Sustainability in Practice:
monitoring and reporting
by Kate Hand
Sponsored by
A CFDG Good Practice Publication
THE COVER.indd 1
30/03/2009 16:30:15
Foreword
Everyday acts of charity are the threads which help bind us together. But the simple truth is that we can’t help
society in the long-term if we’re damaging the environment today. So we need to change the way we do things.
The government has two goals of creating a low carbon economy and maintaining a healthy environment. We
all have a part to play in achieving this – governments and green groups cannot do it alone. We also need
businesses, communities and charities to do their bit.
Charities are already doing a great deal – focusing more and more on the adverse impacts of environmental
degradation, climate change and unsustainable resource use. Just as charities were at the forefront of the
development of social welfare in the UK, so now they can be the champions of this new cause.
We must all put environmental concerns at the centre of what we do. This guide is a great, practical aid in doing
exactly that. It shows how charities can take responsibility for the impact of their operations, take steps to
reduce that impact and then report their progress in a transparent way. And in a testing economic climate, what
organisation wouldn’t want to cut costs by using resources and energy more efficiently?
I am pleased to welcome this timely guide. The Charity Finance Directors' Group has been at the forefront of
helping and supporting charities for many years and I am delighted that you’re now leading the way in improving
sustainability.
Rt Hon Hilary Benn MP
The Charity Finance Directors' Group
The Charity Finance Directors' Group is an umbrella charity that promotes improved standards and public
understanding of management in charities. We specialise in helping charities to manage their accounting,
taxation, audit and other finance related functions. Today we have a membership of 1,600 charities who
manage around £14.7 billion of charity income.
Our vision is a transparent and efficiently managed charity sector that engenders public trust and confidence. In
order to achieve this aim, CFDG delivers services to its charity members and the sector at large which enable
those with financial responsibility in the charity sector to develop and adopt best practice. CFDG provides
information, support and training to its members, as well as being active in the policy arena. We work with other
organisations, regulators and charities to contribute our charity expertise to the regulatory process, and to
develop best practice in charity management. In addition, CFDG is represented on many committees and
working parties established by professional bodies and government departments, including the APB Public
Sector and Not-for-Profit Committee and the SORP Review Committee.
Best practice, accountability and sustainability
Over the last two years CFDG has placed a major focus on accountability and transparency in charity
management. Charities exist for the public benefit, and they rely heavily on public trust for their credibility and
financial support. That trust must be confirmed and strengthened by charities making themselves accountable to
their stakeholders. The central means by which charities can demonstrate and progress their accountability –
other than directly through their work – is through statutory and non-statutory reporting.
In order to provide the best service to our members, CFDG aims to stay ahead of the curve. Environmental
sustainability has remained consistently high on the agenda over the last few years and organisations are
increasingly expected to show how they are taking responsibility for reducing their impacts. We believe that
sustainability must also encompass an understanding of social impacts. Organisations should take responsibility
for their impact on the people with whom they are involved, and recognise that engaging with stakeholders will
help build organisational strength and efficacy. Alongside acting to reduce adverse impacts on environmental
and social sustainability, it is important to monitor and report on that work.
We have developed Sustainability in Practice: monitoring and reporting to help charities keep abreast of best
practice in environmental and social sustainability, and so to increase their accountability and efficiency in the
service of their beneficiaries.
Acknowledgements
We are very grateful to all those who have worked so hard to bring this report to completion. We would like to
thank the report’s working group for contributing their considerable knowledge and experience, Kate Hand, the
report’s author, and of course our valued sponsors, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
2
Contents
Summary
4
Introduction
Why tackle sustainability?
What is sustainability?
5
Reviewing your Sustainability
What are the impacts on sustainability?
Identifying your charity’s impacts
Preparing to act
10
Acting on Sustainability
Preparing your sustainability management plan
Key actions
Case study: CFDG and sustainability
17
Reporting on Sustainability
Introduction
Preparation
When and where to report
Assurance
Existing reporting systems
Examples of sustainability reports
31
Conclusion
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
41
Appendices
A. Case Studies
B. Sustainability Actions
C. Carrying out a Sustainability Audit
D. Management Approaches
E. Key Performance Indicators
F. Useful Links
G. Bibliography
42
3
Summary
Sustainability in Practice shows charities how and why they should address their environmental and social
sustainability, through reducing their adverse impacts and developing transparent sustainability reporting. The
guidance has been written for charity finance professionals, who will have a key role to play in bringing
sustainability into charities thanks to their senior position and their role in performance monitoring, reporting and
efficiency. Embedding sustainability as a strategic concern in charities will, however, require the active
engagement of a charity’s entire senior management team, the trustee board and in time the whole
organisation.
The Introduction reviews the reasons for charities to start looking at this issue, which has until now been the
preserve of keen, green individuals and ‘green’ charities. We believe these reasons are compelling and that the
early and strategic embedding of sustainability within charities will enhance their ability to deliver their mission.
The first chapter, Reviewing your Sustainability, gives some background on what we mean by sustainability,
followed by an explanation of charities’ main impacts. Of course, many charities work to strengthen and support
the sustainability of the natural world and its communities, but this should only be an added impetus for us all to
have regard to our negative impacts. Having introduced the major impact areas, we give a quick guide to
assessing your impacts (larger charities can use the guidance for a more in-depth sustainability audit in
Appendix C), and finally we look at the preparation necessary for introducing a coherent management
approach.
The next chapter, Acting on Sustainability, discusses the importance of a carefully considered management
approach and reviews those currently available. A successful management approach allows a charity to reduce
its negative impacts and enhance its positive performance in a steady and coherent fashion, whilst laying the
foundation for transparent measuring and reporting. For many charities this may simply be a plan for assessing
different impact areas, with clear management and targets set over a reasonable period of time. Larger
charities, or those with more significant impacts, may want to implement an accredited Environmental
Management System, which will guide them through the gradual assessment and reduction of their impacts.
Alongside environmental considerations, we have given some guidance on how charities can integrate good
social sustainability practices.
The third and final chapter, Reporting on Sustainability, shows how reporting can demonstrate real commitment
and allow charities to reap the benefits of greater accountability and a reputation for responsible action. Here, as
elsewhere, we have given the most up-to-date guidance and examples of current best practice. We look at the
benefits of such reporting and the practical questions surrounding it, including data collection, presentation and
where to publish the information.
This guidance recognises that there can be no one-size-fits-all approach for such a diverse sector. We have
therefore pointed the way rather than dictating a single approach, and signposted existing help in the form of
guidance, standards, reports and examples of best practice. Our case studies endeavour to show how much is
already being done, and how positive the impact of sustainability work has been on each organisation that has
taken it up. We are particularly keen to show how such a range of charities and other organisations have taken
up sustainability in their organisations and made it relevant and important to their work.
4
Introduction
Introduction
1. Why tackle sustainability?
Sustainability has rapidly become a key issue, and stakeholders of all kinds are increasingly expecting to see
organisations taking responsibility for their impacts. However, far from being onerous or distracting, CFDG
believes that the strategic integration of sustainability can substantially benefit charities. Tackling sustainability
will improve your accountability and efficiency, and will support core charitable work, income and reputation.
And since these different areas overlap the benefits of sustainability action can multiply. In short, tackling
sustainability will support your overall charitable mission, making you fitter and better able to serve your
beneficiaries.
"Our core purpose is to look after special places for ever for everyone so the concept of sustainability
runs through everything we do. Whether we are looking at potential acquisitions, projects, new activities
or process changes we continually challenge ourselves, through our triple bottom line process, to ensure
that we end up with the most sustainable result - from a financial, environmental and people perspective."
Andrew Copestake, Director of Finance and IT, The National Trust
1.
Accountability
Charities have a broad range of stakeholders on
whom they rely for their social mandate and financial
support. Beneficiaries, supporters, staff, volunteers
and funders are all becoming increasingly concerned
with sustainability, and charities must make
themselves accountable to their stakeholders by
reporting on the issues that concern them.
Accountability is also important for overall public trust
and confidence in charities.
Failing to be accountable on sustainability should
now also be seen as a reputational risk, partly
because charities have historically had a key role in
bringing social and environmental issues to public
attention, and in leading on those issues.
2.
Efficiency and good management
Environmental and social sustainability are now key
areas of good management. Improving environmental
performance is one of the most cost-effective ways of
reducing expenditure: reducing usage will bring
savings on energy bills, water bills and landfill tax;
you can improve your environmental efficiency by
replacing equipment and appliances with the most
energy efficient models, and through measures such
as better insulation. The price of such improvements
is steadily reducing, and many have a relatively low
pay-back period thanks to the efficiency gains they
bring. Even the more capital-intensive improvements
can be cost-effective when looked at in the long term
and/ or through whole-life costing. On the social side,
1
you can save on recruitment and other staff costs
through promoting such commitments, since they are
increasingly important to staff. Good sustainability
management will also help you to stay on top of legal
requirements.
Again, sustainability should be linked to risk
management – a well-managed charity is more
economically stable, attracts more funding and more
talented staff.
The Charity Commission believes there is now an
expectation that all sections of society will reduce
their adverse environmental impacts. They have said:
‘The Charity Commission supports and encourages
all charities considering the development of
environmentally sustainable practices wherever
possible as a way of maximising their effectiveness.’1
3.
Supporting your charitable mission
Reputation: open and transparent adherence to your
values – being seen as value-driven – is hugely
important to maintaining your charity’s reputation.
This supports public trust and confidence, which is in
turn critical to your charity’s ability to carry out its
work in the most effective manner.
Income: donors and funders are starting to look for
evidence of commitment to sustainability, and
neglecting this could therefore endanger income
streams. The Government is now a funder or partner
Going Green: Charities and Environmental Responsibility, The Charity Commission
5
Introduction
for many charities and has signed up to tough
sustainability standards that it will expect partners to
share.
Beneficiaries’ needs: climate change affects, and
will continue to affect every area of life in every part
of the world, from changing temperatures, severe
weather and disease patterns to building regulations,
legal responsibilities and food supplies. All charities
should consider the needs of their beneficiaries in the
light of these changes. Such wide-ranging effects
already disproportionately affect the poorest and
most vulnerable in society, and the continuing
evolution of social problems also needs to be
assessed in the light of sustainability. Moreover, the
Charity Commission’s report Going Green profiles a
number of charities who make a direct link between
‘an improved natural environment and improvements
in social issues’ from reduced crime rates to a
community’s ability to develop and sustain itself.2
All told, there is a substantial business case for action
on sustainability. And it is a case that has been
reiterated across numerous sectors, including in a
report by the UK Green Building Council: ‘the benefits
of measurement and reporting are quantifiable and
directly link to business or organisational success.
These are identified as:
• Improved corporate image
• Better strategic overview of operations
• Improved operational efficiency
• Ability to respond quickly to stakeholder enquiries
• Motivating staff
• Preparation for meeting new government
standards.’3
CFDG believes that the senior position and particular
skills of finance directors puts them in an excellent
position to make the case for acting on sustainability.
In particular, we believe that charity finance directors
can and should develop excellent sustainability
reporting that will support dynamic, accountable and
forward-thinking charities. Reporting is particularly
important, since:
• Good reporting makes you accountable for
performance against your targets, and gives that
performance weight and credibility;
• Accountability leads to a better reputation, which
can in turn generate support and funds;
• Reporting within the cycle of Review Æ Act Æ
Report (see diagram below) allows organisations
to drive up performance internally, particularly
through the motivation of staff, and in the sector
through the facilitation of benchmarking;
• Reporting can be used to engage stakeholders,
particularly if their opinions are actively sought in
consultation on the content and nature of the
report.
It is perhaps ironic that although the third sector
played a key role in bringing sustainability issues into
the mainstream, it is corporate organisations who
have reaped the benefit of improved reputation and
accountability through acting, and particularly through
reporting on sustainability. It is now time to reset the
balance.
6. Report on your
sustainability to
your
stakeholders
3. Report
1. Review
5. Implement your
management approach
with monitoring
processes and initial
targets for improvement
1. Consider how
tackling sustainability
can support your
charity
2. Make an initial
assessment of your
charity’s impacts
2. Act
2
Going Green: Charities and Environmental
responsibility, The Charity Commission
3
Organisational measurement and reporting,
UK Green Building Council, p.21
6
4. Decide on a
management
approach that
suits your
charity
3. Start to engage the
rest of the charity with
sustainability, and
consider its
relationship to existing
plans and strategy
Introduction
2. What is sustainability?
Definition: Living in such a way that we can “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.”4
The interdependence of human society and the
natural environment lies at the heart of our
problems as well as the solutions, and we cannot
effectively tackle environmental impacts without
looking at the social causes and implications of
human behaviour. Of course, sustainability is an
economic as well as an environmental and a social
issue, but economic sustainability is outside the
scope of this guidance.
Oxfam estimate that 250 million people are
affected by climate change related disasters
every year, and that that number could rise to
375 million by 2015.5
Examples of environmental and social overlap exist
within all organisations:
¾ Better social practices for staff can lead to a
more motivated and committed team, which can
in turn contribute to environmental goals in the
office, like reducing paper use;
¾ Environmental improvement work using
volunteers can build social responsibility and
aspiration amongst volunteers and local
communities.
The effects of poor labour standards and
remuneration for supply chain workers in the
developing world can lead to bad housing
conditions, which in turn can lead to pollution
through lack of sanitation and sewage control
and even degraded biodiversity due to illegal
logging undertaken to supplement meagre fuel
resources.
Some have looked at sustainability in terms of how
we deal with our various ‘capitals’. The ‘five
capitals’ theory states that, in effect, we are living
off the planet’s resources ‘capital’ instead of living
6
off the ‘interest’. To link this back to the work of
charities, development which is unsustainable in
the long term is that which, a) widens inequality in
terms of access to services, resources and a clean,
safe environment, and b) reduces people’s ability to
participate in the economy or influence the
decisions that affect their lives. It is often these
‘market failures’ that charities and voluntary
organisations are set up to help address. If charities
ensure that their organisations and projects are
socially and environmentally (as well as
economically) sustainable, then they will be
addressing the causes of unsustainable
development at the same time as their core
missions are aimed at addressing its effects.
Global deforestation not only increases carbon
emissions and reduces the earth's ability to
remove carbon from the atmosphere through its
forests, but can also have damaging social
consequences. In Indonesia, deforestation for
palm oil production is resulting in widespread
human rights abuses. Palm oil companies have
been found to use violent tactics to force
indigenous people off their land, who lose the
resources of the forest and often get locked into
debt and poorly paid employment. In addition,
pollution from pesticides, fertilisers and the
pressing process is leaving some villages without
clean water.7
4
Our Common Future, World Commission on Environment and Development
The Right to Survive, Oxfam: www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/papers/downloads/right_to_survive_summary.pdf
“The Five Capitals model”, Forum for the Future: www.forumforthefuture.org/our-approach/tools-and-methodologies/5capitals
7
Losing Ground, Friends of the Earth, Sawit Watch and LifeMosaic
5
6
7
Introduction
Environmental sustainability
The major threat to environmental sustainability –
and so much else – is climate change. The UN’s
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
confirmed in their Fourth Assessment Report that
most of the observed rise in temperature is due to
human emissions of greenhouse gases, and they
paint a potentially devastating picture of the
consequences for communities and habitats around
the world. The most active damage to the climate is
done by greenhouse gases (GHGs), the most
8
prevalent of which is carbon dioxide.
The key impacts of climate change will be rising sea
levels, flooding, food shortages, disease, severe
water shortages and loss of tropical forests.9 Many
scientists also predict an increase in severe weather
conditions. Most action on environmental
sustainability aims to mitigate and adapt to the
threats of climate change. But there are additional
areas of environmental action, such as protecting
wildlife and water quality in rivers, which should not
be overlooked simply because the benefits are less
clearly linked to climate change mitigation.
Each charity will have some direct impacts – those
that are the immediate result of the actions or
operations of an organisation, which include
emissions, wastes and discharges. Each charity will
also have some indirect impacts – those that occur
upstream or downstream of an organisation’s
activities, which include the extraction of raw
materials used in a process or suppliers/ distributors’
operations.
The main areas of environmental sustainability that
concern charities are:
• Energy
• Waste
• Transport
• Water
• Procurement
• Biodiversity
Social sustainability
Sustainability is not just about the natural
environment but about the communities within that
environment. We must develop and maintain
communities who live and work sustainably in terms
of their impact on natural resources, and who are
themselves sustainable. For charities, social
sustainability is about operating in a way that
respects and promotes good working practices and
good relationships both internally and with external
partners. This in turn should help to foster
organisational values, drive performance and protect
the charity’s long-term future. Supporting
communities and their vulnerable individuals is a
central area of charitable work, but outside the
8
scope of this guidance. We will focus on the other
major stakeholders in charities, such as partners,
suppliers and employees.
The main elements of social sustainability for
charities are:
• Overall stakeholder consultation
And a focus on three key groups:
• Supporters
• Employees
• Funders
The most dangerous GHGs are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur
hexafluoride. These are the GHGs covered by the Kyoto Protocol. “About climate change: Greenhouse gases”, Defra:
www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/about/g-gases.htm
9
“About climate change: Global effects”, Defra: www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/about/globaleffect.htm
8
Introduction
Case study: The National Communities Resource Centre and
integrated sustainability
“Trafford Hall is the home of the National Communities Resource Centre, the UK’s
only charity running action-focused residential training for tenants, residents, young people, families and
community volunteers nationwide.
“Care for the environment in which we all live and work is key to our ethos. As environmental sustainability
and community regeneration are intimately linked, it is the lowest income communities who are hardest hit by
high energy prices and poor local environments. Residents in the areas we target are keenly interested in
improving their environments for the benefit of families and young people. Their children’s prospects and
family survival depend on their homes and neighbourhoods working better with more support from the rest of
society.
“Trafford Hall has pioneered environmentally friendly practices since its inception in 1995. We are fully
committed to ensuring all our facilities are carbon neutral by 2012 and commenced work towards this goal in
2005 with the opening of our Carbon Neutral training and conference facility, the Stable Building. The Stable,
situated next to the original Georgian Manor house, uses a combination of solar technology and bio-fuels
which provide heating and hot water for the building.
“It is important to us that people feel that they can make positive change within their communities once they
have attended training at Trafford Hall. Our successful Training First model offers seed funding grants which
enable community groups to have a practical and positive impact on their local community. After attending
training at Trafford Hall, the Advance Tenant Empowerment Project received funding which allowed them to
produce an environmental training pack and promote ways to combat climate change around the home.
