion – four  to twelve weeks depending on company size
• Make improvements to the process where possible – are there any changes that could be made to make this a smoother process going forward?
• Communicate effectively – make sure employees within your organisation are aware of what you are doing and what it means to your business.

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Sophie Lumb

This blog entry was supplied by The CarbonNeutral Company, our greenhouse gas measurement and carbon offsetting partner. If you’re interested in reading their other blog entries you can register for their free email newsletter or follow @carbonneutralco on Twitter.