Going green

Until now, emissions’ reporting has been a voluntary process for most organisations, as part of their corporate social responsibility programmes. In April 2010, the UK’s Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) scheme switched carbon reporting to a legally mandatory requirement for approximately 5,000 UK companies. Those companies included in the scheme will be required to pay in advance for their energy-related carbon emissions, and although most of this payment will be recycled to participants there will be stringent penalties for the failure to accurately report on energy use. 

The quality, accuracy and frequency of emissions data gathering will continue to increase. Until recently, energy use and carbon emissions were often only calculated once a year for the annual report, or quarterly at most. To stay ahead of the new compliance environment and manage reductions, data will need to be gathered more frequently – particularly for those organisations using half hourly metering. The effect that this has on the volume of data