“Working with tenants across the UK the group were aware of the lack of practical information on
environmental practices for tenants who experience learning difficulties. Using the grant from Trafford Hall
they produced environmental information brochures highlighting the small changes that can be made,
particularly around the home, to help combat climate change. The group was able to share their learning and
promote their campaign with service users and other organisations. They also attended World Environment
Day and Learning Disability Today. The response from the production of the brochures has motivated the
group to do more to raise environmental awareness amongst those with learning disabilities and to highlight
the need for all citizens to contribute.
“The group is now using a second grant from Trafford Hall to produce an Environmental Training Pack as part
of three Tenant Information Packs that relate to aspects of citizenship covering Community Involvement,
Safety in the Community and the Environment. They are working with tenants, central government and other
voluntary organisations. This work has enabled the group to achieve positive outcomes through the
engagement of tenants and the development of responsible landlords.”
9
Reviewing your Sustainability
Reviewing your Sustainability
1. What are the impacts on sustainability?
Environmental sustainability
Charities should aim to reduce their impacts to that which can naturally be sustained by the environment. Since
C02 is the most prevalent greenhouse gas, environmental impact is often measured in C02 equivalent emissions,
and reducing one’s impact to sustainable levels is referred to as being ‘carbon’ neutral. The suggestion of
neutrality is, however, misleading, since it is only very rarely possible to completely remove the C02 equivalent
emissions of any activity, and offsetting those emissions with reductions elsewhere fails to acknowledge this.
Charities should look to reduce their impacts as much as is possible, and only then consider offsetting the
remainder (see A Consumer’s Guide to Retail Carbon Offsets, Appendix G).
Energy
Energy use is likely to be the biggest environmental
impact for most charities. The impact of energy use
comes from burning non-renewable fossil fuels to
generate electricity, and using gas for heating and
cooking. Fossil fuels release C02 into the
atmosphere when they are burnt, and are one of the
single largest contributors to climate change. By
contrast, the impacts of ‘green’ energy produced
from renewable sources are mainly limited to the
infrastructure needed to support them. In practice,
much of the impact of energy use comes from
inefficient practices and equipment.
More information: ‘Bring your green to work’,
www.energystar.gov
Waste
All organisations and most activities produce waste.
Its impacts arise from the emissions created in
transporting it to a disposal site, its presence at the
disposal site and the by-products into which it
breaks down. Some waste products take an
extremely long time to decompose and so have
impacts on the disposal site, whether that is a landfill
site (the size and number of which are steadily
growing across the UK) or waste that is simply
disposed of into the natural environment, where it
can harm plants and wildlife. When breaking down,
waste can release dangerous by-products such as
methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The impacts of
disposal far outweigh the impacts of reusing waste,
i.e. of seeing it as a resource.
More information: www.envirowise.gov.uk
10
10
Transport
The environmental impact of transport comes mainly
from vehicle manufacture and fuel use. Planes, cars
and buses are generally powered by petrol or diesel,
which is combusted in the engine and releases
greenhouse gases directly into the atmosphere.
Modes of transport that are wholly or partially
powered by electricity, such as trains, trams and
some cars (the electric or hybrid models that use
electricity alongside petrol or diesel) reduce their
impact by using less fuel (although the electricity
itself will probably have been produced by burning
fossil fuels). Biofuels can also now be used as a
transport fuel (and to produce electricity and heat),
but although they may seem like a silver bullet their
growth, processing and transport can mitigate or
erase their carbon benefits, and can have significant
negative impacts on communities in the places
where they are grown. In general, only biofuels
produced locally as by-products of other processes,
such as chip shop oil, really contribute to sustainable
transport. Cycling and walking, which use only our
own energy as fuel, are the most sustainable modes
of transport.
More information: www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/sustainable
Water
Water is one of our most precious resources, critical
for all forms of life. However, water is becoming
increasingly scarce, and this trend will continue as
the effects of climate change take hold. Each person
in the UK uses about 150 litres of tap water a day
and Waterwise estimate that if you include the
amount of water embedded within the products we
use then that figure shoots up around 3400 litres per
10
person per day. Organisations directly use water
“Hidden waters”, Waterwise: www.waterwise.org.uk/reducing_water_wastage_in_the_uk/the_facts/embedded_water.html
Reviewing your Sustainability
for sanitation, washing and cooking, they waste
water through leaking pipes and inefficient
equipment and appliances, and they indirectly use
the water embedded in the products they buy (which
is also potentially wasted and/ or polluted in
production processes).
since procurement is perhaps the area where
environmental and social impacts most obviously
overlap, buying well gives charities the chance to
‘double’ their good practices.
More information: ‘Greener shopping’,
www.direct.gov.uk
More information: www.waterwise.org.uk
Procurement
There are also environmental and social impacts
associated with the products and services we buy,
such as pollution from manufacturing processes and
poor labour standards. These procurement impacts
may seem difficult to control but charities must take
responsibility as consumers. Opting for more
sustainable procurement is not now a question of
decreasing choice, quality or price-competitiveness
– far from it. Sustainable procurement involves
looking beyond buying habits for better options, with
equal quality and competitive prices. Charities have
always needed cost-effective procurement, and this
is a strategy compatible with that aim. Moreover,
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is an area where office-based
organisations often assume they have little to offer
or be concerned about. But as ‘the intricate network
of ecosystems, habitats and species comprising
biodiversity provides the support systems that
sustain human existence’, biodiversity is always a
key concern.11 Charities have an impact on
biodiversity through their procurement and through
their projects, such as those which involve
horticulture or construction.
More information: ‘Looking after nature’,
www.direct.gov.uk
11
A Guide to Producing IDB Biodiversity Action Plans, Defra, p. 3
Case study: Herefordshire Voluntary Action alter their travel modes
“Herefordshire Voluntary Action (HVA) is a charity that supports other local charities
and community organisations working in Herefordshire. At HVA we feel it’s important
that we ‘do our bit’ for the environment. We see it as a win-win situation for voluntary and community sector
groups, because taking action against climate change should not only save energy, but money as well. In
particular, since we are a local charity that operates in a city with heavy traffic congestion, environmental and
local community health and sustainability go hand-in-hand. Exploring alternative modes of travel has allowed
us to start reducing our carbon emissions and reduce congestion and the negative impact it can have.
“Action at HVA has very much been individually led. It started with our coordinator pledging to take the train
one day a week, which gradually changed into only taking the car when it was needed for meetings outside
the office. The CEO uses his own bike for journeys into the town, and the Voluntary Sector Assembly (VSA)
Coordinator has bought a second-hand bike from a local community enterprise to use for meetings within a
three-mile radius of the office. In a congested city this is of course also quicker than driving, and so a more
efficient use of our time and resources. This kind of action has been supported by HVA’s flexible working
policy, which allows staff to fit their working hours around public transport times. HVA also understand that
train cancellations or delays sometimes mean staff are late or have to work from home. Other, simple
awareness-raising factors have helped more HVA staff to travel more greenly, such as familiarity with local
bus timetables, a necessity in such a rural county.
“Building on individual action, HVA has recently undertaken a staff travel survey on how they get to work. Two
actions are likely to follow: the purchase of a bike for staff use for short work-related journeys; and the
allocation of an extra car parking space for staff who car-share. We are also keen to measure our
improvements: HVA have saved a total of 1,438kg of carbon on journeys to work in the past six months
alone. We have supported these improvements with an environmental policy, which commits employees,
volunteers and visitors to ‘the protection and enhancement of human health, natural resources and the
environment.’ The policy details the minimum level of environmental awareness expected from everyone,
including travelling, ‘by public transport, on foot or by bicycle, or car-share when driving is the only option.’ We
are committed to a regular review in conformity with the policy.
11
Reviewing your Sustainability
“In terms of our work, we are focusing attention on our Community Transport Scheme and our annual VSA.
The Community Wheels Project Officer already urges volunteer drivers and passengers to share journeys
and we try to allocate volunteer drivers and passengers who live close to each other. In addition, we are
trying to modify the Service Level Agreement (SLA) which directs this work, so that we have the scope to be
more environmentally-friendly. We are asking Herefordshire County Council to alter our SLA so that the
stipulated minimum mileage reflects passenger trips as well as car miles.
“In terms of reporting, we have reported back on our transport miles as part of our SLA for Community
Wheels in our last three annual reports.”
Social sustainability
Charities should aim to operate in a way that recognises and respects all the people who are affected by their
operations. This means promoting good working practices and good relationships both internally and with
external partners.
Stakeholder engagement
Charities exist through the needs and approval of an
extremely wide group of stakeholders, and they
must therefore involve their stakeholders in the
evolution of their organisation, its work and even its
reporting. Engagement with stakeholders should be
appropriate to the charity, but it can take several
major forms:
• being clear about the aims and values of the
charity;
• creating a culture where stakeholders feel
confident in expressing their views;
• actively involving stakeholders in the
management of the charity;
• consulting with stakeholders on key issues.
Supporters
Charities receive all kinds of support from
individuals, organisations and local communities,
including volunteering, campaigning and of course
financial donations. It is important to understand the
value of these supporters to your charity, not only in
direct financial terms but in their promotion of your
work, your good reputation and their influence on
future supporters. Thinking through the sustainability
of your relationships with your supporters thus
involves pragmatic protection of your charity, as well
as promotion of good relationships and your
charity’s values.
Employees
Valuing your employees is of direct importance to
the sustainability of your charity. Employees are
critical to the success of any organisation, and if
they are to be committed to their work it is vital that
they feel valued by their employer. All charities
should strive to provide good management, good
working conditions, flexible working arrangements,
12
support in skills and training and decent
remuneration. The vagaries of the current
contracting environment can make this difficult, but
they do not diminish its importance. On the plus
side, good human resources management can
provide tangible savings through lower absenteeism,
lower staff turnover and thus lower recruitment
costs. The third sector now attracts talented people
across the board, and with excellent management
charities can increase the number and calibre of
applications.
Funders
Even if you simply consider the financial investment
that funders make in charities they are an important
partner, and many funders also invest their time and
expertise. In a wider sense, funders are
stakeholders in the charitable sector. In addition,
some funders have started to ask applicants
questions about their environmental impacts, and it
is clear that funders will play a major role in
promoting and supporting the sustainability agenda
in the sector.
More information:
• Small Business Journey:
www.smallbusinessjourney.com/Page3.asp
• The Work Foundation:
Greening Work:
www.theworkfoundation.com/assets/docs/public
ations/196_greening_work_final.pdf
Reviewing your Sustainability
2. Identifying your charity’s impacts
Every charity will need to take an initial measurement
of its current performance on sustainability. Your
impacts are likely to be based around the areas we
have already identified: energy, waste, transport,
water, procurement and biodiversity; and stakeholder
engagement with supporters, staff and funders.
However, it is important that you assess the impact
areas that are material for your charity. Almost all
sustainability areas are interlinked, but the weighting
that you give different areas depends on your work,
size and location. If you have a significant impact in a
particular area this should be included in your
assessment. If, on the other hand, it is difficult for you
to measure an impact and it is one you know to be
very low, then simply take an estimate in this initial
review.
Keep an open mind about impacts – they are likely to
change over time, even disregarding any action you
take to mitigate them. For example, high fuel prices
might lead to more home-working, a change in your
premises might bring an increase or reduction in your
electricity and water bills, or a new project area might
lead to the production of new resources.
For your environmental impacts you can look at
bills (electricity, gas and water) and payment records
(waste, transport and procurement). You might also
want to take a walk around your office to look at the
energy- and water-efficiency of your building,
equipment and appliances when they are on and who
is responsible for turning them off, whether there is a
recycling system in place, and if so for what.
Business Link provides a useful guide to such a walkround survey, along with lots of other information, on
their website: www.businesslink.gov.uk (Environment
and Efficiency > Sustainability in Business > How to
use environmental assessment techniques > Walk
around survey of your business).
For your social impacts you can look at how you
identify, engage and consult with your various
stakeholders. Start by looking at the number of
stakeholders you have in different groups and
whether you think they feel valued and supported by
the charity (and how you can measure that).
You should also have regard to the interaction of
environmental and social impacts: how do your
stakeholders feel about any environmental measures
that have been taken, and might these measures
have affected people’s modes of work or perceptions
of the charity?
The time it takes to make this initial survey will of
course depend on the size and work of your charity.
The approach outlined above will give a general
snapshot and is appropriate for small and mediumsized charities. Larger charities will want to take a
more comprehensive survey of their performance,
and they can follow the guidelines for carrying out a
sustainability audit in Appendix C.
This kind of snapshot review provides an initial
assessment. We would distinguish between this kind
of review and, a) gathering data on an annual basis
for reporting purposes, and b) a baseline review
carried out over a year or more. A baseline review
gives a detailed picture of sustainability performance
against which to measure change, and helps to show
where and how to concentrate action.
Case study: Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund on waste management
“The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund (“The Fund”) is a progressive grant making
organisation. It seeks to achieve its objectives in a number of innovative ways, by employing
various strategies beyond grant making. Part of the Fund’s ethos is being a good corporate
citizen beyond its charitable work and a key element of this is good waste management. For the Fund this
generally means minimising waste, having good recycling facilities and disposing of non-recyclable waste in
the most responsible way possible.
“The Fund values good recycling and waste minimisation because of the general benefits to the environment
and society, such as increasing people’s awareness of their consumption and reducing greenhouse gas
emissions. However, it also finds that good waste management has additional benefits for the organisation as
a charity:
Living our values and engaging with staff: The practical arrangements for the recycling of paper,
cardboard, plastics and cans are a very visible reminder to staff that they work for an organisation committed
13
Reviewing your Sustainability
to acting in socially responsible ways. This in turn is likely to make staff more positive about their employer,
and thus happier and more motivated. And indeed, we have discovered that some staff at the Fund are keen
‘recyclers’.
Improving reputation: the fund needs to manage its reputation, which is an important tool in ensuring it
achieves its charitable objectives. The Fund not only wants to act in a socially responsible way but identifies
that this is part of a package to deliver excellence, which sits well with good corporate governance and
stewardship. It would not be logical for a charity that expends a great deal of effort in aiming for excellence in
its corporate governance and charitable activities to then risk damaging its reputation by not being seen to
take action in waste management.
Reducing costs: raising the profile of recycling, other ‘green practices’ and reducing the amount of general
waste has significantly reduced the cost of waste disposal. For example, our e-mail signature reminds people
not to print the e-mail unless it is necessary to do so. This small initiative will make people think twice before
printing out an e-mail, which in the long term will make a big difference to the amount of paper used. This has
the very tangible benefit of saving money on both paper and printer cartridges and encourages an
environment where saving money and the environment go hand in hand.
“In terms of implementation, good waste management couldn’t be easier. At the Fund, providing the facility to
recycle and raising awareness about recycling has embedded the practice as a matter of course. For many
years, the Fund has had a system for recycling paper and card which the staff do not regard as requiring
extra effort, and the recent introduction of recycling for plastics and cans has been just as easy. The logistics
of recycling are simple to arrange, with many companies providing a collection service and many councils
providing a free recycling collection service for charities. The relatively small costs involved can be offset by
savings on the costs associated with general waste disposal. As part of an overall package of activities
designed to help the environment, recycling can save organisations money, and when being asked to modify
behaviour individuals can find saving the environment more of an incentive than saving money.”
3. Preparing to act
‘Implementing sustainability at an organisational level requires organisational alignment between strategy and
policy, processes, structures, tools and most importantly, people. These will enable the organisation to define
12
where it is, where it may be headed and opportunities for improvement.’ UK Green Building Council
Engagement and governance
Having identified what you are already doing on
sustainability, your charity will need to build support
amongst staff and trustees in order to really address
and integrate sustainability. Staff need to feel
empowered to act on their charity’s impacts, and for
that to happen they need to feel that their actions
are both relevant to their organisation and capable
of making a difference. The work of engaging people
in sustainability across the charity is unlikely to be
taken forward by the finance director or her/ his
team, but should more properly be the concern of
the senior management team as a whole, led by the
chief executive. However, given its importance, we
have included a short section on it here.
12
14
In the first place, you will need to get trustees and
senior management on board, since sustainability
needs to be strategically managed, and as such
driven from the top. Ultimately, however, all staff
need to be engaged with this agenda, since it will
only work if it is seen as a collective responsibility
throughout the organisation. In your sustainability
review you are likely to find that some action is
already being taken by keen members of staff, and
this should be emphasised and built on to motivate
staff. You may need to organise training for staff and
trustees to ensure that they have the right skills to
carry out their role in the organisation’s sustainability
work. A number of schemes also recommend
appointing a few staff members as sustainability
‘champions’.
Organisational measurement and reporting, UK Green Building Council, p.4
Reviewing your Sustainability
Since improving sustainability depends quite largely
on staff behaviour it is useful to have keen staff
members encouraging others and publicising
achievements.
The support of senior management and trustees
should not just involve general endorsement but
should be a part of the governance role, so that
responsibility for sustainability both comes down
from and goes back up to a senior level.
Sustainability risks – reputational, legal etc. – should
be integrated into the risk register and risk
management processes. This will act as a
monitoring procedure itself, since risk registers
should be reviewed biannually by trustees.
Collective responsibility means that more junior staff
who are directly responsible for sustainability areas,
i.e. office managers, project directors etc., should
have relevant objectives and targets written into their
roles and performance assessments.
Your charity will need a management plan that
details actions to be taken, the staff lead and the
timescale. Progress against this plan should be
assessed at least every six months, and should be
highlighted to staff (and others if appropriate, i.e.
beneficiaries, funders). Assessing whether the
contents and ambitions of the plan are still relevant
and challenging should also be undertaken on a sixmonthly basis.
More information:
• Sustainability at work:
www.sustainabilityatwork.org.uk/csp
Aligning sustainability within your charity
Charitable objects
We have suggested that sustainability should be
strategic from a management and reputational point
of view, but it also fits within a range of formal
charitable purpose(s) as defined by the Charity
Commission:
• ‘The prevention or relief of poverty’:
environmental degradation and social disruption,
from heat waves to poor workplace conditions,
always strike the most vulnerable first and
hardest;
• ‘The relief of those in need by reason of youth’:
charities should look to protect and help
beneficiaries now and into the future and
promoting sustainability will be critical to ensuring
a safe and healthy world for tomorrow’s children.
However, you must also consider any negative
impacts of your core mission. For example:
• If your mission is in overseas development, could
the environmental impact of essential travel affect
that development work through its contribution to
climate change?
• What effect does working with offenders have on
the social sustainability of staff?
