Are you sat there thinking that your business isn’t yet required to produce sustainability documents, yet tenders and clients are requesting them? You’re not alone!
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It seems that business are thinking far into the future when it comes to awarding business. That includes requesting documents from small business.
You might not need to produce any Environmental and Social Governance yet, but ensuring that you’re compliant with emerging regulations and compliance means you can consider yourself future-proofed.
Not only that, but even if they aren’t requested, simply having them can mean you’re more likely to win new business.
That’s right, people are getting ahead of the game now in order to set themselves apart. There’s plenty of opportunity in the sustainability space to be proactive, so why not do it?
Oh, we know why. There’s little direction in the space.
Well don’t be left behind trying to figure out what you need to do in order to stand out. Get straight into this blog and you’ll soon discover. If you’ve got the time to spare, you’ll certainly reap the reward later down the line.
What documents might you need to have?
If it’s not being asked of you, it’s difficult to know what requirements you need to meet. As a general rule of thumb, take a look at the following. These are the documents that create good foundations and offer the greatest immediate benefit:
- Environmental policy statement
- Energy management plan
- Waste management plan
- Sustainability action plan
- Environmental compliance reports
- Carbon management documentation
- Sustainable supply chain guidelines
- Sustainability metrics and KPI’s
We know what you’re thinking – that’s a lot of documentation. But many of them connect to one another and by completing one you can extract bits for others. Let us show you how.
Start with your Environmental Policy Statement (EPS)
It’s always good to start with a document that gives you a great overview on what your sustainability goals are. This creates better understanding of what you’re trying to achieve and in turn, creates great starting points for other documents.
Inside your Environmental Policy Statement, you’ll create headline information needed for your:
- Energy management plan
- Waste management plan
- Water usage plan
Move onto your Sustainability Action Plan (SAP)
Based on the goals you set our in your Environmental Policy Statement, you can easily flush out a Sustainability Action Plan. The former states your goals, the latter details how you’re going to achieve them.
Your Sustainability Action Plan covers the same areas such as energy, waste and water. But it contains a roadmap of measurable objectives.
Want to reduce waste sent to landfill… that’s your Environmental Policy Statement. Know who you’re going to hire to assist with that? That’s the Sustainability Action Plan.
Bulking out the smaller pieces
Once you’ve established these two, you can move forward with your waste, energy and water management plans. Grab the goals from the Environmental Policy Statement, the how-to’s in your Sustainability Action Plan, and then build on these with specific details.
These are then used as supportive documents and form the finer details for bigger documents elsewhere such as Sustainability Metrics and KPI’s.
By creating Waste and Energy Management Plans, you’re then able to look into Carbon Management Documentation. It relies on the data input from previous documents and incorporates goals from the Sustainability Action Plan.
But the good thing about getting your Carbon Management Documentation in order, is that you then have the high-level information needed to write Annual Sustainability Reports for stakeholders.
Stop writing documents, start combining them
At this point, you’ve done 80% of the work. An Environmental Policy Statement, Sustainability Action Plan as well as a waste, energy, water and carbon management plans. They all allow you to form the following documents:
- Sustainability Metrics and KPI’s
- Environmental Compliance Reports
- Stakeholder Communication Plan
Why? Well you’re Sustainability Metric’s and KPI’s have already been set out in your plan. How you’re going to measure, what you’re going to measure and what is determined as success.
While your Environmental Compliance Reports are simple reports that determine whether you are doing what you said you were going to do. While it’s not a simple tick box of yes and no, all you need to demonstrate is you working towards your goals.
Then finally, your Stakeholder Communication Plan. A well-presented way of showing your metrics, KPI’s, reports and goals. Simple.
What’s the overview of creating these documents?
Establish a foundation: Create your Environmental Policy Statement and Sustainability Action Plan, including foundations for sustainability goals and priorities.
Add in the detail: Build on how you will meet those goals with information surrounding waste, energy, water, carbon management plans.
Measuring success: Your Sustainability Metric’s and KPI document will be able to quantity your efforts.
Keep yourself accountable: Then it’s a case of presenting results with Compliance Reports and Stakeholder Communication Presentations to show and build trust.
Four steps is all it takes to set yourself apart from the competition and create the documentation that complies with Environmental and Social Governance. Are you ready?
