The GRI Sustainability Reporting Module in FoundationFootprint™ - Navigating through the GRI Performance Indicators

This week we released our GRI Sustainability Reporting module. The GRI module forms the backbone of a customer’s existence in FoundationFootprint™. Everything they do, carbon footprint, energy, water, supply chain management, regulatory compliance, stakeholder engagement projects etc, will automatically be available in the relevant GRI performance indicators in the module.

Online Publishing and Stakeholder Engagement

The FoundationFootprint™ GRI module opens a new era of "social" sustainability reporting (Sustainability Reporting 2.0 anybody?) by integrating with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social applications.

Once a reporting year is “closed off”, for example at the end of a calendar year, the GRI information (I.e. their GRI sustainability report) for that period can be locked, verified by a third party and automatically published online.

FoundationFootprint™ can enable dialog around a customer's sustainability report and its stakeholders including the public. People can log in (through their Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn accounts) and place feedback on individual performance indicators or the report in general.

Time Saving Auditing and Assurance Tools

Organisations that already publish CSR and sustainability reports know that collating information for the report (and later for auditors) is a big task. The GRI module allows the user to upload documents, link news and blog articles and other information to individual performance indicators through the course of the year making the final task a lot less time consuming.

This feature allows internal staff and third party auditors of reports to access all the supporting documentation in a single place, again saving many hours. Auditors can rate and comment on each performance indicator whilst the system keeps track of the auditors progress automatically.

XBRL Compatibility

GRI Sustainability reports in FoundationFootprint™ can be exported as XBRL compliant documents. Furthermore, individual sections of a report can also be exported either manually or by third party systems. For more information visit the XBRL page on the GRI website.

Here are the slides from the sustainability and case study presentation that Michael Field and I did for the NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants

Following the 2006 IPCC guidelines FoundationFootprint™ includes the ability to specify a "tier" to rate the reliability and methodological complexity of emission factors and activity data.

Three tiers are described for categorizing both emissions factors and for activity data. Tier 1 is the basic method, frequently utilizing IPCC-recommended country-level defaults, while Tiers 2 and 3 are each more demanding in terms of complexity and data requirements.

It is possible that a mixture of tiers will be needed to complete one emissions inventory, reflecting the availability of information in different parts of a country or organisation. In some cases calculation of the emissions from a single source will require use of different tiers of activity data or different tiers of activity data and emission factors especially when calculating supply chain or product emissions.

It is good practice to report tiers for all emission sources included in the inventory. In some cases where aggregate reporting is a significant goal, Country/Regional Supplements may make this a mandatory requirement. In any case organisations should strive to utilize the highest tier of data which is available.

I most cases FoundationFootprint™ assigns the tiers for you. For example, the default emission factors pre loaded for your location(s) are tiered. When adding your own emission factors you can set the tiers as you see fit. And activity data that comes into FoundationFootprint™ from invoices from your supplier are also automatically tiered.

Some standards and regional environmental programs recommend or insist on the use of tiers in inventories. Nevertheless, tiering gives an organisation and their stakeholders more confidence in the accuracy and validity of their GHG Inventory.

On Wednesday the US Securities and Exchange Commission voted to provide public companies with interpretive guidance on existing SEC disclosure requirements as they apply to business or legal developments relating to the issue of climate change.

The guidance highlights 4 key points:

• Impact of Legislation and Regulation: A company should consider whether the impact of certain existing laws and regulations regarding climate change is material. In certain circumstances, a company should also evaluate the potential impact of pending legislation and regulation related to this topic.
• Impact of International Accords: A company should consider, and disclose when material, the risks or effects on its business of international accords and treaties relating to climate change.
• Indirect Consequences of Regulation or Business Trends: Legal, technological, political and scientific developments regarding climate change may create new opportunities or risks for companies. For instance, a company may face decreased demand for goods that produce significant greenhouse gas emissions or increased demand for goods that result in lower emissions than competing products. As such, a company should consider, for disclosure purposes, the actual or potential indirect consequences it may face due to climate change related regulatory or business trends.
• Physical Impacts of Climate Change: Companies should also evaluate for disclosure purposes the actual and potential material impacts of environmental matters on their business.

The announcement on SEC's guidance on disclosure of climate change risks.

Over the Christmas break we added the ability to further categorise emission sources, facilities and assets in FoundationFootprint™ through the use of "tags".

In the same way that blog posts are tagged or labelled, resources and production items and organisation and facility items can be classified with as many different tags as desired.

For example, you may wish to tag facilities that come under the mandatory reporting requirements of regional or national regulations or that have recently had energy audits performed there.

You may wish to tag electricity accounts with more information than just whether they're time of use or none time of use accounts. For example whether they have data provided by smart meters or include a break down of usage data at the asset level.

Tags are also made available in reports where appropriate.

Tags are over and above the existing three levels of classifications already available to inventory and organsiation items as well as other labels such as emission scopes and types.

Tags provide for a limitless level of catogorisation on almost every aspect of your data in FoundationFootprint™.

I was fortunate enough to be born and raised in the English Lake District and spent the early years of my life travelling the world and living in different countries. I experienced the beauty of the Borneo and Costa Rican rain and cloud forests and the awe of the Yukon plains and the Australian Outback. This was contrasted with the all-encompassing poverty of South and South East Asia and Africa and the destruction of the human spirit and the environment that comes with it.

These experiences are the reason I started Revolution ID, because I care deeply about our planet and the way we treat each other, animals and the environment. I believe that the majority of people who are lucky enough not to have to struggle to survive each day do think about the state of our world and the plight of the impoverished and want to see a change.

These people work in businesses and governments all around the world. The catalysts of change. So why is there not more change happening? I think it's because we perceive the problem to be too big for us as individuals to have an effect. And I also think it's perceived as being just too difficult. But you've heard all this before. Hearing it again may bore you or it may frustrate you. It frustrates me. Incredibly so.

But that frustration drives my vision. A vision to embrace the problem and provide the means for businesses and governments to enable themselves, their value chains and their communities to make the change to a truly sustainable and responsible existence.

For businesses and governments to make these changes we have to focus on the bottom line at every stage or it simply won't happen. This multi faceted process of organisational change has to provide clear benefits and quantifiable returns on investments at every step of the way. This is what I am creating at Revolution ID with our software and resources. The tools to provide meaningful timely information clearly and concisely. Tools we provide to our customers as well as responsible third party climate change and sustainability advisory organisations to assist their own services and add further value.

If this process of change is fraught with unpredictable costs and risks then adoption will be slow and limited. But it doesn't have to be that way.

I'm bitter about the COP15 outcome and the Copenhagen Accord is a big disappointment. I saw it is an opportunity for the goodness of human nature to shine through but alas, greed and lack of leadership and commitment won the day.

Not even an agreement to protect our forests could be decided.

We must now concentrate on supporting those businesses and countries like Japan, the UK and other European countries who continue to lead the plight dispite Copenhagen. Those millions of us working in governments and businesses around the world can directly or indirectly influence their organisation and shout louder and fight harder for the change we all know must happen.

It's times like this that we need to channel our anger and frustration into constructive action. I have been told I have an altruistic and sometimes niaive perspective on the world and what I want to achieve. My response to those people is: So be it. Now get out of my way and let the rest of us get on with it.

With no deadline to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, no legally binding emission targets, no coverage of aviation or maritime emissions and no reform of the CDM market, what are the implications for business of the Copenhagen Accord?

For a brief overview and link to a free indepth report go here.