• What is the sustainability impact of large displays
and collections kept by museums and galleries?
Strategy
By integrating sustainability into strategic planning
charities can embed sustainability into the DNA of
their organisations. This means:
a) including your material sustainability impacts and
action being taken to address them in your
strategic plan, and
b) addressing the overall implications of your
strategic plan on sustainability, for example:
i. if you plan to reach out to new groups of
beneficiaries in the next three years, is that
going to have a positive or negative
environmental and/ or social impact?
There may be an opportunity to maximise
social impact whilst maintaining the same
environmental impact, or vice versa;
ii. if you plan to move to larger premises,
have you considered the energy
implications of moving to a new building, in
terms of energy efficiency, heating costs
and transport requirements?
A revision of your strategic plan to address these
issues may be possible, and could simply be a reemphasis of the ‘hidden’ sustainability issues within
the strategy. On the other hand, if an extensive
revision is needed it may be more efficient to make
an early start in thinking about how sustainability
could be better integrated into the next round of
strategic planning.
Getting the right policies in place will be part of your
strategic integration of sustainability. Good policies
that are agreed and formally implemented across
the charity will help to integrate sustainability into
daily operations and show your commitment to
sustainability, internally and externally. You can
write and agree policies at the beginning of this
reviewing process, so that all your action and
reporting flows smoothly from a single policy
document. Alternatively you may wish to wait until
you have developed an initial sustainability
15
Reviewing your Sustainability
management plan so that you have more idea of
what impacts you have and at what level of action
you can start to act.
Depending on the charity, you may choose to adopt
an overarching sustainability policy or a number of
policies on specific areas. Many organisations,
particularly charities, already have policies on a
number of, for example, human resources issues. It
may therefore be sensible to re-assess these
policies for their fit with your sustainability work, and
to develop a separate environmental policy, as we
have done at CFDG.
A sustainability/ environmental policy should include:
• An introduction to your charity and how
sustainability fits with its mission
• The scope of the policy
• Commitments to:
o Continuous improvement
o Action in all relevant major environmental
and social sustainability areas
o Major targets (and where progress against
them will be reported)
o Monitoring progress and regularly reviewing
performance (usually annually)
o Education and training of staff where
necessary
o Recognition of the impact of the charity’s
mission and work on sustainability
o A commitment to abide by relevant
legislation
• Staff responsibility/ governance
• How often the policy will be reviewed and by
whom
16
• Information about related policies
You may also wish to sign up to an external pledge
to action, which can help to build motivation, engage
stakeholders and promote your charity’s
commitments to a wider audience. Take a look at
the Third Sector Declaration on Climate Change:
www.everyactioncounts.org.uk/declaration
Operational integration
There will also be practical implications to consider:
• Which staff member or team is responsible for
taking sustainability forward? Do they have a
coherent reporting structure, and does
sustainability work fit in with their existing
responsibilities and position (they need sufficient
seniority and permanence)? Do they have the
necessary time and training?
• Are there any ‘sustainability side-effects’ in the
day-to-day running of your projects, in terms of
the length of the project, its location, the
materials needed etc.?
More information:
• General: Small Business Journey:
www.smallbusinessjourney.com/Page16.asp
• Policies: CFDG document library:
www.cfdg.org.uk/crn/doc_search.asp
• Policies: Envirowise:
www.envirowise.gov.uk/Ref012
Acting on Sustainability
Acting on Sustainability
1. Preparing your sustainability management plan
Management systems and guides
Once you have conducted an initial review, started
engaging with staff and senior management, and
looked at the integration with existing strategy and
processes, you can start preparing a sustainability
management plan. There are a number of existing
management systems and guides. These are laid
out in the table below, and more detail on them can
be found in Appendix D.
• a programme for continual improvement;
• a programme for training and awareness;
• written procedures to control activities with a
significant impact;
• periodic auditing of the system to ensure effective
operation;
• a regular formal review of the system by senior
management.13
Whether you adopt a guide or choose to develop
your own system, you should ensure that it is one
that will suit your charity. You need to consider:
• the size of organisation and scale of impacts at
which it is aimed;
• how well its structure would fit with the structure
and processes of your charity;
• any in-built timescales;
• its approach and motivations, in light of the
mission and values of your charity.
The formal Environmental Management Systems
(EMSs) deal only with environmental sustainability,
there are no equivalent ‘social management
systems’. There are, however, two systems of social
accounting – Social Accounting and Audit, and
Social Return on Investment. These are covered in
the next chapter, Reporting on Sustainability. There
are few if any joint social and environment
management schemes. Some charities will find it
best to tackle their environmental and social impacts
together, with a joint approach and action plan.
Others will find it more effective to have separate
plans, in which case you should remember to crossreference joint impacts and benefits.
An effective management system should involve:
• An assessment of all of your charity’s impacts
and work on environmental and social
sustainability;
• development of relevant policies;
13
“What does an EMS involve” Adapted from Envirowise,
www.envirowise.gov.uk/uk/Topics-and-Issues/EMS/What-doesan-EMS-involve.html
Management systems: small and medium-sized charities
Green Dragon Environmental Standard
www.greendragonems.com
An accredited EMS aimed at smaller organisations.
Environmental?
9
The Acorn Scheme
www.iema.net/ems/acorn_scheme
An accredited EMS based on British Standard (BS) 8555.
9
Management systems: medium-sized and large charities
ISO 14001
www.iso.org
An accredited, internationally-used EMS: ‘a framework for a holistic, strategic
approach to an organisation’s environmental policy, plans and actions.’14
Environmental?
9
Social?
Social?
17
Acting on Sustainability
Eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS)
www.iema.net/ems/emas
A complete sustainability management process, inclusive of an
EMS (ISO 14001), which is designed to improve organisations’
environmental performance through evaluation, reporting and
continuous improvement.
9
Guides: small charities
Changing the Way We Work
www.everyactioncounts.org.uk/guides/greenofficev1.pdf
This guide gives a brief outline of major areas to tackle and
some actions organisations can take.
Environmental?
9
Social?
PQASSO
www.ces-vol.org.uk
PQASSO is the Practical Quality Assurance System for
Small Organisations.
9
9
Guides: all sizes
One Planet Living®
www.oneplanetliving.org
A global initiative based on ten principles of sustainability.
The principles can be used as a sustainability framework for
organisations, projects and individuals.
Environmental?
9
Social?
9
Legislation
There are increasing amounts of environmental
legislation and at the very minimum you must ensure
that you are on top of any compliance issues.
Charities with significant risks should consider
developing a register of legislation. Legislation
surrounding the people that charities work with is
well-established but constantly evolving. On the
environmental side, the Charity Commission have
highlighted the duty under charity law for all trustees
to ‘preserve and manage the charity’s property in a
way which furthers their charitable purposes.’15 The
Commission also point to the new duty of company
directors, which applies to incorporated charities, to
have regard to ‘the impact of the company’s
operations on the community and the
environment.’16
Netregs is an excellent source of information on
environmental legislation. You can check the list of
legislation by business and by environmental topic:
www.netregs.gov.uk.
Setting targets
To demonstrate your commitment to sustainability
you must have targets for the areas you wish to
improve. We would recommend that these are
‘smart’ targets:
Specific
Measurable
Agreed
Realistic
Time-bound
14
Organisational targets will drive forward the
improvement you want to see and should sit
alongside and be integrated with other top level
organisational targets. You may find it useful to have
one for environmental and one for social
sustainability. For example: ‘we will reduce C02 by
15% by January 2010’, and ‘we will reduce levels of
absence due to sickness by 10%’. These kinds of
targets can be linked back to qualitative reasoning
where appropriate. For example, reduced levels of
(previous page) “ISO 14000 essentials”:
www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/management_standards/iso_9000_iso_14000/iso_14000_essentials.htm
15
Going Green: Charities and Environmental Responsibility, The Charity Commission
16
Companies Act 2006, Part 10, Chapter 2, Section 172, 1) d), www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2006/ukpga_20060046_en_1
18
Acting on Sustainability
sickness means healthier, happier and more
productive staff, which in turn means fewer related
costs to the organisation and thus constitutes a
tangible financial payback from investment in staff
welfare. BT look at health, safety and wellness in
their Sustainability Report 2008, and Sickness
Absence Rate is one of their key performance
indicators:
www.btplc.com/Societyandenvironment/Ourapproac
h/Sustainabilityreport/index.aspx
Do note that in some areas and for some
organisations year-on-year improvements simply are
not possible. In this case it is pointless setting
targets for their own sake and you should simply
make clear what has already been done and why
further improvement is not possible.
Many organisations now use Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs) as headline targets to track
progress. Many of the management systems
detailed in this chapter use KPIs, as do many of the
reporting systems discussed in the chapter on
reporting. Further detail on relevant KPIs
recommended by the Global Reporting Initiative,
Defra, Envirowise and the Global Compact can be
found in Appendix E.
Unfortunately, there are as yet no sector standards
for such targets or KPIs. It can certainly be helpful to
benchmark your targets by looking at peers’ work,
but with little activity in the charities sector at the
moment it may be more useful to look at similarsized corporate organisations active in this area.
There are also external benchmarks which may
help, see ‘Content and gathering data’ in the next
chapter.
More information:
• ‘Set targets and action plan’,
www.sustainabilityatwork.org.uk/strategy/targets
• The Greenhouse Gas Protocol: A Corporate
Accounting and Reporting Standard, Chapter 11:
Setting GHG Targets, www.ghgprotocol.org
Case study: Bryncynon Strategy and their Environmental Management
System
“Bryncynon Strategy promotes community development in the Lower Cynon valley. Since
its incorporation as a charitable company in 1996, the Strategy’s mission has predominantly focused on
achieving more ‘traditional’ outcomes such as poverty alleviation, job creation, lifelong learning, children and
youth work and community development. But in 2004 a social audit concluded, perhaps unexpectedly, that
the environment was deemed a very high priority in the local area. Community members wanted to see
projects that dealt with environmental matters while continuing to create jobs and provide learning
opportunities.
“What became clear to the organisation as it began more environmentally-focused projects was the lack of a
coherent environmental focus within the organisation itself; it was not practising what it was preaching. In
essence, The Strategy was intending to promote the message of sustainable development, recycling and
responsible environmental stewardship to the wider community without putting its own house in order first.
“The Green Dragon Environmental Standard provided a ready-made and recognisable way that the
organisation could adopt an Environmental Management System (EMS), which at the time was funded. In
subsequent years, however, we have continued to pay the cost of being part of the scheme, since we believe
it represents great value for money. The Green Dragon Standard provides all the steps that organisations
need to take, and we’ve found them easy and intuitive to follow. Broadly speaking, what happens is that
targets from the environmental action plan are monitored by an environmental subgroup that convenes
quarterly to track changes such as reductions in emissions or waste. Individual targets are ‘owned’ by
particular staff members, who either volunteer to manage a target or whose roles closely mirror the actions
required to achieve a particular target. Targets are reviewed and updated annually by the same group.
“The EMS fits with our core charitable work in that it seeks to connect active responsibility for and to the
environment with the same degree of responsibility that it has towards the local community. The link between
environment and human welfare is inextricable. Bryncynon Strategy believes that its duty of care towards the
community it serves should be reflected in a duty of care towards the environment; the EMS reflects this
commitment. Beyond this, the EMS brings additional benefits, by:
• Raising the organisation’s profile as an environmentally responsible organisation;
• Saving money (lower heating, transport and stationery bills), thus alleviating pressure on organisational
reserves;
19
Acting on Sustainability
•
•
Opening up new avenues for potential funding;
Providing the baseline for community learning and awareness-raising that can link in with more
fundamental community regeneration issues such as fuel poverty, job creation, lifelong learning, etc.
“Bryncynon Strategy is currently at level 3 (of 5) in the Green Dragon Standard, and it intends to undertake
levels 4 and 5. Ultimately the organisation would like to move towards a zero carbon operation through the
installation and use of renewable energy generation systems and through encouraging local food production.
These will provide a basis for training and job creation projects into the future which should fit closely with
Welsh Assembly Government targets for sustainable development.
“The EMS will be publicly available through our new website when it goes live, and on it we intend to publish
our year-on-year targets and their impact on emissions and waste production. At level 3, the Green Dragon
Standard requires us to produce an environmental statement available for publication on their website. We
look forward to the greater accountability and added impetus to meet our targets that public scrutiny will
bring!”
2. Key actions
We have identified key areas of environmental and
social sustainability, outlined in the previous chapter,
Reviewing your Sustainability, on which every charity
should consider acting and reporting. These are
however only key areas, and the precise range and
severity of the impacts of UK charities will be as
diverse as the sector itself. Charities should
rigorously try to understand and address their
impacts.
A number of the areas for action examined below will
belong in more than one category of impact. For
example, saving water is a question of reducing
waste as well as reducing water loss, and buying
green energy reduces the impact of your energy as
well as your procurement. Whilst it is important to be
aware of (and highlight) the multiple advantages that
come from much of this work, you should place each
action in a single area (i.e. in ‘waste’ or ‘water’) to
avoid confusion and then cross-reference where
necessary.
Large charities, i.e. over £1m, with a wide base of
operations may want to start by considering their
highest and/ or most material impact areas. Most
charities should be acting, or planning to act
wherever they can, and only reporting on what is
material.
In this section we give three key actions for each
impact area with which charities can get started.
There are also case studies on many of the different
action areas – some in this section, some spread
around the report.
A comprehensive list of actions can be found in
appendix A.
More information on acting on sustainability:
• Business Link > Environment and Efficiency:
www.businesslink.gov.uk
• Direct.gov:
www.direct.gov.uk/en/Environmentandgreenerlivin
g/index.htm
• Green Guide for Offices, London Sustainability
Exchange:
www.lsx.org.uk/docs/page/2773/Green%20Guide
%20for%20Offices.pdf
• Envirowise: www.envirowise.gov.uk
• Sustainability at Work:
www.sustainabilityatwork.org.uk
Actions on environmental sustainability
Energy
1.
2.
3.
Reduce your energy use
Install the most energy efficient equipment and appliances, including insulation
Buy green electricity
Further action: consider installing microgeneration devices (e.g. photovoltaic panels, solar heating or wind
turbines).
20
Acting on Sustainability
Case study: Arcola Theatre do energy-saving
“Arcola Theatre aims be the world’s first carbon neutral theatre and has integrated trailblazing
sustainability projects as part of its core business. Arcola is committed to making
environmentally sustainable art, and in 2007 we launched Arcola Energy, an in-house initiative
that focuses and develops the theatre’s work on sustainability. Arcola Energy is as innovative
and dynamic as the theatre itself, an off-shoot of the theatre whose roots have now spread into
the wider arts world, into environmental innovation and the local community.
“Arcola demonstrates that marrying artistic excellence with sustainable practice is achievable and
advantageous, since it: reduces energy bills; supports funding applications; integrates Arcola into the local
community; allows Arcola to reach a wider audience and stakeholder base; and provides an effective platform
from which to publicise Arcola as a hub of creativity and sustainability.
“Arcola’s ‘greening’ goes from the stage to the box office, for example:
• The theatre installed a fuel cell in February 2008, making it the first theatre in the world to power its
main house shows and bar/café on hydrogen. The Living Unknown Soldier was London’s most
ecologically sustainable show, with the lighting at a peak power consumption of 4.5kW, a reduction of
60 per cent on comparable theatre lighting installations. Director, Sebastian Armesto says, ‘I did this
for artistic reasons rather than social ones. I hoped that by limiting the production we might do things
more simply, more efficiently. But ‘limit’ is the wrong word. What actually happened was that by ‘going
green’ we opened up a plethora of possibilities…”
• And they have transformed their lighting. The bar/cafe is illuminated by low-energy LEDs and the
lighting for the entire front-of-house space now consumes less than 500 watts, a saving of 60 per
cent and a great improvement in quality of light.
“Currently, Arcola is establishing ways in which it can monitor and evaluate its energy use and wider
sustainable practices – through metering, energy bills, and adapting a model developed by Arup, the SPEAR
model, which assesses sustainability plans in relation to buildings-based organisations. Monitoring is an
extremely valuable part of becoming a sustainable operation, since it drives improvement and promotes an
organisation’s business and sustainability credentials to a wider audience.
“As a recognised innovator in sustainability in the arts, Arcola has been able to establish excellent
relationships across the board, with private sector companies who have provided the theatre with free green
products, with other theatres and arts organisations, including the National Theatre and the Arts Council, and
with Government bodies like the Department of Media, Culture and Sport and Mayor of London’s Office.
Arcola’s reputation as a sustainable charity has created these partnerships and allowed them to grow and
develop into mutually advantageous relationships.
“Our last Trustees Annual Report, from the year end Annual Report and Accounts, gives as one of our six
five-year aims, to ‘create the first energy centre for new technology in the arts’ and goes on to give further
detail on Arcola Energy. In addition, the Arcola Energy project has a dedicated website which give substantial
detail on the rationale and progress of their work.”
Waste
1.
2.
3.
Reduce your waste
Reuse your waste
Recycle your residual waste
Further action: Consider ways to compost your food waste with a compost pile or wormery
For a case study on waste from the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, see p. 13.
21
Acting on Sustainability
Transport
1.
2.
3.
Reduce your travel
Promote greener modes of transport
Promote the use of tele- and video conferencing
Further action: reduce the amount of flying your staff do and/ or ‘green’ your car fleet.
Case study: RSPB work on their travel
“The RSPB speaks out for birds and wildlife, so tackling problems that threaten our
environment, such as climate change, is important to us. Obviously, we want to minimise
RSPB’s carbon footprint for its own sake but as much of our work involves influencing others it
is important for us to practice what we preach.
“Carbon emissions reduction is now enshrined in the RSPB’s 5-year plan, with a target of achieving, in each
year of the plan, a 3% reduction in CO2 from business travel and energy use. Achieving this would represent
a good start towards an 80% CO2 pollution reduction by 2050, a policy goal that the RSPB has long
advocated and was recently included in the new Climate Change Act.
“For travel, our first priority was to reduce the need for journeys, so we introduced video conferencing in all of
our larger offices. Where a physical presence was necessary we tried not to send two (or more) delegates
when one would suffice. However, as for most charities, much of our work involves influencing people and
often there is just no substitute for face-to-face contact. So we needed to ensure that all journeys were made
in the least damaging fashion. For this, we introduced a hierarchy of preferred travel methods to help staff
choose the most carbon-friendly ways of making essential journeys. Through this, we conveyed a strong
presumption against air travel, significantly reducing short haul flights (usually by transferring to trains) and
even prompted staff to re-appraise the need for long journeys. To help give impetus to this change all train
fares were borne by a central cost centre for a limited period, removing train travel costs from departmental
budgets – this significantly increased the use of trains.
