SUSTAINABILITY

AND CARBON REPORTING

We are sustainability simplifiers

Achieving environmental sustainability is becoming increasingly important for all organisations and we understand the drive to reduce carbon emissions has become a key business priority.

Energy users are required to meet a vast array of targets when it comes to reducing emissions and complying with legislation. This often has additional benefits such as helping you use less and lowering your carbon footprint. Obtaining voluntary accreditations will further help to illustrate your sustainability credentials and ensure you’re operating to best practice industry standards.

We can offer a full review of your organisation to assess your legal obligations and compliance status. We’ll provide you with a Compliance Report that will summarise our findings, explain the legislation, and outline your next steps.

Our in-house team includes qualified ESOS Lead Assessors and ISO 50001 Lead Auditors, as well as members of the Chartered Institution of Building Service Engineers (CIBSE), the Register of Professional Energy Consultants (RPEC), and the Energy Institute.

Streamlined Efficiency Carbon Reporting (SECR)

The aim of SECR is to further incentivise the improvement of energy efficiency and the reduction of carbon emissions. It’s also hoped that the scheme will reduce some of the administrative burden of overlapping legislation.

SECR came into force in April 2019 and a similar qualification criteria to ESOS has been applied. SECR coincides with the end of the current CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme.

EIC can help you comply

We can assist with SECR compliance as well as providing bespoke reporting to ensure that you have real visibility of your energy and carbon emissions both at organisational and site level.

Download our SECR guide

WHO NEEDS TO COMPLY WITH SECR?

Large organisations, where two or more of the following criteria apply to a company within a financial year:

More than 250 employees.
Annual turnover greater than £36m.
Annual balance sheet total greater than £18m.

Public sectors and organisations consuming less than 40,000kw are exempt. There is no exemption for involvement for energy used in other schemes – e.g. Climate Change Agreements (CCAs) or EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). In total, it’s estimated that 11,000 organisations are impacted by SECR.

WHAT ARE THE SECR REPORTING REQUIREMENTS?

Affected organisations are required to:

Make a public disclosure within their annual directors’ report of energy use and carbon emissions.
Report using a relative intensity metric e.g. tCO2/number of employees.
Provide a narrative on energy efficiency actions taken during the reporting period.

Reporting will align with an organisation’s financial reporting year.

WHEN WILL ORGANISATIONS NEED TO REPORT:

The reporting will align with the company’s financial reporting year.

The first reporting period will commence on or after 1st April 2019.
If financial year runs April – March – First SECR report will run April ’19 – March ‘20.
If financial year runs Jan – Dec – First SECR report will run Jan ’20 – Dec ‘20.

OUR STREAMLINED ENERGY AND CARBON REPORTING SERVICE INCLUDES:

Dedicated and experience Carbon Consultant and Analyst.

Project briefing, establish company structure and reporting scope
Data collection, analysis, application of appropriate emissions factors and intensity metric
Six-monthly and annual Energy and Carbon Report
Figures to be disclosed in the Directors’ Annual Report
Full management of the compliance process
Maintenance of audit trail and evidence pack
Optional annual site visit

SUCCESSFUL SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAMMES

As sustainability simplifiers, our consultants use industry-leading insight across the sustainability sector to provide advice on key
policies and actions. We directly address the issues Housing Associations, Local Authorities, corporates, and property management companies face on a day-to-day and long-term basis. Our range of successful and proven sustainability actions we
can carry out include:

Energy and Carbon Emissions

Produce and benchmark your detailed annual carbon emission footprint
Secure a higher proportion of energy from onsite low-carbon emissions/renewable energy sources
Improving the energy efficiency performance of residential and commercial properties

Water

Reduce the amount of consumed and wasted water throughout residential and commercial properties
Benchmark water consumption rates to track progress of efficiency programmes
Ensure the highest water efficiency standards for new-builds and refurbishments

Transport and Travel

Create an organisation-wide ‘Sustainable Travel Plan’
Promote the environmental health and financial benefits associated with active travel options
Increase electric vehicle travel options and installed charging points

Waste

Implement a ‘Sustainable Waste Management Plan’ to reduce waste and increase recycling rates
Carry out waste and recycling audits in order to identify opportunities for improvement
Work with waste management suppliers to advance the circular economy

Built Environment

Create a ‘Sustainable Building Design Specification’
Assess the feasibility of securing innovative accreditations, e.g. The Home Quality Mark, Passivhaus, and The Planet Mark™
Develop the uptake of Embodied Carbon Emission Assessments, Lifecycle Assessments and carbon emission
footprinting

Governance

Report CO2 and sustainability progress to internal and external stakeholders
Integrate environmental awareness and training into all new job descriptions
Introduce a staff and resident Green Champions Network to promote sustainability initiatives

Climate Change Adaption

Implement action plans and policies within a board-approved ‘Climate Change Adaption Strategy’
Develop an education programme to ensure that all members of staff and residents are aware of the environmental and health risks associated with climate change
Monitor and report on public health risks associated with climate change

Sustainable Procurement

Introduce an industry-specific ‘Sustainable and Ethical Procurement Policy’
Work in partnership with suppliers to include the whole carbon lifecycle of products and services
Review your utility providers to identify opportunities for CO2 and financial savings

YOUR ROAD TO SUSTAINABILITY

We are sustainability simplifiers and recommend integrating the Triple Bottom Line approach to your plans and operations to:

Clarify your sustainability and resource efficiency objectives to all stakeholders
Help you avoid developing irrelevant actions and monitoring with wrong metrics, and thus prevent you from spending money on wrong focus areas
Establish concrete CO2 reduction targets and specific approaches to achieve them
Introduce tailored policies for all environmental impacts and responsibilities
Streamline and update your environmental policies into one consolidated document
Embed staff and resident awareness of sustainability, efficiency and climate change

Tackling
Environmental
Pressures

01

The total carbon footprint of the UK in 2014 was 831 MtCO2e, 42% (393 MtCO2e) of this was attributable to the built environment

02

Particulate air pollution reduces life expectancy in the UK by six months, costing around £16 billion a year

03

67% of the total electricity supply in the UK in 2016 was consumed in buildings

04

11% of households in England were living in fuel poverty in 2015

05

2,000 deaths from overheating in the UK each year

SUSTAINABILITY

We are sustainability simplifiers

Achieving environmental sustainability is becoming increasingly important for all organisations and we understand the drive to reduce carbon emissions has become a key business priority.

We can offer a full review of your organisation to assess your legal obligations and compliance status. We’ll provide you with a Compliance Report that will summarise our findings, explain the legislation, and outline your next steps.

Our in-house team includes qualified ESOS Lead Assessors and ISO 50001 Lead Auditors, as well as members of the Chartered Institution of Building Service Engineers (CIBSE), the Register of Professional Energy Consultants (RPEC), and the Energy Institute.