Overcoming a lack of resources

“One of the biggest challenges with carbon reporting is the time and resource it takes to do it well. Organisations need to spend less time on admin activities such as data collection and validation. This means they can free up time for analysing the data, generating insight and taking important actions to accelerate their path to net zero."

Alex Avila, Director of Decarbonisation Consulting, Mitie

There’s no other way of saying it…

… the time spent gathering data and carrying out the work associated with carbon reporting can be immense. Talking to suppliers and data holders to collect data, consolidating that data, making sense of it and submitting reports can be about 90% of the effort. And that’s before you even start to think about carbon reduction.

This is especially true when you’re going beyond the bare minimum and looking to gain voluntary certifications from different bodies – which usually requires resubmitting the same data in several different ways.

As important as they are, these activities distract sustainability teams from doing the things that add real value – like generating insights and making the decisions that drive meaningful progress in decarbonisation.

By standardising, automating or outsourcing these processes, you'll be freed from processes that took 90% of your effort - and can focus on driving action instead.

What are your biggest barriers to accurate carbon accounting?

The complexity of our estate
Irregular billing
A lack of expertise and dedicated resource
The time required to collect and analyse data
Uncertainty around best practices for accounting

Automating data collection is one great way to free up your team’s resources. This means they can focus less on crunching numbers and more on driving the initiatives and improvements that have a meaningful impact on reducing emissions.

There are plenty of tools and support services available to help you win your time back. Things to look out for when choosing a solution include:

1

Automated data collection across your entire estate

2

Automated report generation for every different disclosure

3

Data analysis and interpretation to help drive decision-making and add value

4

Solutions that combine consultancy and technologies in an end-to-end service

Our Emissions Intelligence service is fully managed. Our consultants can help you develop strategies to reduce carbon and optimise performance. You can easily visualise net zero transition plans from baseline to current year and target date.

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