“Our latest move has been to introduce carbon budgeting for travel. The standard finance package has been
adapted to capture sufficient journey details to calculate carbon emissions using standard Government data.
This information is presented to managers in the same format as for financial reports and provides a helpful
tool for monitoring progress towards our emission targets.
“Being based in deepest Bedfordshire, travel to work is another key area and so we have long offered free
bus services to work from local villages. This is supplemented by interest-free loans for season tickets and a
bike-to-work scheme offering a tax efficient method to buy bikes. We even offer free breakfasts in return for
actually using the bike - but only for one week a year.
“We report on this sustainability work internally and to our council.”
For another case study on transport from Herefordshire Voluntary Action, see p. 11.
Procurement
1.
2.
3.
Develop and implement a sustainable procurement policy
Address the environmental and social impact of the products you purchase
Consider setting up a formal code of conduct for your suppliers, detailing the standards and procedures
you expect
Further action: consider the ethical and environmental status of your banking and investments.
22
Acting on Sustainability
Case study: Cancer Research UK and sustainable procurement
“Cancer Research UK is the world’s leading charity dedicated to cancer research.
We carry out scientific research to help prevent, diagnose and treat cancer. We
have discovered new ways of beating cancer that together have saved hundreds of thousands of lives across
the world. We have over 2000 employees based at our scientific institutes, head offices and throughout the
UK to support our network of high street charity shops and other fundraising activities.
“Action has been taken on a variety of environmental areas because environmental efficiency makes sense,
and often has the added benefits of being less wasteful and thus more cost effective. At the moment many of
our initiatives are cost neutral or ‘invest to save’, and in some areas we are already seeing the cost savings.
However, we also think it’s simply the right thing to do. To add to that our supporters and employees are
increasingly telling us that our environmental performance is an issue that matters to them.
“It was recognised early on that significant gains could be made from integrating sustainability into our
procurement activity. There was also a high level of management support in the procurement team which has
been critical to the success of this initiative, which is now supported from the very top because sustainability
is part of our overall corporate objectives.
“The first step we took was to engage London Remade, who run the London Mayor’s Green Procurement
Code and can provide free advice to participating organisations. Their approach is led by the ‘flexible
framework’ as defined by the Government’s Sustainable Purchasing Taskforce. The main areas of focus are:
• People: identify key people to take the policy forward and provide them with training; include green
procurement requirements in job descriptions.
• Policy, strategy and communication: establish a working group to develop an environmental
and/or green procurement policy and communicate the objectives to staff.
• The procurement process: develop standard specifications to apply to key procurement contracts.
• Engaging suppliers: identify key suppliers and understand how they will fit in with your procurement
contract.
• Measurement and results: put in place the systems and processes to implement green
procurement; measure achievements against targets using a record of the green purchases made.
“We tackled high-value and high-profile areas of spend first and will be formalising this approach by
undertaking a risk assessment of our whole supply chain in 2009. The next step was to provide procurement
category managers with a basic level of training on sustainable procurement which is now being replaced by
a formal one-day course.
“Some examples of sustainable procurement activity have included a switch to recycled or FSC accredited
paper, a filtration system to replace the use of bottled water at meetings, a preference for cycle couriers, ecofriendly cleaning materials, biodegradable food packaging, and even the selection of a more sustainable and
environmentally efficient building for our new headquarters. Sustainability is now being incorporated into
every procurement decision made as part of the building refurbishment and fit-out project. It is becoming
standard practice to include sustainability elements in tender requirements, supplier questionnaires and
specifications. With respect to our fundraising events, such as Race for Life, the factory manufacturing our tshirts has been visited to check on the standards and improve compliance with our ethical purchasing policy.
“To motivate and engage suppliers at first hand, the Environmental Co-ordinator addressed key suppliers at
our annual supplier event and set them the challenge of helping us to reduce our waste by 10% through
taking back packaging such as pallets and through improved products and processes.
“In October we were thrilled to achieve the bronze level of the Green procurement Code and were also
nominated for a good practice award. Moving forwards, sustainability will be incorporated in a new version of
the procurement policy (to be produced this year), and throughout the procurement process. We are also
about to launch our first CR-UK wide sustainability policy and action plan which has been created by
enthusiastic members of the management team from areas across the charity. We hope to achieve the Silver
level on the Mayor’s Green procurement Code this year and to keep building on our successes.
“In terms of measuring and reporting, we will look to include a statement on our sustainability responsibility
and the work we are taking forward in the Annual Report and Accounts for 2008/09.”
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Acting on Sustainability
Water
1.
2.
3.
Reduce the amount of water you use
Install water-saving equipment and appliances
Collect rainwater for watering plants
Further action: Start buying non-toxic cleaning products and non-toxic paints, to reduce water pollution.
Case study: Artsadmin, environmental management and water
“Artsadmin is a unique production organisation for contemporary artists working in theatre,
dance, live art, visual arts and mixed media. We recognise that we have a responsibility to
protect the environment and continuously work to reduce the environmental impact of what we do.
“We started the process of identifying and tackling our environmental impacts by taking part in an Energy Pilot
Audit in 2007, run jointly by the Arts Council of England and ECOFYS, an energy consultancy. As a result of
that audit we developed an environmental policy to provide a framework for environmental action at
Artsadmin. The policy can be found on our website: www.artsadmin.co.uk/aboutus. In 2008 we measured our
energy usage, and we will use these figures as an accurate baseline for measuring future reductions.
“However, we didn’t want to stand still on environmental action during 2008, so we drew up an Environmental
Action Plan detailing what were currently doing and targets for improvement in 2008, which comprised the
recommendations from the Energy Audit. If all of the 2008 targets have been successfully implemented the
savings will represent an approximate 10% reduction in energy consumption and an estimated 15% reduction
in cost. This translates into direct savings of around £3,800 p/a. The average payback period for the
combined measures is 2.7 years.
“Our Environmental Action Plan lists our impacts under the headings of: heating, lighting, equipment, office
goods, cleaning materials and janitorial supplies, water, arts bar and café, administration and marketing, staff
training and awareness, and travel and transport. These categories reflect the way that we understand and
tackle our impacts, and capture both the resources we use and the behaviour and commitment of our staff
towards reducing our impacts. As an example, under water it notes:
•
•
Currently, we use water meters in order to measure and reduce usage and we use water saving
devices in all the toilet cisterns;
In 2008 we will investigate reducing water usage in urinals.
“As a key part of our organisational management our environmental work has been reported in our Annual
Report and Accounts (ARA) since 2006/07. In the 2006/07 report, in the Trustees Report under Future Plans
and Activities, we were able to state that we would ‘develop an environmental policy for Artsadmin, Toynbee
Studios and Artsadmin’s Artist’s projects.’ And that ‘progress against these objectives will be reported in the
Trustees Report for the year ended 31st March 2008.’ When our 2007/08 ARA is published, it will increase
awareness and accountability amongst our staff, artists and building users, and also act as an inspiration for
similar organisations to follow suit.“
Biodiversity
1.
2.
3.
Buy organic food
Grow plants in the office
Put out water and food for birds
Further action: Check out your local biodiversity action plan for area-specific actions.
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Acting on Sustainability
Actions on social sustainability
Employees
1.
2.
3.
Build skills assessment and development into employee appraisals
Consider introducing flexible working for employees
Institute at least one day’s collective volunteering for employees each year
Further action: create opportunities for recruiting from broader channels, including the local area, to encourage
a more diverse group of employees.
Case study: RNID – working with our employees
“We are the UK's largest charity for deaf and hard of hearing people, employing
people in hundreds of different roles, right across the country. We also work to
prevent hearing loss and ensure that people value their hearing.
“It is very important to us that everybody at RNID has a shared vision and demonstrates our Organisational
Values. Everything that we do is influenced by those values, six core beliefs that shape and define our
working environment and culture:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Champions the cause – remembers at all times that RNID strives to create a world where deafness or
hearing loss do not limit or determine opportunity and where people value their hearing
Builds trust – creates an environment of trust through communicating in an open and honest way
Inspires leadership – leads by example and encourages leadership in others
Promotes teamwork – promotes collaboration and teamwork across RNID
Champions the brand – makes the most of opportunities to gain positive exposure for RNID
Delivers results – provides a service that meets or surpasses the expectations of internal and
external customers
“Our Values and the behaviours associated with them provide standards of conduct, which underpin our
commitment to equality and diversity in the work that we do and our workplace culture. We are committed to
providing equality of opportunity – we welcome difference in our staff and our volunteers, and value and
respect diversity in all aspects of our work and service delivery. Without this we would be unable to reflect the
diversity of the communities we serve and with whom we work.
“At RNID, we offer every member of staff the opportunity to learn British Sign Language. This enables staff to
communicate better with colleagues for whom BSL is their first language. It is also useful for RNID staff to be
able to use BSL when communicating with our stakeholders who use BSL.
“We believe that good employee engagement is key to our organisation's success and we take the well-being
and personal development of our staff very seriously, ensuring there are opportunities for everyone to reach
and exceed their goals.”
Supporters
1.
2.
3.
Develop good supporter care policies
Develop a code for working with volunteers
Develop clear and easily accessible complaints procedures
Further action: consider what mechanisms supporters have for feeding back to your charity on how well you
engage with and support them.
25
Acting on Sustainability
Funders
1.
2.
3.
Develop good, well-managed relationships with funders
Ensure both parties are happy with the frequency and form of communication and reporting
Consult with funders as appropriate
Further action: Consider including the views of funders in your reporting – a ‘funder’s view’ can be a powerful
verification of your charity’s impact.
3. Case study: CFDG and sustainability
Charities’ sustainability management plans will vary, depending on the nature of individual charities. In order to
help bring together the material of the previous few chapters we have provided a case study of CFDG’s
sustainability and our management plan. We hope that this will help point the way, particularly to smaller and
medium-sized charities.
Why tackle sustainability?
Accountability: Like all charities, CFDG’s stakeholders – members, supporters and employees – are
increasingly concerned with sustainability and the role that organisations can and should play in reducing
their negative impacts. Developing our sustainability management plan and reporting on our sustainability
(from 2008/09) are key to maintaining the confidence and support of our stakeholders.
Efficiency and good management: By reducing our use of paper, ink and electricity, and our travel, we have
made tangible savings which can be ploughed back into our work. We have found that our work on
sustainability has also played a part in team building amongst staff. On the social side we have introduced a
number of initiatives (on top of existing policies on equal opportunities, staff consultation and flexi-time),
including staff volunteering days and an ethical pension option.
Supporting our charitable mission:
1) Reputation: we maintain our reputation through accountability to our stakeholders on the issues that
matter to them, including sustainability. Of course, our reputation also depends on the quality of the
services that we provide to our members; in our ‘best practice’ stream this guidance is taking a lead
on providing practical advice on sustainability to charity finance professionals.
2) Income: the majority of our income comes from members and corporate subscribers. Our economic
sustainability therefore depends on this membership, which is in turn dependent on our reputation,
and the quality and range of our services.
3) Beneficiaries’ needs: our members look to us to lead on upcoming issues, including sustainability,
and to provide them with guidance and best practice. Best practice is one of our five strategic aims
and stems directly from our charitable mission: to deliver services to our charity members and the
sector at large, which enable those with financial responsibility to develop and adopt best practice.
These are the drivers for sustainability action at CFDG, both in terms of reducing our own footprint and
helping our members to successfully tackle theirs. Since it taps directly into our core concerns, sustainability
is strategically important to CFDG. We will be considering the role of sustainability within our strategic plan
when it next comes up for review.
26
Acting on Sustainability
Identifying CFDG’s key impacts
Size: 14 staff, operating from a shared office
Annual turnover: £1m
Location: based in London, with members across England and Wales
We did a quick initial assessment of our internal, office-based impacts through desk-based research and
talking to the different teams within CFDG. These impacts are shown in the table below, under the categories
used in this guidance. However, we do of course seek to reflect the impacts that are relevant to us, so we
have included a separate category for the impacts that stem from our events. These are not easy to assess,
nor are they always directly under our control, but we are doing our best to mitigate them. As part of the initial
assessment we completed a carbon footprint estimate through the Carbon Trust for 2007/08, which gave us a
figure of 0.31 tonnes of C02 equivalent for our energy use (592.93 kWh), and 1.51 tonnes of C02 equivalent
for transport. Over 2008/09 we are making a detailed baseline of our impacts where we are able to measure
them, and we will use this to set targets as we move forward.
Impact area
Energy
Waste
Transport
Water
Procurement
Biodiversity
Supporters
Employees
Funders
Events
CFDG impacts
Electricity for equipment (computers, monitors, telephones, combined printer, photocopier,
fax and scanner).
Paper, cardboard, some plastic, and occasionally tins and cans from staff meals.
Walking, cycling, bus and tube for travelling in London, and the train for travelling outside of
London.
Water used in cleaning and for the toilets (managed by the building).
Paper (including advertising materials, conference packs and publications), stationary,
cleaning materials, electrical equipment, furniture, and food and drink.
Purchase of products that may be harmful to the natural environment (e.g. cleaning products
or foods).
Our engagement with supporters (members, corporate supporters, other sector umbrella
bodies and regulators), and the way in which we facilitate our work with them (e.g. attitude,
commitment to their views, accessibility).
The remuneration, benefits and working conditions of staff (e.g. working hours, workload,
career progression).
Funding largely comes from members and corporate supporters, and therefore our impacts
here are our awareness of their contribution and the impact of the pricing structures of our
paid-for events.
Impacts from external meetings include travel, materials and catering.
Having a shared building means that our landlord, CAN Mezzanine, controls the overall building
management. We are therefore somewhat constrained in our action on waste, water saving, temperature, the
provenance of our energy, and energy efficiency in the building and building fabric. Happily though, CAN are
very receptive to environmental improvements where they are feasible, and in particular we have excellent
recycling facilities.
Since our office is in central London almost all our staff and visitors travel to us by public transport, although
staff travel to members’ meeting further afield by train. Action that we have taken to promote sustainable
travel includes giving staff interest-free bicycle loans of up to £500, and allowing the recommended 20p
mileage for business travel by bike.
Building a consensus for action
Trustee and senior management support
The rationale for working on sustainability and its strategic relevance were developed by the whole staff team,
this was followed up by the sustainability management plan. When this groundwork had been completed we
took our new sustainability policy to the trustees for approval and feedback. The trustees have been very
supportive of our sustainability work and from now on they will be scrutinising our sustainability reporting and
our progress against the targets in our sustainability management plan, which are the drivers of our
commitment to continual improvement.
27
Acting on Sustainability
Collective responsibility
Sustainability work at CFDG is very much a collective responsibility, and indeed works best in this way. Our
success depends on every staff member playing their part in office-wide targets, like reducing paper and
electricity use, and also in taking the lead for different areas of our work, such as efficiency in equipment or
sustainable procurement. This is in general a very positive aspect of sustainability work, since it has become
a shared interest and a source of some pride in the office.
Staff accountability
All staff are responsible for shared targets, and for individual areas of work, but in an organisation the size of
CFDG we have found that overall sustainability work can be managed by one member of staff. This person is
supported by their line manager and the senior management where appropriate, and has sustainability work
written into their objectives, so that responsibility for moving the work forward and keeping to targets
ultimately lies with one member of staff.
Aligning sustainability with our work
Sustainability has been drawn into the strategic running of CFDG through our best practice work, which is one
of our five strategic areas. Best practice incorporates our research work, which develops and promotes best
practice, and which therefore includes this publication. It also includes the way CFDG is run – we aim to
achieve best practice in the mitigation of our impacts and in reporting on that work.
We have recognised the need to address the impacts on sustainability that are embedded in our mission and
the nature of our work; we will be continually assessing our charitable work against sustainability objectives.
An example of this has been considering ways to reduce members’ travel to meetings without compromising
the benefits they receive. Suggestions have included online streaming of presentations or making podcasts of
members’ meetings.
In operational terms, sustainability has fitted smoothly into the workload of a single staff member, who has led
on mitigating CFDG’s own impacts and on this report. This staff member has the necessary time and
knowledge, and since CFDG is a small organisation keeping sustainability in the remit of a single staff
member works effectively. We have however been careful to try and disseminate awareness and commitment
for sustainability across the organisation.
Preparing our sustainability management plan
When we came to draw up a management plan we decided that the One Planet Living (OPL) framework was
appropriate for our size and the scale of our impacts, and we like the way that it draws together environmental
and social impacts. This means that the categories of impact on which we will report, presented later in this
case study, will be slightly different to those recommended in this report.
The initial development of the plan was done with the lead staff member and the chief executive, and was
then taken to the whole staff team for discussion of its scope, the nature of the actions proposed, distribution
of responsibility and deadlines. Some amendments followed from this process, such as moving to electronic
invoicing, promoting blood donation amongst staff and looking into a building-wide blood donation scheme.
We were also able to make some necessary changes in staff responsibilities at an early stage, which meant
that the plan fitted with existing workloads and the individual interests of staff. Overall this meant that staff
were much more engaged with the plan, and we believe it has contributed significantly to its success.
The plan was organised by impact area – i.e. by the ten principles of OPL – and by quick wins and long-term
aims. This helped to give the plan shape and provided an immediate sense of achievement in some areas, as
well as laying the basis for a long-term commitment. Some of our actions have included replacing our two
printers, fax machine and scanner with one machine that can do all the work for half the cost and less energy.
All our computers are now automatically set to print double-sided and in black and white, and we encourage
staff to print on scrap paper where possible. We also have energy-saving plugs that turn our computers and
printer off at the wall, and we’re making an effort to order more vegetarian food for meetings, as that also cuts
down on carbon emissions.
28
Acting on Sustainability
The plan is supported by our sustainability policy. The sustainability management plan encompassed work on
sustainable procurement, including the adoption of a sustainable procurement policy which was accompanied
by information for staff on what sustainable procurement means, and how their procurement practices needed
to change to reflect it.
We have made this information and our plans and policies publicly available on our website:
www.cfdg.org.uk/cfdg/influencing_sustainability.asp
Reporting on our sustainability
We will report on our sustainability for the first time in our 2008/09 Annual Report and Accounts (ARA).
Reporting principles
When we come to our first sustainability report we will be following the standards set out in the Charities
SORP 2005 (2008 edition), which governs the rest of our ARA.
