The hole in the GHG reporting layer
I recently took a fine course in GHG measurement and accounting. I learned how to focus a company (any organization really) on their GHG footprint. At the end of the labours each company gets:
- knowledge of how much impact they have (and we all have some impact)
- a list of possible or even planned GHG mitigation measures
- a goal or two that they hope to achieve
- Maybe even a measure that the company attempts to off-set with projects outside the company that reduce GHG
But there are some serious shortfalls for most inventories and reports, namely:
1. They don't assign responsibility for achieving the goals
2. They don't really track progress - just give annual snap shots
3. They generally don't vary with the conditions of the year (like business growth, colder winter or hotter summer and the like)
So a GHG inventory is an excellent executive decision-making tool and might even serve as a vague check on progress year over year, but ... its not really a performance management or true action planning tool. In fact, its really only good enough to get the ball rolling.
What we need - the action, results and accountability that come with a real plan tied to rewards, recognition and performance metrics.
Anyone out there have examples of GHG accounting and reporting that actually went beyond a laundry list of good ideas and generated plan and performance metrics?






