Environmental reporting

As reported in The Facilities Business (9 June), in response to the Prime Minister urging all businesses in the FTSE 350 to report on their environmental performance by the end of 2001, the DETR has prepared a set of draft guidelines and the document is currently out for consultation.

The guidelines aim to help companies measure, manage and report their main environmental impacts, with emphasis on good practice, rather than best practice. They outline in detail the main elements that would be included in environmental reports. They include a few key performance indicators that large organisations should be able to report against. They also set out a step by step approach for those new to reporting and suggest ways in which organisations can encourage better environmental performance from their suppliers.

The guidance suggests that the report may be of interest to several stakeholders, and the audiences should be identified before producing the report. They will include:

• investors and shareholders
  
• bankers and insurers. Organisations with good environmental records can benefit from lower premiums and increased credit limits
  
• regulators and government. Reporting shows a commitment to environmental management and will lower the chances of inspections
  
• local planning authorities and neighbours
  
• private customers. Customers expect good environmental standards from their suppliers
  
• business customers. Many businesses require their suppliers to meet certain environmental standards
  
• employees. Staff need to be aware that they are working for a responsible organisation
  
• pressure groups and the media. There are a number of ways to report environmental performance. It could be an environmental section in the annual report and accounts, or a separate hard copy or web-based report.

The reporting process contains a number of basic elements that apply to most organisations and will form the basis of the report. These are:

• reporting on environmental performance indicators — the key impacts and targets for improvements
  
• reporting targets for improvement — these should be specific and quantified, timescaled and challenging but achievable
  
• the profile of the organisation — the company name and sites included in the report, major business operations and so on
  
• identification of the key environmental impacts — an overview of the main impacts, which are then dealt with separately further on in the report
  
• the environmental policy — this should include a statement of the organisation's commitment to improve performance, to measure and report that performance, the targets set and the plans of how any improvements will be made
  
• the statement from the chief executive — this helps to set the tone of the report and should include an endorsement of the environmental policy and a summary of the report
  
• a description of the management systems — how the policy is implemented and any recognised standards achieved by the organisation
  
• legal compliance — details of any relevant prosecutions, or a statement to say there were no prosecutions
  
• supply chain issues — what the organisation is doing to ensure suppliers are acting to reduce the environmental impact of their operations
  
• contact point for feedback — it is useful to get feedback on how the report could be improved.

A good environmental report would be expected to demonstrate the following:

• completeness — providing the full picture
  
• credibility — an honest and objective view of the good and bad aspects of the organisation's performance
  
• communications written with the different stakeholders in mind
  
• comparability — comparable with the reports of other organisations
  
• timeliness, ie information that reflects the reporting period.

Environmental performance indicators will vary from organisation to organisation, there will be some which are relevant to all and those which apply to certain organisations.

An incremental approach can be taken by those who have not reported before because it takes time to put systems in place and to set targets. A company may choose initially to report on only a proportion of its sites or on just some of its indicators.