Reporting boundaries
CFDG is a charitable company, with one subsidiary. The entity we refer to in our sustainability report is the
same as the entity referred to in the rest of our ARA and we will therefore be reporting on the sustainability of
the whole organisation.
Materiality
We believe that anything that affects CFDG’s reputation for promoting and leading on excellent management
(general and financial), accountability and transparency is material to the organisation. CFDG relies on its
reputation to be an effective and credible organisation, because our reputation is critical to our ability to attract
members and to be a voice for charity finance professionals. Sustainability is now a part of excellent
management, as well as being a concern for many of our stakeholders, to whom we aim to be as accountable
and transparent as possible.
Content and gathering data
Our sustainability reporting will show why we are carrying this work forward and what we have done, including
the organisational framework and supporting policies, and our targets and performance data from the past
year.
We will be presenting information on the ten areas of action in our sustainability management plan, as well as
staff behaviour around sustainability. This information will cover major achievements and also areas where
there is further work to do. Currently, our sustainability management plan is populated mainly with one-off
actions and does not set overall targets. This is because when the plan was adopted we had no reliable
quantitative figures for our resource use. We have been baselining our resource use in 2008/09, and will be
able to set overall targets for reductions in 2009/10, in, for example, electricity use and miles travelled by
higher impact modes of transport.
We will not report on all of the actions contained in the sustainability management plan. Instead, we will aim
to provide a useful selection of significant actions, which broadly covers all the areas of the plan.
Impact area
Energy
Waste
Travel
Materials
Food
Water
Habitat and
Wildlife
Culture and
Heritage
Source of data
Energy-use figures can be provided by CAN (an average); the number and
energy-efficiency of new and existing appliances
There is currently no available figure for the amount of waste we produce;
Procurement audit for 2008/09 (the amount of paper and envelopes used)
Figures from 2008/09; number of staff who have taken up bicycle loans
Procurement audit for 2008/09
Procurement audit for 2008/09; information about food at events, where
available
Average water-use figures may be available through CAN
Procurement audit for 2008/09 (proportion of organic food)
Discreet actions (spot check of cultural activity encouraged at CFDG)
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Acting on Sustainability
Equity and
fairtrade
Health and
welfare
Staff
behaviour
Procurement audit for 2008/09 (fairtrade goods and work towards better
labour standards); performance against staff policies (e.g. equal
opportunities); discreet actions (e.g. introduction of ethical pension option)
Staff survey (staff involvement in, and commitment to sustainability);
discreet actions (introduction of staff volunteering)
Overall sustainability performance (this covers the assessment of a number
of disparate actions in our sustainability management plan)
Presentation and publication
We will be reporting on our sustainability in the Trustees Annual Report (TAR) of our ARA, since it is material
to CFDG. We do not currently have the requisite amount of data to produce a longer standalone sustainability
report, and in terms of transparency we already have a webpage devoted to our sustainability which shows
our rationale for action, our management approach, our sustainability management plan and related policies.
Assurance
Our ARA is independently audited in line with the Charity Commission’s requirements. However, we do not
feel that it is necessary in 2008/09 to have our sustainability information audited since this is our first year of
reporting, we have not completed our baselining, we are a small charity and sustainability does not form a
part of our stated charitable objectives.
30
Reporting on Sustainability
Reporting on Sustainability
1. Introduction
This chapter presents the case for why charities should report on their sustainability, and demonstrates what
they need to do. Although sustainability reporting requires a fresh rationale and new techniques, we believe that
best practice here shares much common ground with financial reporting, as in the overlap with risk
management. Finance directors’ existing skills and experience will be key to their development of sustainability
reporting.
‘Sustainability Reporting is much more than an output of data. It is a journey that an organisation embarks
on to understand and integrate the relationship between sustainability and the strategic direction of a
company. A product of this journey is a regular (usually annual) snapshot of strategy and performance
where an organisation publicly discloses its economic, environmental, and social performance forming a
key communication to stakeholders.’ UK Green Building Council 17
The purposes of sustainability reporting
Demonstrating accountability: sustainability
reporting provides an opportunity for organisations
to demonstrate their accountability and
transparency on this issue to stakeholders, through
identification of impacts and a review of subsequent
performance. The accountability motive can stretch
into active engagement with stakeholders, who can
help shape the aims, format and outcomes of the
report.
Driving internal improvement: reporting forms the
preparation for the next stage of reviewing, by
presenting achievements, areas for further
improvement and new goals. The continued cycle
of Review Æ Act Æ Report should thus lead to
sustainability reports that show annual
improvements in performance and the depth and
breadth of action (where appropriate – some goals
will be easily completed, others will be ongoing).
Year on year advancement, where possible, is
particularly important for motivating staff.
17
Key issues
• Strategic position: explain what function
sustainability reporting serves in the strategic
management of sustainability in your charity.
• Audience: consult with stakeholders to ensure
that the report reflects their needs in a userfriendly format.
• Outcomes: ensure that the reports’ outcomes
are clear to its readers, and that the report is
part of an ongoing process of accountability and
improvement.
More information:
• Business Link: www.businesslink.gov.uk
(Environment and efficiency > managing
environmental issues in your business >
create a strategic approach to sustainable
development > monitor and report on
sustainability performance)
• SustainAbility, Count me in: the reader’s
take on sustainability reporting:
www.sustainability.com
Organisational measurement and reporting, UK Green Building Council, p.4
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Reporting on Sustainability
Case study: BT and the value of sustainability reporting
“Starting with its first environment report in 1992, BT has been reporting on its
sustainability performance annually for many years, and has been named as the winner
of the best sustainability report award by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) several
times, most recently in December 2008. It believes that this long standing commitment to public reporting not
only provides benefits to external stakeholders, but has also helped to engage its employees and to deliver
significant year on year performance improvements. Transparency and honesty form the foundations of BT’s
reporting relationship with its stakeholders; regular engagement allows BT to determine the sustainability
issues most important to its stakeholders and relevant to its business, the ‘material’ sustainability issues.
“As a global business serving customers in more than 170 countries, the readers of BT’s reports are many
and varied; from investors and analysts, to customers, academics and employees. To meet the needs of
these diverse stakeholders, a short printed report is produced which summarises progress made on key
sustainability performance indicators and those issues deemed to be materially important It provides a simple
overview of BT’s sustainability strategy and achievements and has a limited print run. In 2008, as a result of
requests from BT employees around the world, the printed report has been translated into six languages as a
downloadable resource.
“The full report is set within BT’s Betterworld web site (www.btplc.com/betterworld), an accessible resource
which provides a wide range of multi-media information on BT’s sustainability and CSR programmes. BT aims
for its reporting to be open and transparent, and the online database allows quick and easy access to more
detailed information and progress against improvement targets. The database has been indexed so that it can
be searched via its business principles, the UN Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative. There are
some 50,000 visits a month and it is used extensively by employees, academia, businesses and other
stakeholders who have a specific area of interest or a need for a greater level of detail.
“The sustainability report is independently assessed against the internationally recognised AA1000
Assurance Standard. BT’s Leadership Panel, an advisory group of external sustainability experts, provides
independent guidance and advice, challenging BT on its sustainability strategy and performance, and
commenting on its report.
“BT’s employees are key to its success in driving sustainability improvements. It has set a number of Key
Performance Indicators with supporting, long term, improvement targets; these range from Customer Service
and Climate Change to Recycling and Supply Chain Human Rights. With over 111,000 employees operating
from more than 60 countries ensuring that everyone has access to accurate and timely information is a huge
undertaking. The online report ensures 24 hour a day access to accurate information regardless of location.
The data is used for producing presentations, as collateral for events, in response to stakeholder queries or to
support contract bids or tenders.”
2. Preparation
Reporting Principles
Reporting principles are likely to be common to, or stem from best practice in financial reporting. We have
recommended the reporting principles of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines since they are the most
widely used international guidelines:
Principles for defining content 18
Materiality
Stakeholder inclusion
Sustainability context
Completeness
18
Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, Global Reporting
Initiative, p. 6
19
ibid
32
Principles for ensuring quality 19
Balance (in the reported levels of performance)
Comparability
Accuracy
Timeliness
Clarity
Reliability
Reporting on Sustainability
If you are adopting reporting principles it is important
to define what they mean within your report –
principles like ‘transparency’ and ‘balance’ can mean
different things to different people. They must also be
integrated at the earliest stage, so that they can
underpin the process and shape the final report.
There are other sets of reporting principles, each of
which has a slightly different audience and angle on
sustainability:
• The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, an
international accounting tool for emissions
accounting (www.ghgprotocol.org);
• Defra, the Department for the Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs
(www.defra.gov.uk/environment);
• The Accounting for Sustainability project, which
devised a methodology for embedding
sustainability within organisations and for
reporting on their impacts
(www.sustainabilityatwork.org.uk).
Reporting boundaries
As in financial reporting, organisations have to look at
where the boundaries of sustainability reporting fall, in
terms of projects, geographic limits, suppliers and
supply chains. In setting organisational boundaries
charities should aim to cover the same entity that is
referred to in the Annual Report and Accounts. The
GRI advise that organisations should include any
entities which they control or over which they operate
significant influence.20
Charities also need to decide what their operational
boundaries are, i.e. which impacts can legitimately be
attributed to them, and which they should therefore
seek to reduce. In starting out, charities should seek
to report on their direct impacts and on their most
immediate indirect impacts. As they progress, they
can look to widen the circle of reporting to include
more complex indirect impacts such as those within
their supply chains and in long-term project work. In
practice this will be relatively straightforward for the
majority of charities. However, for large and complex
charities it would be very difficult to produce an ideally
complete first sustainability report, and they should
therefore expand their boundaries as their
sustainability reporting advances.
We can also take a lead from the standards applied to
businesses. The Accounting Standards Board’s
Reporting Statement: Operating and Financial
Review, notes that disclosure should include
information about:
28. a) ‘environmental matters (including the impact
of the business of the entity on the
environment);
b) the entity’s employees;
c) social and community issues.’21
Defra notes that, ‘the Government expects
businesses to report on their significant
environmental impacts whether they are direct or
indirect. Businesses are likely to derive benefit from
positively influencing their indirect environmental
impacts for at least three reasons:
• ‘The issues may be significant in terms of the
organisation’s overall environmental impact;
• ‘Organisations need to be able to demonstrate
that reducing their direct impacts is not at the
expense of increased impacts elsewhere; and,
• ‘Some stakeholders may deem them accountable
for supply-chain impacts, particularly where they
have significant purchasing power in the
marketplace.’22
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol defines different
kinds of emissions more closely than we have here,
and may be of interest to large and international
charities. See the section, ‘Existing reporting
systems,’ later in this chapter for more information.
Materiality
In traditional financial accounting and reporting
‘materiality’ concerns the importance of an amount,
transaction or discrepancy, in terms of its effect on the
organisation’s financial position. Charities must be
alive to their economic sustainability, but because
they have a broader motive basis than for-profit
20
21
22
business they also have a broader range of issues
that are ‘material’. Since the impact of charities’ work
and their wider reputation is also ‘material’, so are
the social and environmental impacts that relate to a
charity’s core work and reputation. This is not to say
that charities should report on every energy-efficient
Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, Global Reporting Initiative, p.18
Reporting Statement: Operating and Financial Review, Accounting Standards Board, p. 14
Environmental Key Performance Indicators: Reporting Guidelines for UK Business, Defra and Trucost, p. 22.
33
Reporting on Sustainability
lightbulb they install, but that they should consider a
wider base of material factors than the merely
economic.
A report on materiality was produced in 2006 by
AccountAbility, BT and Lloyd’s Register Quality
Assurance (LRQA), The Materiality Report: Aligning
Strategy, Performance and Reporting. This report
suggests that deciding what to report on should
cement the way in which organisations ‘align their
approach to social and environmental issues with their
strategy, practices and ultimately performance.’23
Moreover, whereas old-fashioned materiality concepts
were used as a basis to provide financial information,
current reporting should focus on:
• a longer term view of the issues;
• a wider view of the people who affect
performance and need information to guide their
actions;
• the greater range of information needed for
sound decision making – financial and nonfinancial, forwards- as well as backwards-looking.
The GHG Protocol makes some interesting
observations on materiality, concerning materiality
thresholds for reporting emissions and for
discrepancies. This will be of interest to any charities
that have significant direct operational emissions
(www.ghgprotocol.org).
Content and gathering data
Content
As with sustainability action, reporting on
sustainability should cover that which is strategically
relevant. In most cases though your report should
include:
• An introduction to the charity’s work on
sustainability
• The charity’s management approach to
sustainability
• Relevant policies and plans and their
implementation
• Performance data, including current and future
targets
• Contextual information (i.e. information that gives
the reader more background on the charity’s
sustainability work, such as vignettes showing the
effect on beneficiaries)
• The reasons for sustainability reporting
• Analysis of the data
This content expands on the three key areas
identified as ‘standard disclosures’ in the GRI G3
Sustainability Reporting Guidelines: Strategy and
Profile; Management Approach; and Performance
Indicators.24 Above all, the content of your report
must reflect the targets and/ or KPIs that that you
have set to measure the success of your
sustainability management plan. If it does not, it will
be impossible to assess your progress in dealing with
material issues.
23
24
34
A number of charities have included statements of
intent around sustainability issues in their Annual
Report and Accounts in the last few years. A typical
example would be: ‘At the X charity we recognise that
our charitable activities have direct and indirect
impacts on the environment, and that we have a
responsibility to manage and reduce those impacts.
We are committed to continuous improvement in
sustainable development, and to working with all our
stakeholders to tackle this issue.’ These statements
certainly show willing, but are necessarily
meaningless unless they are backed up by tangible
action in the form of plans, policies and/ or
performance data.
Gathering data
Charities need to show how they are addressing their
impacts on sustainability, by reporting against the
targets in their sustainability plans. In order to do this
they need processes which will allow them to gather
the relevant data. It is important to remember that
your data collection system will only be effective if the
sustainability reporting agenda is understood and
appreciated across the charity.
In collecting useful data, consider:
1. which targets are material and must be reported
against, and which you wish to report against;
2. what data is needed to report against these
targets:
a. do you have enough data to be able to
report?
The Materiality Report: Aligning Strategy, Performance and Reporting, A Briefing, AccountAbility, BT, LRQA, p.7
Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, Global Reporting Initiative, p.19
Reporting on Sustainability
b.
if you already collect this data, how
reliable is your collection system and
how long has it been in place?
3. in what units different types of data are measured
(see ‘carrying out a sustainability audit’ in
Appendix C). Wherever possible organisations
should aim to give data in both absolute and
relative terms, in order to achieve greater
transparency.25
4. what format you want to present the data in. The
format will broadly be one/ several of the three
types recommended by the GRI:
a. Indicators of operational performance
b. Indicators of management performance
c. Narrative descriptions 26
The guidance from the GRI and UK’s Department for
the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
generally couches impacts in terms of greenhouse
gas emissions. However, charities are unlikely to
have any direct emissions so they will be looking at
C02 equivalent emissions in order to standardise
different environmental impacts. Defra provides a
useful list of conversion factors for measuring
impacts in carbon:
www.defra.gov.uk/environment/business/reporting/co
nversion-factors.htm
• Waste: Waste benchmarker tool
(www.environmentagency.gov.uk/research/library/data/34173.aspx)
• Water: Water account tool
(www.envirowise.gov.uk/uk/Topics-andIssues/Water/Water-Tools/Water-accounttool.html), Typical and Best Practice benchmarks
(www.environmentagency.gov.uk/business/topics/water/34866.aspx)
• General: Environmental Performance Indicator
(www.environmentagency.gov.uk/apps/wastesurvey1/Performance.js
p?lang=_e)
Many of these websites also have useful documents
on benchmarking, generally free to download.
Charities may want to take a more rigorous attitude to
data collection and its use in assessing what areas to
act and report on. In this case charities should take a
year to baseline performance.
25
Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, Global Reporting
Initiative, pp. 14, 25
26
ibid, p.18
The difficulty of gathering data will depend largely on
the size and complexity of the charity, and whether
there are existing data collection processes that you
can use. Unfortunately, there are no existing sector
benchmarks for sustainability performance, but there
are benchmarking tools available for specific areas:
• Energy: Office benchmarking tool
(www.carbontrust.co.uk/energy/assessyourorgani
sation/benchmarking.htm)
Case study: Ethical Property Company – delivering on our promises
“The Ethical Property Company is a unique initiative in ethical investment. We buy
properties and develop them as centres that bring charities, co-operatives, community
and campaign groups together under one roof where they can share skills and ideas.
“As a social business that aims to offer genuine triple-bottom line returns to its investors, we see our social
audit as underpinning our ethicality. Our social audit encompasses social and environmental performance
indicators that are critical to the functioning of our organisation and the benefits it delivers, and which
underpin our public reporting on sustainability. We aim for a virtuous circle of improvement through setting
targets, measuring our performance, identifying actions we might take to improve results, implementing these
actions, and then, a year later, measuring our performance to see if we have improved. We report publicly on
that audit in our annual report and accounts because we want our stakeholders to have confidence in our
claims about the social and environmental improvements that we deliver.
“Our social audit forms an essential part of our strategic planning process, because it allows us to measure
and interrogate the tangible returns of our work. In addition, our audit ensures that we maintain the highest
standards of honesty and transparency. Charities and social businesses are no different in that regard – they
need to carry their stakeholders with them, even if it is not always good news.
35
Reporting on Sustainability
“In setting targets we have found that there are many indicators which can help quantify social and
environmental benefits, such as carbon targets or the index of multiple deprivation. It can be helpful to look for
externally recognised targets first, as these will allow comparison to national standards. Where there is no
quantifiable target we have taken a more qualitative approach, setting out in narrative terms where we wish to
be in the following year and assessing our achievement at the year end against that statement. Indeed, in the
first year of introducing a new reporting area we do just describe what in general it is we want to report on,
and in the next year we go part of the way there, perhaps with an indicator but without a target. We spend
three or four years developing any new measure because we do not want to introduce targets or indicators
too hastily, and then have to change the reporting base and compromise the meaningfulness of our year on
year results. For example, we’ve now decided that we should drop our carbon targets by 3% a year, to have a
chance of cutting carbon 80% by 2050.
“It’s taken us ten years to get the audit to where we want it, but the work is never done. Recently we have
begun to feel that in some cases we are a slave to our targets. The things that are easiest to measure are the
ones that we have ended up concentrating on, even if they are not the most important. Also, we are
measuring some things year on year and just getting the same result again and again. So in 2008/09 we have
decided to weight all our areas of benefit according to their importance, so we can decide what resources to
commit to them. And for some areas, we’ve decided to expend more of those resources improving results
rather than on reporting them. All our accounts are available on our website (www.ethicalproperty.co.uk), and
our annual accounts are published every March.
