The definition of “sustainability” is the study of how natural systems function, remain diverse and produce everything it needs for the ecology to remain in balance. It also acknowledges that human civilization takes resources to sustain our modern way of life. The same concept is being applied in businesses to keep the businesses balanced on triple bottom line – social, financial, and environmental.
The top 100 ASX listed companies are introducing sustainability into their everyday business practices and publicly reporting against targets. Global evidence shows that some of the benefits for those large and smaller organisations who have implemented sustainability programs include:
- Financial
- Reduced energy, water and materials usage and associated costs;
- Grants available for improved sustainability practices; and
- Access to socially responsible investment capital;
- Brand, Reputation and Market Positioning
- Better risk management and reduced liability;
- Improved competitiveness and market positioning;
- Improved strategic decision making and identification of new business opportunities;
- Gaining advantage as preferred supplier;
- Environmental
- Reduced emissions and waste and associated costs;
- Reduction in carbon footprint;
- Improved relationship with regulators; and
- Protect social licence to operate.
- Human Resources and Employee Engagement
- Improved working conditions and increased productivity; and
- Improved attraction and retention of staff leading to reduced costs associated with improved HR outcomes.
The sustainability management services that CCR can assist companies with include:
- Sustainability management strategy development and implementation;
- Carbon management strategy development and implementation including;
- Carbon Neutral accreditation; and
- Renewable energy technology and systems evaluation and feasibility studies;
- Climate change risk management; and
- Sustainable land development;
- Sustainable supply chain management.
Corporate Sustainability
While corporate sustainability recognizes that corporate growth and profitability are important, it also requires the corporation to pursue societal goals, specifically those relating to sustainable development — environmental protection, social justice and equity, and economic development.
The concept of corporate sustainability borrows elements from four more established concepts:
- Sustainable development;
- Corporate social responsibility;
- Stakeholder theory; and
- Corporate accountability theory.
CCR tends to help the corporate clients for all the above-mentioned elements; CCR holds AA1000 certification of accountability for risk management and enhancement of sustainability standards.
CCR provides end to end consultancy for all the elements of corporate sustainability, making it convenient for the clients to implement.
Reporting and Assurance
Organizations have been reporting financial information for many decades. Sustainability reporting is, by comparison, still in its infancy. As companies incorporate sustainability into their core business strategies, the importance of timely and accurate sustainability related information increases. Senior management need and expect the same level of control over this information as they have over financial data. Yet, in many cases such control is not there.
Today’s businesses need to be concerned about the accuracy and integrity of sustainability information and data which is reported to stakeholders or used for strategic decision making. The reputational risk of getting it wrong is significant, both in terms of not managing the right risks or reporting inaccurate information. Organizations cannot afford to make mistakes.
More than ever, stakeholders want to know about an organization’s sustainability performance and how it is accurately reporting on its corporate activities to support climate change, resource scarcity and socially responsible investing.
We are having certification for accountability (AA1000) with vast experience over these concerns. CCR works to help organizations with below mentioned activities for reporting and assurance:
- Identify and assess the relevant requirements;
- Undertake internal audits to gauge the effectiveness of your internal controls and measures;
- Provide independent assurance of the data in your sustainability report as well as assurance for regulatory performance purposes, such as EU ETS, RTFO, GHG emissions;
- Support your submissions to sustainability indices by helping you to interpret the questionnaire before submission; we’ll also identify any gaps to improve your position in the rankings;
- Review your current reporting against best practices, identify operational improvements and move it beyond compliance to include future-looking analysis and strategy;
- Verify and certify your data against social and environmental benchmarks in line with market standards like the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Greenhouse Gases (GHG) Protocol, AA1000;
- Align measurable sustainability objectives with your corporate strategy based on financial, operational and regulatory performance measures;
- Assess how the life-cycle of your products and services might impact your sustainability goals; and
- Implement a more holistic business management system or integrated reporting.
Training and Capacity Building
CCR sustainability solutions include training and capacity building programs to make the clients capable of handling the business concerns. We educate our clients to raise their skill sets, enabling them to get the insights of their businesses and identify the bottlenecks. We provide training and capacity building programs for:
- Energy efficiency;
- Energy management system;
- Environmental management system;
- Sustainability;
- Climate change adaptation;
- Corporate sustainability;
- Local government capacity building programmes; and
- Other energy, environment and sustainability related concerns.