Getting more from third party sustainability services
Friday before last saw the twelfth meeting of the Corporate Sustainability Mastermind Group, held in the medieval Undercroft at the wonderful Live Theatre in Newcastle. Lunch was in the award-winning Caffe Vivo which is part of the Theatre complex. The third rule of CoSM is “No dreary executive buffets.”*
The topic of the meeting was “Third Party Services” and members shared their experiences, positive and negative, of different services provided by private and public sector organisations. I’m not going to share the heroes and zeroes emerging from that conversation (that’s for the members), but here’s a sample of some of the wisdom emerging:
- Selection criteria for services: compatibility, support, track record, ease of use;
- Integration capability of software is critical, otherwise the tail wags the dog;
- Data needs translating into the language of the stakeholder concerned before it can be used effectively for engagement;
- Intellectual property concerns can stifle work with public bodies;
- Energy Performance Contracts (EPCs) can give guaranteed savings with no capital outlay;
- Carbon offsetting isn’t a big seller in todays’ markets, customers want to see tangible change;
- Demand response electricity contracts can be very cost effective.
- Waste contracts can be made more efficient by paying by weight/volume of material rather than per lift;
- LCA can’t measure potential, just a snap shot, which discriminates against maturing supply chains;
- LCA is only as good as the database behind it;
- LCA quality can be improved using sensitivity analysis to identify key pieces of data for further analysis;
- There are too many disclosure projects, some with dubious methodologies, fuelling suspicions that it has become a self-serving industry;
- Sometimes people take part in schemes because ‘we’re scared not to’ rather than any internal or external benefit;
- Some of those top ranked for disclosure in the past have since been shamed, so good performance in such schemes shouldn’t be relied upon.
* The first rule is “No Powerpoint” and the second rule is the Chatham House Rule.
The Mastermind Group consists of sustainability practitioners from some of the world’s leading organisations who meet quarterly to learn from each other through structured discussion. If you’d like to know more, please drop me a line.