Posted by John Stanley
For those of you who wonder what a company’s annual public Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report might look like in the future, PricewaterhouseCooper’s has released a publicly available sample statement. The report, created for the fictitious global company “Typico plc,” gives an example of how a company might arrange such a document, connect financial and non-financial data, and inform stakeholders about the risks and opportunities the company faces when trying to manage its carbon footprint.
If and when carbon regulations take effect in the US, this template report could be helpful for those in the IT and data center industry who wonder “Where do we begin?”
As I skimmed the report, a few things jumped out at me:
- PWC’s recommendation is that the company’s standard Annual Report allude to the GHG report, but not include the entire text. Conversely, the GHG report may mention key financial data and direct readers to the Annual Report for details.
- Typico’s has chosen to include climate change, environment, and other focus areas in its calculation of executive bonuses. This is a good way to make sure busy executives keep the environment on their list of critical priorities.
- The GHG statement contains an Independent Assurance Report conducted by a third party, similar to the way financial statements are done. As carbon becomes more material to a company’s operations, independent audits become a requirement.
The PWC report itself is a pretty quick read, so I won’t delve into further detail on this post. The document is not intended to be an encyclopedia of everything a manager would need to know to create a report like this, I definitely think it will serve as a handy “getting started” manual for many firms, including many in the IT and data center industry.