“Social auditing is a matter of being both consistent year on year, and flexible enough to respond to current
demands. Skills that any charity finance director is surely already well practised in!”
2. When and where to report
As we said in the introduction to this chapter, readers
should know from the start of a report why it has
been written, who it is aimed at and what it aims to
achieve. The relevant information should be
presented in as clear, concise and engaging a way
as possible. In practice, the key is to find a structure
and layout that balances clarity on the one hand and
interest on the other.
Since charities will be reporting on material
sustainability impacts, we believe sustainability
reporting should be integrated with other material
issues in the Trustees Annual Reporting (TAR), in the
Annual Report and Accounts.
For some, public disclosure of material impacts in the
TAR will be sufficient. For others, where sustainability
is critical to their core work or the expectations of
their stakeholders, an additional, more in-depth
report may be appropriate. A longer report will
provide a greater degree of accountability and
transparency, help to motivate staff and raise
standards across the sector. However, any additional
report should continue to be driven by the disclosure
of material impacts in the TAR.
An additional report could be a standalone document,
or it could form part of another report, such as an
annual review or impact report. Online reporting is
also an option which can work well thanks to its
36
accessibility and low environmental impact. We
would certainly recommend that charities publish a
copy of their reports online, for greater accountability
and transparency. Beyond this, high quality HTML
reports which are highly dynamic and navigable are
also starting to appear. Whilst these are a welcome
development, charities wishing to publish
sustainability reports only online should take care to
consider the needs of different stakeholders and
possible readers of the report; wherever possible
online reports should be compliant with accessibility
standards for digital and online material.
The precise format and frequency of sustainability
reporting will depend, as with everything else, on the
nature and size of the charity. However, it is
important to integrate and/ or coordinate
sustainability reporting with existing reporting, to
reaffirm the linkages between social, environmental
and financial performance. In addition, all
sustainability reporting should be undertaken as a
serious commitment over a multi-year period in order
for the charity and its stakeholders to be able to track
the charity’s performance against its stated aims.
If charities wish to undertake a variety of different
formats for sustainability reporting it is important to
maintain a coherent approach in terms of content and
style. Online reports that are updated more regularly
need to make this fact clear. Likewise, successive
Reporting on Sustainability
reports need to be broadly similar so that readers can
compare organisational performance over a longer
period.
Online sustainability reports:
• BT: www.btplc.com/Societyandenvironment/Ourapproach/Sustainabilityreport/index.aspx
• WWF: www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/about_us/environmental_report_2007/index.cfm
Case study: The Church Commissioners on why and where they report
“With care for creation a key part of the Christian message and environmental challenges
high on the public agenda, it is no surprise that the Church of England takes sustainability
very seriously. Its government-sponsored Shrinking the Footprint campaign gives practical
advice to the church’s many bodies – its national and regional offices, 43 cathedrals, 16,000
parishes and churches – on reducing energy and resource use. The target is to cut carbon
emissions to 40% of present levels by 2050.
“The Church Commissioners for England, who manage a fund of some £5bn held in shares and property to
support the church’s work, have a part to play as investors, landowners and service providers. As investors,
we aim to maximise returns within an ethical framework. We are advised by the Church of England Ethical
Investment Advisory Group, and we have a stake in Impax Environmental Markets Plc, a trust that has
focused on investment in markets for cleaner or more efficient delivery of energy, water and waste; we hope
to invest more in this area. As a one of the UK’s major landowners (100,000+ acres) we support long-term
working relationships with our farm tenants, and have helped them to invest in their businesses and carry out
environmental stewardship schemes. As service providers, the Commissioners aim to provide energy-efficient
living and working accommodation for the Church of England’s bishops, and are in the progress of greening
their official cars. In the refurbishment of our office space we have been improving our heating systems,
ventilation, lighting and recycling. We will work with the Carbon Trust to monitor progress and make further
improvements.
“We report on our sustainability initiatives in our Annual Report and Accounts for three reasons:
1. We wish to demonstrate our commitment to the environmental work that the Church is taking
forward;
2. The readers of our report expect us to provide that accountability on environmental issues;
3. Our board of trustees believe that it is important to bring sustainability into our reporting, and that for
the reasons above it is material enough to go into the Annual Report and Accounts.”
4. Assurance
Assurance confirms the accuracy and credibility of
reports, and thus improves the confidence of
stakeholders. It is also a tool for driving internal
motivation and improvement. Many or most
sustainability reporters now use assurance, and it
has become a mark of good practice.
The type of assurance that charities choose will
depend on their resources, size and the importance
of sustainability to their stakeholders.
The Assure View report from Corporate Register
identifies four main forms of assurance:
• Internal assurance: an internal assurance team
can provide a useful statement, provided it has
the appropriate skills and independence from the
report writers.
• Stakeholder panels: these are still not widely
used, but they can also provide a useful
assurance statement. When using such a panel,
charities should ensure that there is a suitable mix
of different stakeholders, including at least some
with experience of assurance and/ or audit work.
• An expert opinion: a single, well-known expert in
sustainability or social reporting can provide a
commentary or opinion on the report. Again, this
37
Reporting on Sustainability
approach can work but it will probably only
provide an overall opinion rather than in-depth
verification of the accuracy of the information or
the underlying systems. It should be made clear if
this is an opinion rather than an assurance
statement.
• An independent organisation: using an
organisation that specialises in assurance and is
confident in providing assurance for charities on
sustainability will provide the most extensive and
credible assurance. Many assurers can also
provide insights into management systems, data
collection, target setting and even risk
identification. However, assurance of this kind can
be expensive, and will not therefore be
appropriate for all charities.
The Assure View report also suggests the most
important elements of an assurance statement:
a) Reference to standardised approaches, i.e. the
AA1000 Assurance Standard, ISAE 3000 or the
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
GRI G3 Guidelines, and levels of assurance, i.e.
27;
‘reasonable’ or ‘limited’ levels
Specific declarations of the intended audience,
any disclaimers (typically advising stakeholders
not to rely on the assurance statement in the
course of critical decision-making), and the
independence and responsibilities of the assurer;
A clear description of the scope and methodology
used;
Recommendations from the assurer on areas for
improvement and/ or good practice that can be
expanded across the organisation;
Specific reference to the completeness or
otherwise of the report;
An assurance conclusion.
More information:
• Assure View: The CSR Assurance Statement
Report, Corporate Register,
www.corporateregister.com/pdf/AssureView.pdf
5. Existing reporting systems
There are a number of specific sustainability accounting and/ or reporting systems in existence, and we have
outlined the ones most likely to be of interest to charities.
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G3
Sustainability Reporting Guidelines
www.globalreporting.org
The GRI is a multi-stakeholder network that
promotes consistent, regular and comparable
reporting on economic, environmental and social
performance. The GRI’s G3 Sustainability Reporting
Guidelines, now in their 3rd edition, are the most
widely recognised and used global standard for
sustainability reporting. They provide useful
guidance on reporting scope and principles,
standard disclosures, i.e. exactly what information
organisations should provide, performance
indicators, formats, gathering data, updating reports
and assurance. The guidelines give KPIs for
sustainability under the headings of economic,
environmental, social (labour practices and decent
work), human rights, society, and product
responsibility issues.
The guidelines are ‘designed for use by
organisations of any size, sector or location,’
although they are currently orientated towards
companies and government.28 However, the GRI are
in the process of drawing up sector-specific
27
guidelines for not-for-profits, which are likely to be
released in 2010.
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol
www.ghgprotocol.org
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol was developed by
the World Business Council for Sustainable
Development (WBCSD) and the World Resources
Institute (WRI). It is an international accounting tool
for understanding, quantifying and managing
greenhouse gas emissions. It is aimed at
organisations reporting on their greenhouse gas
emissions, rather than their sustainability in the
wider sense. The Protocol defines different kinds of
emissions as belonging to one of three scopes, for
which they recommend different levels of reporting.
Scope 1 (direct): these are direct emissions, i.e.
those produced from sources owned or controlled by
the parent charity. Generally only those charities
who undertake any fuel combustion themselves, e.g.
through manufacturing, and those charities who own
company vehicles will have to account for scope 1
emissions.
AA 1000 Assurance Standard: www.accountability21.net; ISAE 3000: www.ifac.org/IAASB; GRI G3 Guidelines:
www.globalreporting.org.
28
Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, Global Reporting Initiative, p.3
38
Reporting on Sustainability
Scope 2 (indirect): these emissions are those
created through electricity purchased for the
organisation’s own use (‘electricity that is consumed
in its owned or controlled equipment or
operations.’)29
Scope 3 (indirect): these emissions are ‘a
consequence of the activities of the company, but
occur from sources not owned or controlled by the
company.’ Reporting scope 3 emissions is optional,
but since this is where the bulk of most charities’
emissions will occur, charities that do not look at
their indirect emissions will miss the point of a
sustainability report, since they will provide almost
no information on their environmental performance.
The Connected Reporting Framework
www.accountingforsustainability.org
www.sustainabilityatwork.org.uk
The Accounting for Sustainability project aims to
tackle the lack of ‘sustainability systems and
processes’.30 The project provides the guidance and
tools to make sure that sustainability becomes an
integrated and strategic part of all organisations’
work. Their guidance on embedding sustainability
can be found on their Sustainability at Work website.
The work on reporting led to a new reporting model,
the Connected Reporting Framework (CRF), which
shows how all areas of organisational performance
can be presented in a connected way, taking the
strategic importance of sustainability through into
organisational reporting.
There is a focus on environmental impacts, but the
report Accounting for Sustainability states:
‘Reporting social impacts is generally more difficult
to do in a quantified and comparable manner;
however, impacts on issues such as wage levels,
working conditions and social cohesion and
communities are, of course, important and the
proposed Connected Reporting Framework provides
for the reporting of this type of information.’31
Accounting for Sustainability gives more detail on
the CRF and a useful illustration of what it might look
like in practice. It can be downloaded from the
Accounting for Sustainability website.
Social Accounting and Audit, and Social Return
on Investment
www.socialauditnetwork.org.uk/what%202.htm
Social audit and accounting provides integrated
systems to account for and report on environmental,
social and economic issues. The Social Audit
Network currently provides a good overview of the
subject, including a useful directory of social
accounts from organisations around the UK,
including many community organisations and
charities. The Social Audit Network have a recent
report available to download from their website,
entitled Really Telling Accounts.
Social Return on Investment aims to measure the
social and financial value created by a particular
organisation or a particular project, by attributing a
financial value to intangible social outcomes. The
Office of the Third Sector is currently running a
project on SROI, aiming to make it more accessible
and cost effective
(www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/third_sector).
6. Examples of sustainability reports
Sources of reports
• ACCA Sustainability reporting awards: www.accaglobal.com/uk/publicinterest/sustainability
• Accounting for Sustainability: www.accountingforsustainability.org/reporting
• Corporate Register: www.corporateregister.com
• Global Reporting Initiative: www.globalreporting.org/GRIReports
• Government financial reporting manual: www.financial-reporting.gov.uk/Sustainability_Reporting.htm
Individual reports
• Allianz Sustainable Development Report 2007/08:
www.allianz.com/en/allianz_group/sustainability/index.html
29
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol: A Corporate Reporting and Accounting Standard, revised edition, World Business Council for
Sustainability Development and World Resources Institute, p.27
30
Accounting for Sustainability, Accounting for Sustainability, p. 4
31
ibid p. 27
39
Reporting on Sustainability
•
•
•
BT Sustainability report 2008:
www.btplc.com/Societyandenvironment/Ourapproach/Sustainabilityreport/index.aspx
Traidcraft Social Accounts 2008: www.traidcraft.co.uk/about_traidcraft/social_accounts
WWF: www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/about_us/environmental_report_2007/index.cfm
Case study: Oxfam, accountability and using the GRI G3 guidelines
“Oxfam GB published its first Accountability (or Sustainability) Report (“The Report”) in 2007
(www.oxfam.org.uk/accountability) and we have now incorporated it into our Annual Report and
Accounts (www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/accounts/annual_report_accounts.html).
“Why? Accountability is hard work, but to walk the talk, values-based organisations need to produce
evidence. Our reporting framework aims to achieve this. Climate change is one of our key drivers, in
particular because it impacts disproportionately on people living in poverty, and on many of the countries in
which we operate. But operational sustainability and accountability have wider social and economic angles:
our procurement practices; staffing issues; and the four dimensions described by One World Trust
(www.oneworldtrust.org) - transparency, participation, evaluation, and complaints and redress. Our
Accountability Reports say what we have done and what we will do, and establish an obligation to hold
ourselves publicly to account for each commitment.
“How? We started with our 2006 Risk Register which contained a new Risk, that Council and the Corporate
Management Team thinking was not sufficiently challenged by stakeholders and therefore decisions and
thinking become decoupled from stakeholders. We created a small cross-team accountability working group,
which reviewed the various models for sustainability reporting. We carried out a governance review using the
Code of Governance for the Voluntary Sector. We agreed to the four One World Trust dimensions (and have
after two years completed a suite of Partnership, Evaluation and Complaints policies,
(www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/accounts/index.html)). However, we needed a framework for our Report.
“We chose the Global Reporting Initiative’s G3 guidelines (www.globalreporting.org) because it is widely
used, addressed many of the dimensions we saw as important, and GRI had committed to producing an NGO
specific supplement. When this supplement is published, in 2010, we plan to adopt it for our future reporting
(www.globalreporting.org/ReportingFramework/SectorSupplements/NGO). Although GRI is quite complex,
and currently suitable only for charities with an annual turnover of about £500,000 or over, we are pushing
GRI to approve a slimmed down set of key indicators suitable for smaller charities.
“Our first step in integrating the G3 Guidelines was to conduct interviews with key staff. One staff member
collated the carbon footprint, using a methodology approved by Defra, although we did not ask them to audit
the results. The results contained some surprises, and gave important clues for reduction: air conditioning for
our computer room can be reduced by replacing several large old servers with smaller newer models; paper
usage needed to be radically reduced, including more digital use. Our biggest reporting gap is collating our
international footprint, as we work in over 70 countries, and this is an action for 2009.
“Our procurement team embraced the opportunity to push our sustainability further into our supply chain, with
promising results. We exploited the opportunity to tie the Report into a big focus on quality and beneficiary
participation in our International operations, where NGOs have been working to improve accountability on
issues like participation, investigation of sexual abuse and exploitation, and effective complaints mechanisms,
including through a powerful peer review process. Our second Report reveals we are not doing enough to
report on incidents of exploitation, and we have committed to further education and training.
“We have decided for the time being not to seek external assurance, but recognise that this is an important
area for us to consider, based on a cost-benefit analysis, in 2010.
“Finally, we felt we needed to commit to targets and plans for accountability over the three-year period of our
Strategic Plan, so our second Report identified failings and commented on progress.”
40
Conclusion
Conclusion
Charities should always have regard to their sustainability. Economic, environmental and social issues tie up to
build charities that are most effectively able to serve and support their beneficiaries.
This guidance aims to give charities the confidence to pursue environmental and social, as well as economic
sustainability, by showing why it is important and what they can do. We believe that developing strategic
management of sustainability in a form that is tailored to the individual charity need be neither hard nor costly,
and will improve accountability, efficiency and good management. Perhaps most importantly it will also further
charities’ missions by supporting their reputations, income and the needs of their beneficiaries.
Sustainability reporting is undeniably in its early stages. We would not say that it will necessarily be simple to
start off with, but we do believe that it must be a critical part of a serious commitment to sustainability. We also
believe that there is enough established practice, both in charities and in the corporate sector, to show the way.
Sustainability is one of the key issues of our time. We hope that this guidance paves the way for charities to
recognise, adapt to and benefit from that fact.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank everyone who has helped in the preparation of this guidance, including the support of all
the staff at CFDG.
Particular thanks are due to our working party:
Laura Bowman (Tudor Trust)
Caroline Emerton (formerly of WWF)
Eilish Kavanagh (Friends of the Earth)
Rachel Jackson (ACCA)
John Merivale (City Bridge Trust)
Alan McGill (PwC)
Monica Saini (Christian Aid)
Janet Slade (Charity Commission)
John Shaw (Oxfam)
Louise Posocco, (RNID)
Mark Walton (Every Action Counts)
41
Appendices
Appendices
A. Case Studies
In this guidance
1. The National Communities Resource Centre and integrated sustainability
2. Herefordshire Voluntary Action alter their travel modes
3. Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund on waste management
4. Bryncynon Strategy and their Environmental Management System
5. Arcola Theatre do energy-saving
6. RSPB work on their travel
7. Cancer Research UK and sustainable procurement
8. Artsadmin, environmental management and water
9. RNID – working with our employees
10. CFDG and sustainability
11. BT and the value of sustainability reporting
12. Ethical Property Company – delivering on our promises
13. The Church Commissioners on why and where they report
14. Oxfam, accountability and using the GRI G3 guidelines
9
11
13
19
21
22
23
24
25
26
32
35
37
40
Other sources of case studies
• Every Action Counts: www.everyactioncounts.org.uk/en/fe/page.asp?n1=230&n2=6
• Global Action Plan: www.globalactionplan.org.uk/SMECasestudy.aspx
• Business in the Community: www.bitc.org.uk/resources/case_studies/index.html
B. Sustainability Actions
All actions should be underpinned by engagement and consultation with staff in the charity, as laid out in the
chapter ‘Reporting on sustainability’. Judging staff engagement with sustainability will be key in reviewing
progress. You may wish to make staff engagement an action in itself, with defined targets.
For actions that have an approximately equal value in two different areas, such as energy and procurement, this
has been indicated in italics in brackets after the action. Evidently there is a lot of cross-over between
environmental and social actions, but this is so dependent on the circumstances of individual charities that we
have not indicated it here.
