The Corporate Environmental & Sustainability Governance Survey for 2013

Independent standards company BSI incorporating NCSI has released its second biannual industry survey looking at current Australian corporate practices concerning environmental sustainability and climate change.

According to Nick Koukoulas, the company’s managing director, it is hoped that, through the survey, “organisations will gain a better understanding of current trends in corporate governance and be able to effectively respond to emerging risks as well as opportunities”. Responses came from 80 organisations in 19 different industry sectors, but the two most common sectors were the government and the service industry sector, and manufacturing, representing more than 50% of respondents.

Of these respondents, 100% of manufacturers indicated they have environmental and sustainability policies, conducted energy audits and implemented energy efficient processes; while only 69% of government services organisations undertook energy audits, just 85% have energy and sustainability policies, while 82% have implemented energy-efficient processes.

Koukoulas noted that these findings do not tell the whole story, “with government and services performing more robustly than manufacturing in the delivery of environmental procurement policies (73% against 43%) and sustainability reporting (79% against 63%)”, along with the fact that manufacturers may conduct more energy audits given their high consumption levels.

“However, this doesn’t absent the government and services sector from addressing issues of environmental and sustainability governance,” he said.

There was certainly an overall majority of businesses completing steps towards sustainability, with over 95% having environmental/sustainability policies and almost 90% having a dedicated environment team - up from 75% in 2011. Other categories with increases included measuring carbon emissions (66% to 76%) and environmental procurement policies (45% to almost 60%). Koukoulas says it is no coincidence that an increase in environmental teams has equalled increases in other areas.

However, there were some measures which are still not commonly implemented. The two lowest-rating categories were bonuses for environmental performances (just over 10%) and offsets for emissions (20%). This is in line with some of the sustainability issues considered least important over the next three years: buying carbon credits to offset emissions; staff engagement benefits from sustainability programs; and community engagement benefits from sustainability programs.

The more important issues for organisations included: regulatory compliance for the environment and GHG; improving energy efficiency; corporate governance around environmental sustainability; and customer requirements for environmental performance. Indeed, most issues received decent importance ratings, with only offsetting emissions sitting below the 50% mark. Many organisations are even considering sustainability in the supply chain, with nearly 60% reporting procurement policies that give preference to environmentally preferable products, services and suppliers.

Koukoulas said, “We hope [the report] will help encourage positive corporate action on climate change, energy efficiency and sustainability.” It can be viewed here.