How To Measure and Report Your Sustainability Efforts

Introduction

I’ve been working on sustainability issues for over twenty years and I’ve seen a lot of companies struggle with measuring and reporting their sustainability efforts. The good news is that there are many different ways to measure your organization’s performance in this area, from simple checklists to complex analytics. And it’s never too late to start! Here are some tips for getting started:

How to measure and report your sustainability efforts

The first step in creating a sustainable business is measuring your impact. If you don’t know how much waste you’re producing, how much energy or water goes into making each product, or even how many miles employees travel to get to work each day–how can you hope to make any improvements? Measurement is an integral part of being a sustainable business.

Once you’ve got those numbers in hand (and hopefully reduced or eliminated some of them), it’s time for reporting. This can take many forms: from simple spreadsheets shared with senior leadership teams on an annual basis all the way up through creating custom dashboards with complex algorithms and real-time reporting capabilities for every employee at every level of your organization.

Measuring and reporting your sustainability initiatives is an integral part of being a sustainable business.

Measuring and reporting your sustainability efforts is an integral part of being a sustainable business. It allows you to understand how well you are doing, what areas need improvement, and how much impact your actions have had on the environment or society.

It’s important for companies to measure their environmental performance because it provides them with valuable information about how they are operating their business – information that can be used to make important decisions about their future direction as an organization. For example, if you find out through measuring that one product line has higher carbon emissions than others in the same industry then this could be something worth investigating further so that improvements can be made in the future (i.e., switching suppliers).

Understanding what your business is doing to be more sustainable, where you’re falling short and how to improve will help you develop stronger, healthier businesses in the long run.

Understanding what your business is doing to be more sustainable, where you’re falling short and how to improve will help you develop stronger, healthier businesses in the long run.

For example, if you’re using paper cups for coffee that are only recyclable in certain areas of the country or not at all, consider switching over to plastic cups that can be recycled anywhere.

But measuring sustainability can feel overwhelming at first. Here’s a step-by-step process to get started.

If you’re like most people, sustainability feels like a big problem. You may be overwhelmed by the scope of it–how do you even begin to make an impact? But before we can start measuring our progress and setting goals, we need to define what success looks like.

One way to do this is by asking yourself: What do I want my life to look like in 3-6 months? If your answer includes “healthier,” then consider how much exercise or sleep would help get there. Maybe it’s eating healthier meals at home instead of going out for dinner every night (which would save money). Or maybe it’s walking more often instead of driving everywhere (which also saves money). Maybe both!

Once you’ve decided on some tangible fitness goals for yourself within three months’ time frame, write them down somewhere where they’ll stay visible so that when temptation strikes (and trust us when we say it will) or when doubt creeps back into your mind about whether what you’re doing matters at all (it does!), those words are there reminding us why this journey matters so much–and why we should keep going toward our goal despite any obstacles along the way.”

1. Make sure you have accurate data.

• Make sure you have accurate data.

Accurate data is essential for any measurement and reporting program, but it’s especially important when it comes to sustainability. Data accuracy can be difficult to achieve, especially if your organization has never attempted this type of reporting in the past or if your company has grown rapidly over time. If you don’t have complete information on all aspects of your business (such as number of employees or total square footage), start collecting those numbers now so they’re ready when it comes time for reporting later on.* If necessary, hire someone who specializes in gathering this type of information.*

2. Choose a reporting method that fits your business.

There are many different ways to measure sustainability, and it’s important to choose a method that fits your business. For example, if you’re an employee-owned company with no hierarchy of management and operations, then an annual report might not be the right choice for you. Instead of reporting on how much waste was diverted from landfills in 2019 or how many miles were traveled by employees using public transportation, consider developing metrics related to employee engagement or employee satisfaction–these numbers will tell you more about how well your organization is performing as a whole than any other metric could ever do!

3. Determine what matters most to you and your stakeholders by asking the right questions about it (and answering them for yourself).

The next step is to determine what matters most to you and your stakeholders. This will help you decide what data to collect, how to collect it and how to analyze it.

It’s important to note that there are no absolutes when it comes to sustainability reporting; every organization has their own unique set of challenges and opportunities that may lead them down different paths as they strive towards improving their sustainability efforts. However, there are some commonalities among companies who have successfully implemented sustainable practices: they all track key performance indicators (KPIs) around their environmental impact as well as other areas such as employee engagement or waste management practices; they use these KPIs as benchmarks for improvement over time; they share those KPIs internally with employees so everyone knows how well the company is doing compared with its goals; finally–and most importantly–they use this information as part of their strategic planning process so everyone knows where improvements need made before making any big changes in policy or procedure

4. Report regularly – don’t wait until the end of the year! – in a way that makes sense for your organization and its stakeholders as well as provides valuable information for future improvement strategies.

When it comes to reporting sustainability efforts, don’t wait until the end of the year.

That’s right: we’re saying that you should report your sustainability efforts on a regular basis, not just once every 12 months. Why? Because this allows organizations to use their data more effectively and efficiently. It also provides valuable information for future improvement strategies (which is pretty much what this whole thing is about).

Conclusion

With sustainability becoming more and more important to businesses, it’s important to have an accurate understanding of what your organization is doing. Measuring and reporting your sustainability efforts will help you develop stronger, healthier businesses in the long run.