The actions listed here are accumulated from a number of different sources:
• Better Business Journey, Small Business Journey,
www.smallbusinessjourney.com/PublicationsPage.asp
• Changing the Way We Work, Every Action Counts,
www.everyactioncounts.org.uk/guides/greenofficev1.pdf
• Charity Sector Overview: energy saving opportunities for charitable organisations, Carbon Trust,
www.carbontrust.co.uk/publications
• “Conserving water in your business”, Environment Agency,
www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/topics/water/32070.aspx
• “Greening the Office”, Friends of the Earth,
www.green-office.org.uk/audit.php
• Greening the Third Sector, City Bridge Trust
www.bridgehousegrants.org.uk/CityBridgeTrust/Publications
• How to ‘green’ your workplace, Trade Unions Congress,
www.tuc.org.uk/extras/greenworkplace.pdf
• One Planet Living Sustainability Action Plan for small businesses, BioRegional Development Group,
www.bioregional.com/take_action/take_action_bus.htm
42
Appendices
Environmental
Energy
Reduce
energy use
General
Heating and
cooling
Lighting
Use efficient
equipment
General
Heating and
cooling
Lighting
Kitchen
Green your
energy
Equipment and appliances: make sure equipment and appliances are only
turned on when needed and that they are turned off at the end of the day and
when staff are away from their desks for lengthy periods; provide all staff with
simple guidelines for using equipment (waste).
Put up 'turn off' notices near appliances that use energy.
Do not boil kettles with more water than necessary (energy).
Check for damp and condensation at least once a year.
Ensure that equipment is labelled with its energy-use rating.
Keep all systems and filters clean and maintained; carry out regular building
maintenance, including window panes and frames, roof lights and doors.
Monitor electricity and gas bills to identify savings.
Advanced: start considering the ‘embodied’ energy used in the production
and transportation of items purchased, such as food and building materials
(see: www.bioregional-reclaimed.com).
Only turn on heating and air-conditioning when they are needed.
Use natural ventilation from windows and doors to cool and ventilate a
building, but not when the heating is on.
Don't use heating and air-conditioning at the same time; there should be a
band without heating or cooling between 19ºC and 24ºC.
Turn your thermostat down – offices should be heated to no more than 19ºC
and cooled no lower than 24ºC.
Cool fridges no lower than 3-4ºC.
Check draft-proofing, insulation in roofs and cavity walls, and insulation on
boilers, tanks and pipes.
Consider specifying triple glazing for new buildings and refurbishment.
Use natural light where possible, and install daylight sensors to turn off
artificial lights automatically when there is enough daylight.
Turn off lights when they are not needed.
Put up 'turn off' notices near lights.
Make sure horizontal blinds or external shading directs lights onto walls and
ceilings, not workstations.
Advanced: Install motion-sensitive lights.
Equipment and appliances: install efficient office equipment and appliances,
with high energy-efficiency ratings; install flat screen monitors for all
computers; use auto-timers/ 7-day timers to regulate the energy-use of
equipment and appliances, and set to energy-saving settings; consider auto
power-down after working hours; use sleep mode not screen savers on
computers.
Make sure equipment is correctly maintained.
Put heat-emitting equipment in cold places.
Install efficient heating and cooling systems, with high energy-efficiency
ratings.
Advanced: install a combined heat and power (CHP) system.
Install energy-efficient lighting, with high energy-efficiency ratings.
Install efficient kitchen appliances, with high energy-efficiency ratings.
Switch to a green energy supplier.
Switch to a service provider who offsets their carbon.
Consider engaging a broker for your energy supplies, which can result in a
saving over and above any extra cost of moving to green energy.
Advanced: install microgeneration devices (photovoltaic panels, solar
heating, and wind turbines).
43
Appendices
Waste
Reduce
Paper
Reuse
Paper
Other
materials
Recycle
General
Waste
management
General
Make all documents electronic where possible: reports can be emailed and
put on a website for downloading rather than/ alongside being printed and
sent; prioritise email (and telephone) over printed letters; incoming and
outgoing invoices can be emailed.
Print only when you need to, and print faxes straight to pdf.
Provide all staff with simple guidelines for how and when to use the printer
and photocopier, to reduce mistakes and waste paper (energy).
Set printers and photocopiers to automatic double-sided (duplex), black and
white printing; consider automatically printing two pages per side if readers
are comfortable with the resulting print size.
Move to low-impact printing, e.g. using less ink.
Use scrap paper for printing drafts and internal documents, and consider
using scrap paper to make notepads for staff; put a box for scrap paper next
to the printer.
Reuse packaging materials.
Hire or share infrequently-used equipment with other organisations
(procurement).
Donate unwanted equipment and furniture to reuse companies.
Order milk in returnable glass bottles (procurement).
Use refillable products (e.g. ink cartridges, cleaning products) (procurement).
Avoid buying non-recyclable materials; use ceramic cups and plates instead
of plastic ones (procurement).
Set up office recycling for paper, cardboard, plastic, tins, cans and glass;
recycling bins should be near workstations and it must be clear to staff what
products can be recycled and where. Many local authorities provide a free
recycling collection service for charities, but you will need to check with the
Waste Management Team/ Recycling Officer at your local authority.
Investigate possibilities for recycling other products: toner cartridges (if not
refilled), CDs, batteries, equipment.
Provide a composting area/ wormery for organic waste.
Advanced: implement a waste management system (see
measuring to manage: a how to guide (GG707):
http://www.envirowise.gov.uk/uk/Our-Services/Publications/GG707Measuring-to-manage-a-how-to-guide.html
Transport
Reduce the
need to
travel
Reduce the
impact of
travelling
General
Public
transport
Cycling
44
Provide for home-working where appropriate, e.g. by providing laptops,
remote access, and possibly an internet connection.
Install teleconferencing facilities, and provide training for all staff.
Institute a policy to promote the use of public transport for business purposes.
Consider providing all staff with a public transport pack with prices and times
of public transport available for travelling to work and on work business.
Publicise public transport options to all attendees for external meetings.
Hold meetings where they are public transport accessible.
Offer interest-free loans for public transport season tickets.
Provide secure cycle parking.
Provide showers and clothes lockers.
Sign up to the cycle to work scheme (for preference), or provide interest-free
loans for bikes and essential accessories.
Provide a mileage allowance for bicycling for business travel.
Buy a communal bike for short journeys, and link up with a local bike shop for
free/ reduced maintenance.
Look at free training and maintenance events.
Appendices
On foot
Car use
Car fleets
Air travel
Transport mode
Plane
Car
Bus
Rail
Underground
Tram/ light railway
Walking and cycling
Set up an equipment pool of lights, reflective clothing and accessories.
Put up a cycling notice board detailing routes, bike repairers and cycling
organisations.
Promote walking to meetings under half an hour’s walk away.
Promote the benefits of walking to work for those who travel short distances
by car.
Reduce taxi/ courier use, and use bicycle couriers where possible.
Promote car sharing/ pooling.
Encourage good driving techniques, which can reduce fuel consumption by
as much as 25%.
Buy ‘green’ cars for your fleet, if you have one. endnote i
Consider converting existing vehicles to use Liquid Petroleum Gas.
Ensure regular maintenance to maintain fuel efficiency and vehicle longevity.
Use rail instead of air where possible.
g CO2/ passenger km
105 (long haul) – 158 (short haul)
110
80
60
50
50
0
Source: www.london.gov.uk/mayor/environment/climate-change/docs/ccap_chapter4.pdf
Water
Reduce
General
Reuse
Water quality
General
General
Provide information for staff on the importance and practises of water
efficiency.
Make sure all appliances and equipment that use water are as water-efficient
as possible, and are well maintained.
Mend dripping taps and leaks, and make sure water pipes are protected
against bursting in cold weather.
Put up 'turn off' notices near appliances that use water.
Do not boil kettles with more water than necessary (energy).
Put cistern volume reducers (‘hippos’) in toilets.
Put water-saving devices in urinals.
Install dual-flush toilets.
Install spray taps.
Monitor water bills to identify savings, and check water metres at night/ when
no water is being used to identify any leakages.
Capture rain water for watering plants.
Use non-toxic cleaning products (biodiversity, procurement).
Remove bottled water dispensers and provide tap water for meetings
(procurement).
Advanced: Use non-toxic, lead- and emissions-free paint (biodiversity,
procurement).
Advanced: Use biodegradable inks (procurement).
45
Appendices
Procurement
Specifying
standards
Policy
General
Paper
Publications
Plastic
Financial
Working with
suppliers
46
General
Create a sustainable procurement policy, with guidelines on product
standards and staff procedures for purchasing. Suppliers should be aware of
your work and the values that accompany it, and this understanding can be
used to persuade suppliers to work with and adopt your criteria. Standards
should involve at least a commitment to human rights, decent working
conditions, living wages and basic standards of environmental protection
along the supply chain (CFDG’s policy is available to view on our website
(www.cfdg.org.uk/cfdg/influencing_sustainability.asp), and other examples
are available on CFDG’s document library
(www.cfdg.org.uk/crn/doc_search.asp)).
All products should be of the highest environmental standards where
economically feasible. In general this means that products should:
• Be as energy- and water-efficient as possible
• Be reused or recycled
• Be made of reusable or recyclable materials
• Be locally produced
• Have as long a lifespan as possible
• Come from manufacturers who have an accredited Environmental
Management System, typically ISO 14001 or BS 8555.
Paper should be:
• 100% recycled (from post-consumer waste)
• Printed with biodegradable inks
• Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certifiedii
Ensure that publications have high green printing standards:
• Print on both sides of the paper
• Use line spacing of no more than 1.5
• Lay out your publication with the minimum necessary white space
• Find a printer with an accredited Environmental Management System
(e.g. ISO 14001)
• Print the publication on 100% recycled paper (from post-consumer
waste), with biodegradable inks
• Avoid using varnishes or laminates during printing
• If an adhesive binding is necessary, do not use those containing
chlorinated organic compound
• If you send out free reports, mail a postcard or email out first, notifying
your recipients that the report is available if they want it and providing the
means for them to order a copy
• Label your publications with relevant environmental information about
how it was produced
Plastic should be:
• Recyclable
Consider the ethical status of your banking and investments (see:
www.charitysri.org)
Examine supply chains (including trading subsidiaries) and engage with
suppliers to improve the sustainability of supply chains, including:
• Outputs (e.g. branded materials, reports)
• Office suppliers, stationary and furniture
• Catering
• Financial services
• Utilities
• Building and facilities companies/ contractors
• ICT companies
• Travel agents
Sign up to a procurement code, e.g. the Mayor of London’s Green
Procurement Code
Appendices
Lifecycle
assessment
General
Advanced: Introduce a formal supply chain code of conduct for all of your
suppliers.
Advanced: Introduce PAS 2050:2008: Specification for the assessment of
the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services.
Biodiversity
Promote
biodiversity
Protect
biodiversity
Plants
Wildlife
Purchasing
Grow flowering and fruiting plants in the office or in outdoor spaces
Grow plants that attract butterflies and/ or birds
Put out food and water for birds
Buy non-toxic cleaning products (water, procurement)
Buy non-toxic, lead- and emissions-free paint (water, procurement)
Buy organic food (procurement)
Social
As discussed in the chapter Reporting on Sustainability, in the section on legislation, there are more legal
requirements for charities surrounding their dealings with people than there are around environmental issues.
Legal compliance on social issues is essential, but outside the scope of this guidance. However, there is a still
significant scope for improving practice above and beyond legal requirements.
Supporters
Donors
Volunteers
Develop a policy or code of practice for the charity’s relations with donors. This should reflect
key social sustainability principles, the need to develop good relationships with donors, and
the charity’s own values.
Read the Institute of Fundraising’s Codes of Fundraising Practice.
Develop a code for working with volunteers, including consultation with volunteers
themselves.
Research volunteer practice at Volunteering England’s Good Practice Bank:
www.volunteering.org.uk/Resources/goodpracticebank
Employees
Equality and
diversity
Working
conditions
Ensure that you have a policy of equality, regardless of disability, race, gender, faith, sexual
orientation or age.
Recruit locally and from diverse social and ethnic backgrounds; advertise jobs in nontraditional places.
Ensure that part-time staff have the opportunity to take up their employment rights, which are
the same as those of full-time staff.
Support parents, with maternity and paternity benefits above the statutory minimum.
Ensure that all premises are disabled-accessible.
Work towards the Investor in Diversity Standard.
Ensure that your website is accessible to all.
Introduce flexible working (e.g. core hours, a time off in lieu (TOIL) policy, job sharing,
sabbaticals, home working, reduced time).
Ensure that all staff have access to a union and the right to collective bargaining.
Ensure that there is a clear and accessible complaints procedure for all staff (and indeed all
stakeholders).
Provide the correct equipment and provide training on its use.
Encourage a quiet office atmosphere with screens between desks where appropriate, and a
policy of quiet ringtones.
47
Appendices
Staff
development
Consultation
Ethics and
remuneration
Community
Involvement
Offer reduced gym membership.
Promote local running and cycling routes.
Put plants in the office.
Build skills assessment and development into staff appraisals.
Develop an active plan of skills development and skills sharing for staff.
Work towards the Investors in Volunteers award.
Consult employees on new and re-approved organisational policies, and on the development
of the charity.
Create an employee handbook for new staff on ‘how we work’.
Consider offering ethical options for staff pensions.
Consider setting up payroll giving in your office, and advise staff on the benefits and process
for payroll giving.
Consider showing wage transparency.
Set a maximum wage multiplier between the highest and lowest paid staff members,
referenced against sector norms.
Ensure that all staff are paid a living wage, including auxiliary staff.
Allow your staff one or two days a year to volunteer.
Plan staff away days or events to benefit a community and involve voluntary work as well as
team-building and bonding.
Work towards the Investing in Volunteers for Employers award.
Offer quality work experience for local schools/ colleges.
Promote cultural awareness in all projects.
Funders
Consult with
funders
Manage the
relationship
with funders
Regard your funders as stakeholders and consult with them as and when appropriate.
Nominate an appropriate person to manage the relationship with each funder, to provide the
funder with a single point of contact in the charity, and to give one staff member responsibility
for managing the relationship and any reporting requirements.
Ensure a good handover if the nominated staff member leaves and another person takes
over managing the funder relationship.
Keep records of relationships with all funders.
C. Carrying out a Sustainability Audit
Carrying out a sustainability audit will allow you to identify exactly what kind of impacts you have and the timing
and scale of the action you need to take. You can get a consultant in to do an audit for you, or you can do it inhouse.
1. Review your organisation’s sustainability impacts
Look at each impact area and estimate your impact(s) as accurately as possible. Focus initially on the key
areas: energy, waste, transport, water, procurement, biodiversity; stakeholder engagement, supporters,
employees, and funders.
Where to look for information on your organisation’s performance:
Impact area
Current procedures
Energy (gas and electricity)
Waste
48
Where to find the information
Operating procedures and information on process
and operations
Bills and meter readings
Waste disposal and waste recycling records,
Units measured in
N/A
kWh/ m2
Tonnes/ year
Appendices
Recycling rate
Water
Travel
Resources
Procurement
Staff behaviour
Employment practices
Staff contentment
Stakeholder engagement
Funder satisfaction
Legal compliance
contractor bills and counting up bags
Recycling/ total waste records
Water bills
Expenses and travel agent information
Supplier invoices
Supplier analysis and supplier check lists
Spot checks or questionnaires
Organisational policies, staff handbook
Staff turnover
Individual appraisals
Surveys
Number and length of funding agreements
Regulatory consents, authorisations and permits
% rate
m3
CO2 emissions
Reams/ year etc.
N/A
% PCs left on overnight,
recycling rate etc.
N/A
Annual figures
Verbal comments
Verbal comments
Verbal comments
N/A
You may wish to convert all your environmental impacts into their carbon equivalent. Defra provide a useful list
of conversion factors for measuring impacts in carbon:
www.defra.gov.uk/environment/business/reporting/conversion-factors.htm
Social impacts are more difficult to measure than environmental impacts and will inevitably require some
qualitative measurement, e.g. are staff content, does the local community value the charity, do they feel it
benefits them? Social impacts will vary more widely from charity to charity than environmental impacts, so it is
necessary to devise an auditing process suitable to the nature and mission of each individual charity.
For more detailed information on social audit, see the website of the Social Audit Network:
www.socialauditnetwork.org.uk.
2. Assess the significance of your impacts
Next you will need to assess the significance of the impacts you have identified, in order to prioritise your action
and structure your sustainability management plan. Envirowise suggest that assessment does not have to
include every last product or raw material used by your charity, but you should consider categories of activities,
products or services most likely to have significant impacts. Your assessment should consider normal working
conditions, as well as foreseeable emergencies.
Impacts - and this pertains to environmental and social impacts - should be considered significant if they are:
a) controlled by legislation
b) have the potential to cause demonstrable damage to the environment or harm to people
c) are of concern to stakeholders
In addition you should consider:
a) the scale of the impact
b) the severity of the impact
c) the probability of occurrence (not always relevant)
d) the duration of impact
e) the potential regulatory and legal exposure
f) the difficulty and cost of changing the impact
g) the concerns of stakeholders
h) the effect on the organisation’s reputationiii
3. Carbon footprinting
The Carbon Trust defines a carbon footprint as: ‘the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and
indirectly by an [individual, event, organisation, product] expressed as CO2 emissions.’iv
You may wish to do a carbon footprint to give yourself a single target figure for reductions, although this is not
necessary. Carbon footprinting is a useful tool for establishing an overall figure of environmental impact, against
49
Appendices
which it is easy to plan reductions and publicise achievements. They are established by multiplying the amount
of a resource used, e.g. 1,000 kWh of electricity, by its conversion factor, which for electricity is 0.52.
Measuring your environmental impact via carbon is a useful measure, but simply converting some
environmental actions into their equivalent C02 focuses all action towards climate change. Whilst this is of
course of prime importance, a more holistic view of sustainability is in the end more helpful, and generally more
relevant to charities.
See also:
• Carbon footprinting tool: www.carbontrust.co.uk
• Business Link provides useful advice on various environmental assessment techniques:
www.businesslink.gov.uk (Environment and efficiency > Sustainability in business > How to use
environmental assessment techniques)
D. Management Approaches
The full copy of the Green Dragon Environmental Standard, which is available by contacting them, contains a
very useful appendix which shows how the Green Dragon Standard, the British Standard 8555 (on which the
Acorn Scheme is based), ISO 14001 and EMAS relate to one another.
PQASSO
www.ces-vol.org.uk
PQASSO is the Practical Quality Assurance System for Small Organisations. It is a straightforward, user-friendly
quality system intended to help organisations to run more effectively and efficiently. It is built around twelve
topics or quality areas, offering a flexible approach to quality that allows organisations to work at their own pace.
PQASSO has been recently updated and its new 3rd edition has a greater focus on environmental and
sustainability issues.
Changing the way we work
www.everyactioncounts.org.uk/guides/greenofficev1.pdf
Every Action Counts is a programme that ‘provides advice and support to voluntary and community
organisations which are looking to reduce their impact on the environment, tackle climate change and improve
their local area.’v They published a guide called ‘Changing the Way We Work’ in 2008 which addresses the
environmental impacts of voluntary and community organisations under the headings of:
• Energy and climate change
• Waste and resources
• Shopping ethically and procurement
• Travelling wisely
• Caring for where you live and work
• Saving water
The guide looks at:
• why organisations should take action
• how environmental impacts relate to the VCS
• how to involve your organisation and developing a sustainability action plan
• how to take action
• further sources of information
50
Appendices
One Planet Living
www.oneplanetliving.org
One Planet Living (OPL) is an expression of how to be sustainable: if globally we live within the resources of our
single planet without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same, then we will be sustainable.
OPL, which was developed by the BioRegional Development Group and WWF (UK), takes a holistic view of
how to achieve sustainability by addressing areas of environmental impact alongside community involvement.
OPL is founded on the belief that whilst human society has directly caused much environmental degradation,
society also holds the key to rectifying those problems. In particular, OPL is founded on a belief that strong
communities are founded on a sense of social and environmental responsibility.
OPL is set out in ten key, interrelated principles, around which actions are grouped:
1.
2.
3.
Zero Carbon
Zero Waste
Sustainable Transport
4.
Local and Sustainable
Materials
Local and Sustainable
Food
Sustainable Water
Natural Habitats and
Wildlife
Culture and Heritage
Equity and Fairtrade
Health and Happiness
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Achieve net CO2 emissions of zero
Eliminate waste flows to landfill and for incineration
Reduce reliance on private vehicles and achieve major reductions of CO2
emissions from transport
Transform materials supply to the point where it has a net positive impact
on the environment and local economy
Transform food supply to the point where it has a net positive impact on the
environment, local economy and peoples' well-being
Achieve a positive impact on local water resources and supply
Regenerate degraded environments and halt biodiversity loss
Protect and build on local cultural heritage and diversity
Ensure a positive impact on other communities
Increase health and quality of life of community members and others
BioRegional Development Group have also developed a template Sustainability Action Plan (SAP) for small
businesses: www.bioregional.com/take_action/take_action_bus.htm. This provides a wide range of actions in
each of the ten areas shown above.
Green Dragon Environmental Standard
www.greendragonems.com
The Green Dragon Environmental Standard is a staged Environmental Management System (EMS), which
gives organisations a manageable way to implement an EMS at the level that suits their organisation. There are
five levels in the scheme, each of which leads to a UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) accredited
EMS. Level four of the scheme puts organisations at the right level to apply for ISO14001 (see below) and level
five enables application to EMAS (see below).
The standard incorporates five key principles:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Continual environmental improvement
Compliance with environmental legislation
Prevention of pollution
Communication of environmental issues
Environmental Management systems principles
a. Planning
b. Taking action
c. Checking progress
d. Reviewing achievements
For a full copy of the standard, see the Green Dragon Standard website. The full copy includes not only detail
on the principles and different levels, but a useful appendix showing how the requirements of the standard relate
to ISO14001, BS 8555 (on which the Acorn Scheme is based) and EMAS.
51
Appendices
The Acorn Scheme
www.iema.net/ems/acorn_scheme
The Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA) Acorn Scheme is an officially recognised
EMS standard recommended by the government. It offers a convenient step by step approach to environmental
management using the British Standard BS8555.vi Acorn breaks EMS implementation down into a series of five
logical, pragmatic phases. Each phase is further subdivided into a number of individual stage profiles which
correspond to the Acorn achievement criteria. On completion of all five phases an organisation has a functional
EMS. A further phase (phase six) is available for organisations wishing to progress to ISO 14001 or EMAS.
The Acorn scheme is particularly flexible because it is structured to accommodate all types of organisation, a
flexibility that is aided by a self-determined time frame for implementation and a linking of environmental
improvements to ‘business’ competitiveness.
The Acorn Scheme phases
ISO 14001
www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/management_standards/iso_9000_iso_14000
The International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) created the 14000 environmental management standards,
which are now the most rigorous and widely used standards across the globe for environmental management.
ISO 140001 provides the requirements for an EMS, which means providing ‘a framework for a holistic, strategic
approach to an organisation’s environmental policy, plans and actions.’vii
ISO 14001:2004 ‘gives the generic requirements for an environmental management system. The underlying
philosophy is that whatever the organisation's activity, the requirements of an effective EMS are the same…
Because ISO 14001:2004 does not lay down levels of environmental performance, the standard can to be
implemented by a wide variety of organisations, whatever their current level of environmental maturity.
However, a commitment to compliance with applicable environmental legislation and regulations is required,
along with a commitment to continual improvement – for which the EMS provides the framework.’viii
Eco-management and audit scheme
www.iema.net/ems/emas
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/emas/toolkit/
The Eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS) is a voluntary initiative designed to improve organisations’
environmental performance, through evaluation, reporting and continuous improvement. Since 2001 EMAS has
required the EMS used to be ISO 14001; many organisations progress from ISO 14001 to EMAS and maintain
certification to both.
52
Appendices
Small and medium-sized enterprises (those with less than 250 employees) are encouraged to enter the
scheme. ‘Some deviations from the EMAS requirements to avoid administrative burden are allowed… to
encourage higher participation in the scheme.’ix
To receive EMAS registration an organisation must comply with the following steps:
1. Conduct an environmental review considering all environmental aspects of the organisation’s activities,
products and services, methods to assess these, its legal and regulatory framework and existing
environmental management practices and procedures.
2. In the light of the results of the review, establish an effective environmental management system aimed at
achieving the organisation’s environmental policy defined by the top management. The management system
needs to set responsibilities, objectives, means, operational procedures, training needs, monitoring and
communication systems.
3. Carry out an environmental audit assessing in particular the management system in place and conformity
with the organisation’s policy and programme as well as compliance with relevant environmental regulatory
requirements.
4. Provide a statement of its environmental performance which lays down the results achieved against the
environmental objectives and the future steps to be undertaken in order to continuously improve the
organisation’s environmental performance.
E. Key Performance Indicators
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
Sustainability Reporting Guidelines
www.globalreporting.org
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Materials
Energy
Water
Emissions, effluents and waste
Biodiversity
Products and services
Compliance
Transport
Labour practices and decent work
Human rights
Society
Product responsibility
Envirowise
KPIs for specific sectors
www.envirowise.gov.uk
• Electronics
• Food and Drink
• Furniture
• Hospitality
• Packaging
• Printing
• Surface Finishing
• Transport
• Whiteware
Defra
Environmental Key Performance Indicators:
Reporting Guidelines for UK Business
www.defra.gov.uk/environment
• Emissions to air
o Greenhouse gases
o Acid Rain, Eutrophication and Smog
Precursors
o Dust and particles
o Ozone Depleting Substances
o Volatile Organic Compounds
o Metal emissions to air
• Emissions to water
o Nutrients and organic pollutants
o Metal emissions to water
• Emissions to land
o Pesticides and fertilisers
o Metal emissions to land
o Acids and organic pollutants
o Waste (landfill, incinerated, recycled)
o Radioactive waste
• Resource use
o Water use and abstraction
o Natural gas
o Oil
o Metals
o Coal
o Minerals
o Aggregates
o Forestry
o Agriculture
53
Appendices
Global Compact
Principles
www.unglobalcompact.org/AboutTheGC
•
•
•
•
Human rights
Labour standards
Environment
Anti-Corruption
F. Useful Links
By topic
General
• Business Link: www.businesslink.gov.uk
• Business in the Community: www.bitc.org.uk
• Charity Commission, The:
www.charity-commission.gov.uk
• Charities Facilities Management Group:
www.upkeep.org.uk/cfmg
• City Bridge Trust: Greening the Third Sector:
www.bridgehousegrants.org.uk/CityBridgeTrust/P
ublications/
• Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs, The (Defra):
www.defra.gov.uk/environment
• Direct.gov:
www.direct.gov.uk/en/Environmentandgreenerlivi
ng/index.htm
• Environment Agency, The:
www.environment-agency.gov.uk
• Every Action Counts:
www.everyactioncounts.org.uk
• Friends of the Earth:
www.green-office.org.uk/audit.php
www.foe.org.uk/living/index.html
• ICAEW: Sustainability:
www.icaew.com/sustainability
• London Sustainability Exchange:
www.lsx.org.uk/resources/voluntarycommunityfait
h_page2791.aspx
• Small Business Journey:
www.smallbusinessjourney.com
• SustainAbility: www.sustainability.com
• Sustainability at Work:
www.sustainabilityatwork.org.uk
• Sustainable Development Commission, The:
www.sdcommission.org.uk/pages/forbusiness.html
• UK Green Building Council, Organisational
measurement and reporting (aimed at a different
sector, but still very useful): www.ukgbc.org
54
Energy
• Carbon Trust: Charity Sector Overview: energy
saving opportunities for charitable organisations:
www.carbontrust.co.uk/publications
• Consumer Direct:
www.consumerdirect.gov.uk
• Energy Helpline, The: www.energyhelpline.com
• Energy Saving Trust:
www.energysavingtrust.org.uk
• Energy Star: www.energystar.gov
• Envirowise: www.envirowise.gov.uk
• Friends of the Earth:
www.green-office.org.uk/audit.php
www.foe.org.uk/living/index.html
• One Planet Living: www.oneplanetliving.org
• Renewable Energy Association, The:
www.r-e-a.net
• Sustainability at Work:
www.sustainabilityatwork.org.uk
Waste
• Bioregional Reclaimed:
www.bioregional-reclaimed.com
• Environment Agency, The:
www.environment-agency.gov.uk
• Envirowise:
www.envirowise.gov.uk (waste management)
www.envirowise.gov.uk/uk/waste.html
www.envirowise.gov.uk/uk/Recycling.html
• Friends of the Earth:
www.greenoffice.org.uk/audit.php?goingto=factsheet2
• Recycle now: www.recyclenow.com
• Waste and Resources Action Programme:
www.wrap.org.uk/businesses/index.html
• Waste Online: www.wasteonline.org.uk
• Waste Watch: www.wastewatch.org.uk
• Waterwise: www.waterwise.org.uk
Appendices
Transport
• Cycle to work:
www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/sustainable/cycling/cycletowo
rkschemeimplementat5732
• Department for Transport:
www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/sustainable
• Efficient driving:
http://campaigns.direct.gov.uk/actonco2/home/on
-the-move/driving-your-car.html
• London car clubs:
www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/smarterdriving/7549.as
px
• Liftshare: www.liftshare.com
• What Green Car: www.whatgreencar.com
Water
• Envirowise: www.envirowise.gov.uk/water
• Environment Agency, The:
www.environment-agency.gov.uk
• Waterwise: www.waterwise.org.uk
Procurement
• BioRegional Reclaimed:
www.bioregional-reclaimed.com
• Charities Facilities Management Group:
www.upkeep.org.uk/cfmg
• Charity SRI (Socially Responsible Investment):
www.charitysri.org
• Ethical Trading Initiative: www.ethicaltrade.org
• Friends of the Earth: www.greenoffice.org.uk/audit.php?goingto=directory
• In Kind Direct: www.inkinddirect.org
• Lifecycle assessment: BSI Publicly Available
Standard (PAS) 2050:2008:
www.bsigroup.com/en/Standards-andPublications/Industry-Sectors/Energy/PAS-2050/
• Mayor of London’s Green Procurement code,
The: www.greenprocurementcode.co.uk
o Product directory:
www.greenprocurementcodedirectory.co.uk
Biodiversity
• Butterfly Conservation: www.butterflyconservation.org/downloads/48/gardening.html
• Defra: www.defra.gov.uk/wildlifecountryside/biodiversity
• Garden Organic: www.gardenorganic.org.uk
• Local environmental records centre and local
biodiversity action plans:
www.ukbap.org.uk/GenPageText.aspx?id=57
• RSPB: www.rspb.org.uk
• Soil Association, The (on organic food):
www.soilassociation.org/web/sa/psweb.nsf/A4/in
dex.html
• UK Biodiversity Action Plan: www.ukbap.org.uk
Legislation
• NetRegs: www.netregs.gov.uk
Environmental management
• Acorn Scheme, The:
www.iema.net/acorn/acornhome
• Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS):
www.emas.org.uk
• Changing the way we work:
www.everyactioncounts.org.uk/guides/greenoffic
ev1.pdf
• Green Dragon Environmental Standard:
www.greendragonems.com
• International Organisation for Standardisation:
www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/management_sta
ndards/iso_9000_iso_14000
• One Planet Living:
www.oneplanetliving.org
Accounting and reporting:
• ACCA, Sustainability and the Accountant:
http://uk.accaglobal.com/uk/members/publication
s/gbs/
• Accounting for Sustainability:
www.accountingforsustainability.org
• Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting
Research: www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~csearweb
• Fédération des Experts Comptables Européens
(FEE): Our work > Sustainability: www.fee.be
• Greenhouse Gas Protocol, The:
www.ghgprotocol.org
• Government financial reporting manual:
www.financialreporting.gov.uk/Sustainability_Reporting.htm
• ICAEW, Sustainability: the role of accountants:
www.icaew.com
• IFAC Sustainability Framework:
http://web.ifac.org/sustainabilityframework/overview
Assurance standards:
• AA 1000 Assurance Standard, AccountAbility:
www.accountability21.net
• ISAE 3000, International Auditing and Assurance
Standards Board: www.ifac.org/IAASB
• GRI Guidelines: www.globalreporting.org
Social sustainability:
• Business Link (Employing people > Employing
different types of worker > Employing older
workers): www.businesslink.gov.uk
• Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development, The: www.cipd.co.uk
• Employers forum on disability:
www.employers-forum.co.uk
55
Appendices
• Ethical Trading Initiative: www.ethicaltrade.org
• Equality and Human Rights Commission, The:
www.equalityhumanrights.com
• Institute of Directors, The: www.iod.com
• Institute of Fundraising, Codes of Practice:
www.institute-of-fundraising.org.uk/bestpractice
• International Labour Organisation: www.ilo.org
• Investors in Diversity:
www.nationalcentrefordiversity.com/iid
• Investors in People: www.investorsinpeople.co.uk
• Investors in Volunteers (quality mark):
http://iiv.investinginvolunteers.org.uk
• Investors in Volunteers for Employers (quality
mark): http://iive.investinginvolunteers.org.uk
• National Centre for Diversity:
www.nationalcentrefordiversity.com
• Stonewall: www.stonewall.org.uk
• Trade Unions Congress (TUC): www.tuc.org.uk
• Work Foundation, The:
www.theworkfoundation.com/difference/e4wlb.as
px
• Workforce Hub: www.ukworkforcehub.org.uk
Funding and assistance
This is very brief list of a few places where you can
get more help with funding environmental
improvements. There will be more, and more local
and regional organisations you can also apply to.
• Business Link > Grants and Support Directory:
www.businesslink.gov.uk
• Carbon Trust: www.carbontrust.co.uk
• Global Action Plan provides a wide range of
environmental support for all organisations:
www.globalactionplan.org.uk/SME.aspx
• Green Grants Machine:
www.greengrantsmachine.co.uk
• Low Carbon Buildings Programme:
www.berr.gov.uk/energy/environment/etf/lcbp/pa
ge30472.html
• Waste and Resources Action Programme:
www.wrap.org.uk/wrap_corporate/funding/index.h
tml
G. Bibliography
A Guide to Producing IDB Biodiversity Action Plans,
ada, Defra, Natural England,
www.defra.gov.uk/environ/fcd/policy/idbrev/idbbapgu
idance.pdf
A Consumer’s Guide to Retail Carbon Offsets, Clean
Air, Cool Planet, www.cleanaircoolplanet.org/ConsumersGuidetoCarbonOffsets.pdf
Accounting for Sustainability, Accounting for
Sustainability,
www.accountingforsustainability.org/output/Page146
.asp (Phase II)
Environmental Key Performance Indicators:
Reporting Guidelines for UK Business, Defra,
Trucost,
www.defra.gov.uk/environment/business/reporting/p
df/envkpi-guidelines.pdf
Going Green: Charities and Environmental
Responsibility, The Charity Commission,
www.charitycommission.gov.uk/publications/rs17.asp
Losing Ground, Friends of the Earth, Sawit Watch
and LifeMosaic,
www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/losinggroundsummary.pdf
Organisational measurement and reporting, UK
Green Building Council,
56
www.ukgbc.org/site/resources/showResourceDetails
?id=217
Our Common Future, World Commission on
Environment and Development
www.worldinbalance.net/agreements/1987brundtland.php
Reporting Statement: Operating and Financial
Review, Accounting Standards Board,
www.frc.org.uk/images/uploaded/documents/Reporti
ng%20Statements%20OFR%20web.pdf
Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, Global
Reporting Initiative,
www.globalreporting.org/ReportingFramework/Repo
rtingFrameworkDownloads
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol: A Corporate
Reporting and Accounting Standard, revised edition,
World Business Council for Sustainability
Development, World Resources Institute,
www.ghgprotocol.org/standards/corporate-standard
The Living Planet Report, WWF,
www.panda.org/news_facts/publications
The Materiality Report: Aligning Strategy,
Performance and Reporting, A Briefing,
AccountAbility, BT, LRQA,
www.resourcesaver.org/file/toolmanager/CustomO1
6C45F75795.pdf
Endnotes
i
This will reduce your C02 emissions, reduce your fuel costs,
reduce the NICs payable on company car benefit tax (since these
are linked to cars’ C02 emissions) and improve your cashflow
(since from 2009 allowances will be linked to car C02 emissions).
The NICs payable are worked out by multiplying the cash
equivalent of car and fuel benefits with the Class 1A NICs
percentage rate. The percentage rate increases with the
approved C02 emissions of the car,
www.hmrc.gov.uk/guidance/ca33.pdf
ii
This is least favoured option because it means it is still virgin
rather than recycled paper, although it comes from sustainably
managed forests; paradoxically recycled paper can occasionally
be FSC certified if the chain of manufacturers (mill, paper-makers,
printing company etc. all have FSC certification).
iii
www.envirowise.gov.uk
iv
www.carbontrust.co.uk/solutions/CarbonFootprinting/what_is_a_c
arbon_footprint.htm
v
www.everyactioncounts.org.uk/
vi
BS 8555: guide to the phased implementation of an
environmental management system including the use of
environmental performance evaluation.
vii
www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/management_standards/iso_9000
_iso_14000/iso_14000_essentials.htm
viii
Ibid.
ix
EMAS website:
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/emas/about/participate/index_en.
htm
57