Carbon reporting mandatory for all large UK companies
According to a new framework announced by the UK government, from April 2019 all large companies will have to report their carbon emissions and energy use Tweet This!.
Every unlisted organisation with 250 or more employees, or an annual turnover over £36m and balance sheet total of more than £18m, will join listed companies that report their carbon performance since 2013. These new rules are aimed to help achieve, by 2030, an energy efficiency boost of 20%.
Working on this issue for nearly a decade, organising workshops and contributing extensive research, ISEP (Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals) saw this move as a “significant step forward”.
According to ISEP policy lead, Nick Blyth: “Mandatory reporting will support improved energy management and provide a helpful level playing field for businesses.”
Companies will be reporting carbon emissions in their annual reports, in alignment with the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.
Combined with other policy initiatives, these new rules will, said the government, bring about a net societal benefit of up to £1.5bn.
READ ALSO: “Hothouse Earth”: The Earth is at risk of becoming uninhabitable due to global warming
Note by the Editor:
How do we accelerate the transition to an emission-free global economy?
Approximately 90% of the global business is accounted for by SMEs who are not doing much over and beyond compliance. All business of every size needs to self-regulate and drive emissions out of supply chains. For example, it is not enough for a large e-commerce company to just deal with the emissions it is directly responsible for (e.g. a few company cars). If it heavily relies on external courier services for delivery of orders, how is it dealing with their emissions? Is this company using, for instance, GRI Standard 308 Supplier Environmental Assessment in combination with GRI 305 Emissions to assess and choose suppliers which have the lowest or no emissions? That is the key in our view to accelerating the transition to an emission-free global economy.
Simon Pitsillides
SustainCase Editor
80% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards
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Research by well-recognised institutions is clearly proving that responsible companies can look to the future with optimism.
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Key facts:
- 17 million babies worldwide breathe toxic air affecting their brain development (UNICEF)
- Urgent action is needed to fight climate change (UN)
- Air pollution is responsible for 1 in 8 deaths worldwide. It is the single biggest environmental health crisis we face. (World Health Organization)
- London reaches air pollution limit for 2018 before end of January
- “Nearly 10,000 people are dying early every year in London due to exposure to air pollution” (Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London)
References:
This article is based on published information by ISEP. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the publication’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link: