Reporting
- Reporting sustainability performance is vital to the credibility of your organization’s sustainability efforts. I have done extensive sustainability reporting and can help you target your reporting efforts to improve your sustainability credibility.
- Developed the first sustainability reporting done by Kohler Co. We did annual sustainability reports for internal audiences each year since 2008. I personally helped prepare the first comprehensive external facing reports for 1997 and 2007. Starting in 2016, Kohler Co. began publishing annual ESG reports, with a long-term strategy to improve the quality, completeness and accuracy of each annual report.
Several Kohler Co. customers requested that EcoVadis evaluate Kohler Co. ESG performance. I managed the collection and reporting of ESG information to EcoVadis. In 2023, we increased the EcoVadis score from the 40th percentile to a Silver Medal (76th percentile).
We ask for explanations for the biggest changes in operational footprint.
Often we find the change is
normal – the production level or product mixture changed, a machine failed and needed to be fixed, product sales went up or down with associated
changes in manufacturing efficiency, etc. But sometimes we find that the data change was a short term error that could be easily remedied. Our policy is to be able to explain the reasons for 80% of the change in environmental footprint.
We look for similar operations
so we can compare performance internally. How can one plant use 1 liter of water to
make a widget when another plant needs 6 liters of water per widget? Once we are
assured the data is correct,
we know where to look for future reduction opportunities.
We look for missing data. Most
organizations will have a list of all business properties for insurance purposes. We make sure that we either have (a) utility bills for all locations or (b) that we confirm there are no company paid invoices and (c) estimate any missing utility bills.
- CDP (formerly known as Climate Disclosure Project) collects and publishes reports for 2/3 of the world’s companies when measured by market capitalization. I personally did CDP reports for 2018 and 2019. After 2020 I started to use consultants to aid with CDP report preparation and to intentionally pursue report grading improvements. In 2021 and 2022 the Kohler Co. CDP reports earned “B” scores.
- Some of your customers might request that EcoVadis evaluate your environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. I have managed the collection and reporting of ESG information to EcoVadis for about four years. In 2023, my team was able to increase the EcoVadis score from the 40th percentile to a Silver Medal (76th percentile).
- More and more value chain partners (mostly customers) are asking for their own sustainability survey to be returned. I have worked with many survey requests throughout North America and Europe and can help prepare responses for our company.