1 What is sustainability reporting?
2 Increased regulatory requirements related to sustainability reporting in South Africa
Closer to home, 1 July 2010 marks the date when the Institute of Directors' third version of the King Committee's Report on Corporate Governance (King III) became 'effective'. This report includes an enhanced chapter on sustainability reporting, and defines specific expectations with respect to 'integrated sustainability reporting' for all companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
3 Spreadsheet agony?
Sustainability consulting company recently carried out a US survey to find out which sustainability metrics were being tracked, which were most important and how data was being managed. One of the conclusions from this survey is that for those that do track the data, Excel-based systems are most often used. Business and systems consulting firm TWC has come to the same conclusion after having reviewed the sustainability reporting practices in a number of South African companies.
Since many companies still rely on the manual collection of data, the majority of companies are still struggling to establish baselines against which sustainability goals can be measured. When data resides in multiple spreadsheets and disparate IT systems, collecting and consolidating the data for analysis, is a massive undertaking. Effectively using this information to set goals and measure actual against targets becomes a near impossible task.
The above issues are some of the main drivers to implementing a sustainability solution. Antoinette Thamm, Business Unit Manager - Sustainability at TWC, says that many companies are looking for solutions that are easy to use but more sophisticated in supporting the interpretation of the data. Audit-ability is also top of mind.
4 Why are supporting systems seen as an enabler of sustainability?
For sustainability programs to be properly integrated into operational strategy, meaningful and reliable metrics must be developed along with the underlying processes and systems to produce such information. To determine long-term ROI and delineate bottom line benefits, sustainability programs must include appropriate and relevant measurement that leverages both financial and non-financial metrics. Moreover, since this data will be used to evaluate overall performance, it should be subject to the same controls that apply to the company's financial systems to ensure the information is accurate and credible.
5 Look beyond reporting in sustainability business software
Verdantix, an independent analyst firm, defines sustainability business software as: enterprise software designed to help firms achieve business objectives linked to energy and fuel efficiency, carbon emissions, water consumption, social impacts, environment, health and safety compliance.
Buyers of sustainability business software need to take into account four sets of requirements which span”
1. Data collection
2. Reporting and communications
3. Strategy implementation
4. Risk evaluation
6 Service provider TWC
Business and systems consulting firm TWC has recognised this requirement in the local market and offers sustainability services and sustainability business software to support its customers.
We have opted for the best-of-breed solution suite by SAP, says Thamm.
1. One of the systems solutions on the SAP sustainability map “SAP Carbon Impact” is an enterprise carbon management and sustainability software solution (hosted on the Web) that helps companies measure, mitigate, and monitor carbon emissions and other environmental impacts across their business operations.
2. The second solution “SAP Sustainability Performance management” enables you to set strategic goals and objectives tied to KPIs, and then monitor against targets and benchmarks. Out-of-the-box performance reporting is available and you can customise Dashboards and scorecards. An added feature of this solution is that it is delivered with GRI's KPIs already setup. This solution is based on the SAP Business Warehouse platform.
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