Landmark Raises the Bar in the Sustainability Software Market

We're pleased to announce the launch of Sustainability Sure, a new platform brought to market via a strategic partnership with ManageCO2. An innovative environmental software development company whose mission is to make carbon, sustainability and energy management easy. 
 

Sustainability Sure is a new sustainability platform that meets the full requirements of the new (October 2013) mandatory carbon reporting for all UK incorporated and stock exchange listed companies. Uniquely, Sustainability Sure combines energy meter analytics, CRC compliance and reporting, GHG reporting and CSR in a single platform. It also conveniently enables companies to automate the data collection and data entry without any IT implementation. In addition the management information derived from Sustainability Sure delivers benefits beyond simply legislative compliance, such as enabling costs to be allocated to specific cost centres as opposed to rolling up to a general ‘catch all’ corporate pot. This platform therefore meets the needs of the Finance Director as well as the Head of Sustainability. Ultimately, Sustainability Sure is a comprehensive and highly intuitive sustainability platform.

We, as Landmark forged a reputation in the energy and sustainability market via their Carbon Counter product, launched in 2010, to help companies manage their emissions in light of the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) legislation. Sustainability Sure now supersedes Carbon Counter.

Sustainability Sure is powered by the ManageCO2 software platform which is doubly accredited and independently tested by SGS, the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company, and the CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project). Thanks to this accreditation, Sustainability Sure is the only software solution that has been independently tested against, and meets, the international Greenhouse Gas Protocol and ISO 14064 (the international standard for environmental management) as well as DEFRA’s standards of 2012 and June 2013.

ManageCO2’s success stems from the fact that the software was purpose built to fit both the current legislative framework and also easily adapt to future legislation. This has resulted in a product that is seamless and straightforward in its day-to-day application.

David Mole, Business Development Director, Landmark Information Group comments:

“Sustainability Sure combines ManageCO2’s carbon, energy and sustainability software excellence with Landmark’s experience, highly regarded reputation, and excellent sales and marketing teams to offer a truly market leading product.”

Sustainability Sure has already helped a leading university better manage their emissions. As the platform automatically calculates certain exemptions which were valid in this case for the university, analysis showed that the university had in fact overpaid tax on its emissions.  This was flagged because of the way that Sustainability Sure works ensures that data is automatically entered and checked for errors, before generating an automatic report. This results in a far simpler and smoother process for the user.

Adrian Fleming, CEO and Founder of ManageCO2, said:

“Both Landmark and ManageCO2 have an aligned vision for the future of this sector, and this was a logical next step in the development of our relationship. It is a fantastic partnership, one which together makes us probably the largest global carbon and sustainability software provider in terms of client numbers, which currently is in excess of 200 companies with their 100,000 buildings stretching across all seven continents.”

Mandatory Carbon Reporting

By Victoria Joy, Consultant

The prospect of larger UK companies having to report their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has been on the cards for a while, but it has now become a lot more certain.  Draft legislation, the Companies Act 2006 (Strategic Report and Directors’ Report) Regulations 2013, was laid before Parliament on 10th June.  The regulations are subject to the affirmative resolution procedure, meaning that approval by both Houses of Parliament is required before they take effect, but this process is little more than a formality and is likely to be concluded soon. 

From 1st October this year, the new regulations will amend the existing directors' annual reporting requirements (as set out in the Large and Medium-sized Companies and Groups (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008) to oblige UK quoted companies to include reporting on their GHG emissions.  This affects all UK incorporated companies listed on the LSE's main market as well as those listed on a market within the EEA or whose shares are traded on the NYSE or NASDAQ.  The requirement applies to each company starting from its annual report covering the financial year ending on or after 30th September 2013.

For the purposes of this new reporting requirement, GHG means the six Kyoto Protocol gases, namely carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride.  Emissions from activities for which a company is responsible and that are due to human activity must be reported, as tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.  The requirement applies only to emissions resulting from the combustion of fuel, the operation of the company's facilities and the purchase of electricity, heat, steam or cooling by the company for its own use, i.e. scope 1 and scope 2 emissions under the widely used GHG Protocol.  Transport emissions are caught (since they involve the combustion of fuel), but scope 3 emissions (such as those arising from supply chain activities and emissions from the company's products once they have been sold) are not. 

Any company that finds it is impractical to obtain the required information will not be in breach of the new regulations provided that its annual report states what information is not included and why. In practice, pressure from shareholders and other stakeholders is likely to make incomplete reporting under this "comply or explain" provision increasingly rare as time passes. 

There is no requirement for independent verification, but in an effort to eliminate "greenwashing" annual reports must state the methodologies used to calculate the emissions.  The company's auditors will have to carry out a very basic check on the reported information to assess it for consistency with the financial statements and their knowledge of the business.  Also, at least one intensity ratio must be included to express the company’s annual emissions in relation to its activities, such as tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per tonne of production, per 1,000 hours of operation or per £million of sales revenue.  This may make it easier to compare one company's performance with another's, as will the requirement that, after the first year's report, the previous year's figures must be included as well as the current year's. 

Defra updated its environmental reporting guidance this month (Environmental Reporting Guidelines: Including mandatory greenhouse gas emissions reporting guidance) to help UK companies subject to the new requirements as well as those organisations that wish to report voluntarily on their environmental performance.  It gives a single page corporate GHG report as an example, but companies are free to choose whatever format they like.  The guidance goes into detail on such matters as how to set about scoping the reporting requirement and deciding which methodology to use. 

Although the new regulations are made under the Companies Act 2006 and therefore only affect companies, some public bodies such as Government departments and local authorities are otherwise required, or are strongly encouraged, to report their GHG emissions.  There are overlaps too with existing emissions reporting requirements under the CRC, Climate Change Agreements and the EU Emissions Trading System.  The areas of overlap may increase in the future because, while only about 1,100 companies will be affected by the new reporting requirements for quoted companies from this autumn, the Government has stated that it will carry out a review after the first two years of reporting and then decide in 2016 whether to extend the requirements to all UK companies defined as "large", of which there are estimated to be between 17,000 and 31,000.