Regardless of your opinion on whether Rio +20 sustainability conferences last month were successful, it was music to environmentalists’ ears when the UK’s Deputy Minister Nick Clegg announced that firms listed on the London Stock Exchange will be required to publically disclose their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  The move follows NASDAQ’s efforts to have businesses publicly list more of their environmental, social, and governance risks and is helping drive action to address corporate impact on the planet and society.  

For businesses, though, it means compliance with more requirements, and brings the risks of fines and negative press for not complying.  This risk is exacerbated when firms mismanage their carbon reporting process, typically by using an Excel-based spreadsheet.  This is a relatively easy thing to do considering the difficulties of conducting a comprehensive GHG inventory including, the variety of reporting protocols, changing emission factors, and that even the smallest of companies may have numerous facilities spanning the globe.

Many companies are choosing to purchase greenhouse gas accounting, AKA carbon accounting, software to ensure proper reporting procedures.  Excel spreadsheets inhibit correct documentation for audit trails, create difficulties in managing, analyzing, and sharing large amounts of data across the organization, have a propensity for data entry errors, are often not adherent to internationally recognized GHG reporting protocols, and, bottom line, waste time!  

Selecting a carbon accounting software that is right for your organization can vastly improve the quality and efficiency of the inventory process, while simultaneously improving your risk of being out of compliance or misreporting.  While spreadsheets impede team performance, the right software package improves it, making it more efficient and easier to identify additional savings since carbon emissions are highly correlated with energy.  Selecting the right carbon accounting tool will make the world of difference, especially considering that it is likely to be used for many years.  Make sure you understand the product’s capabilities and perform your due diligence to examine the pros and cons of the products available.  

After extensive research, Pioneer Balloon, the world’s largest manufacturer of latex balloons, with more than 1.5 billion units of product annually, selected Renewable Choice’s cloud-based and easy-to-use carbon accounting software Mosaic™.  The result? It took Pioneer 80% less time to conduct its GHG inventory compared to the same process using an Excel based tool!  To learn more on how Pioneer Balloon benefited from purchasing Mosaic, click here.

Small or large, businesses of all sizes can benefit from conducting a GHG inventory.  Whether by reducing the time it takes to comply with a supplier scorecard, the London Stock Exchange’s new reporting requirement, or reporting to other disclosure agencies such as the Carbon Disclosure Project, measuring, managing, and publically disclosing your company’s GHG emissions can result in substantial benefits to businesses’ bottom-line.  For a greenhouse gas software trial of Mosaic or any questions regarding developing your sustainability strategy, contact Renewable Choice Energy today!