Diaphane Software update – new features
March 19, 2021
Which frameworks to use for sustainability reporting?
September 20, 2021
In recent months,
I have noticed an increased interest in carbon footprinting among organizations of various sizes. The growing awareness of the impact of our organizations on climate change, which we observe around us every day, and the increased activity of institutions responsible for limiting the effects of this impact means that more and more people and organizations are interested in their carbon footprint and its reduction. Very often this also results from questions and requirements in this area posed to us by our contractors.
The growing awareness of challenges and opportunities to influence negative effects among organizations of any size is hugely uplifting because it gives hope that everyone will contribute their “brick” to emission reduction. However, I often encounter a certain misunderstanding of the challenge associated with emission reduction. For many people I spoke to, determining the carbon footprint is another one-time project to be implemented.
It is not a one-time project.
Reducing the carbon footprint is a long-term process, and only the consistent actions of the entire organization over the subsequent years can bring the expected results, which must be measured during its implementation.The European Commission, in its “Green Deal”, has set ambitious emission reduction targets (56% by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050). Each organization’s task is to set its reduction target for the coming years and then consistently implement actions to achieve it.
Conscious decisions related to the choice of reduction targets and ways to achieve them should inherently assume actions spanning many years and allow for their modification if the chosen ones do not produce the expected results. Of course, the key in this area becomes the ability to effectively measure the effects of the actions taken and make corrective decisions based on reliable, regularly collected data – following the principle “if you want to actively manage something, you must measure it regularly.”
Appropriate tools are needed for this, which will allow creating a systematic process that will become as evident a part of our organization’s standard processes as the need to prepare a financial statement. Such a tool is the Diaphane platform, which allows for regular measurement of emission levels in scopes 1, 2, and 3 according to the GHG Protocol at a frequency chosen by the organization.
