The Best Ways to Measure and Manage Your Environmental Footprint

Any business hoping to thrive in this day and age must be able to demonstrate a commitment to sustainability, which means operating in a manner that does the least damage to the environment. That’s because it’s what is expected from governments, regulatory bodies, and increasingly, customers too.

But what does it mean for you, and how can you learn to measure and manage the impact your business is having on the environment? Well, measuring your environmental footprint will require that you consider the overall impact of your organisation’s activities on the natural environment in a single number. It’s easier said than done (so it’s worth talking to a specialist company to assist you or act as a consultant – if you don’t have an expert in-house), but here are a few points to steps to work through if you want to try it on your own first.

Start by defining what success would look like

First of all, you’ll only be able to manage your environmental footprint if you’ve set yourself some goals, and then broken those goals down into interim targets. For example, one of the pressures you’re likely to face is stringent environmental regulations on your business – so why not make one of your goals to ensure that regulatory approvals are rapid? Or how about appointing someone to stay ahead of the curve to ensure that you’re taking a proactive approach to regulation?

Choose some key impacts to
Once you’ve identified your goals, you’ll need to decide upon some key impacts to measure.  Your environmental footprint is multi-faceted, so you might want to look at key indicators such as the amount of materials you’re using in a year, the amount of energy (and its type) and the amount of water you’re using. Don’t forget to factor in emissions, waste, effluents and the environmental effects of transport when you’re looking at key impacts to measure. And on that note, be sure to establish the unit you’re going for measuring these impacts. For example, water withdrawal could be measured in cubic metres, energy could be measured in GWh, and material usage could be measured in tonnes.

Use reliable EHS software to record data

Next up, you’re going to need some reliable software where you can input all this information. It’s very important that you do this, as working in spreadsheets and various word documents is clunky, outdated and inefficient, as well as leaving too much room for human error. So, invest in the kind of EHS software supplied by the likes of Airsweb so that you can track key impacts and progression towards your goals in a way that’s accurate, reliable and practical.

Use a tol to calculate your footprint

Once you have a safe place for your data, you’ll need to figure out how to calculate your footprint. If you’ve chosen good quality EHS software, you’ll find that the reporting tools do a lot of hard work for you. But even so, there’s an argument for measuring your environmental footprint using a tool like this one too alongside any other calculations you’re making.
 
Evaluate your results

Now that you’ve measured your results, it’s time to evaluate them. So, schedule in time to review whether or not you’ve met your targets, and therefore whether or not you’re on track to meet your goals. If you’re a long way off target, what needs to change? And if you’ve exceeded your targets, how can you use that knowledge to inform the next time you set the business a target relating to environmental issues? Spend some time pouring over the data to see what trends you can identify, and what can be inferred from them.

Communicate your findings

Even once you’ve evaluated your results, the work hasn’t stopped. You’ll then need to communicate your findings to the rest of the business, which is well worth doing for many reasons – not least for the fact that internal and external stakeholders might be able to feed back with suggestions to incorporate into future goals. Think about how you can communicate the management of your business’s environmental impact to employees too – you may find that it energises them to take it more seriously than they otherwise might.