The theme of climate change in sustainability reporting

One of the most severe threats facing the planet today is climate change. The main challenge with climate change is that once the damage had been done, undoing it can take decades or centuries.

Think of companies that are rapidly clearing forest cover in the Far East and Amazon. Some of these trees are over 100 years, and they might require more time to grow. This reality has made most companies take climate change as the first theme in sustainability reporting. Here is a closer look at climate change to help you make a decision of whether to also adopt it as a theme in your sustainability efforts.

A brief about sustainability reporting

Sustainability reporting is the process of communicating the sustainability performance of a company. The process focuses on ultimately creating a report on a company’s social, economic, and environmental impacts. Although what is finally presented for all stakeholders to see is a report document, the process of generating it touches all areas of operations. Therefore, you need to follow an appropriate framework, such as Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) or Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI), when creating it.

More importantly, you need to understand the main principles used in sustainability reporting. These principles help to ensure that reporting organizations provide the right information to help stakeholders make the right decisions. Here are some of the main principles used in ESG sustainability reporting:

• Materiality. 
• Accuracy and completeness. 
• Comparability and consistency. 
• Stakeholder responsiveness. 
• Balance and neutrality. 
• Accountability and neutrality. 

When creating your sustainability reports, it is important to be as detailed as possible. With climate change as a common theme, the primary objective is how to mitigate a business’s impacts. Here are the common considerations companies when reporting about climate change.

The dangers of climate change

Companies consider themselves part of society, and therefore, anything that threatens the community is a danger to them too. When a company releases emissions that accelerate global warming, the chances are that it will also be affected. Therefore, sustainability reporting goals for most organizations at the local level involve targeting activities that can reduce the primary causes of climate change. These include adopting more efficient production methods, shifting to sustainable energy, and cutting down wastes.

While these efforts, such as the installation of new and more effective solar panels to harvest solar energy, can come at a cost, businesses are looking at it as a form of investment. In the long term, the efforts for sustainability helps to win more stakeholders to your fold by telling them, “look we can run business without harming the social, economic, and environmental realms of our society.”

ESG sustainability reporting and entire supply chain

Making your operations sustainable and achieving sustainability reporting goals is only the first step. It is a great one, but it is not until more parties get onboard will the problem of climate change be wrestled down. As a business, you can spread your tentacles and make more operators in the supply chain operate sustainably. So, how do you go about it?

The best method is to assist them in understanding the benefits of sustainability reporting. This means that just as you have noted the importance of cutting down emissions, recycling water, and social justice, they will join the train and help to make the world a better place. Remember that even if their operations do not directly impact the environment, they can still help address the challenge of climate change by working with groups that are involved directly. Everyone has a role to play in making the globe sustainable.

Climate change and global warming are expected to remain the dominant themes in sustainability reporting because of their threat to the planet. Remember to make the efforts for sustainability progressive so that your company builds on current successes for faster growth. Note that you can simplify the entire process by working with appropriate sustainability reporting software.