Achieving sustainability goals – whether reducing carbon emissions, improving resource efficiency or enhancing social equity – requires informed decision-making. At the heart of this process lies a crucial element: data.
Effective use of data in planning and delivering sustainability efforts can drive meaningful, measurable change. While some businesses are embracing the latest technology to support their plans, there are plenty of opportunities for smaller businesses too.
Enabling informed decision-making
Data provides the foundation for understanding the interconnections of environmental, social and economic factors. For example, tracking environmental impact through greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, water usage and waste generation allows organisations to identify hotspots of inefficiency and prioritise areas for improvement.
For those organisations more advanced with their data, it can support predictive models that assess the potential impacts of different sustainability strategies, helping leaders make evidence-based decisions for long-term goals.
Establishing your operational carbon baseline is a good first step. You may have access to energy data through a broker or supplier and, if not, you could use your utility bills from the previous 12 months. Utility providers must publish the carbon content of every kWh supplied, so multiplying this by your consumption will give you a starting baseline.
By analysing this consumption data, you are then able to pinpoint inefficiencies in processes and implement energy-saving measures, reducing costs and carbon footprints. At Specsavers, we’ve invested in a carbon accounting platform to manage our emissions data. Although this may not be a requirement for all, it is important to maintain a single source of the truth.
Supporting Innovation
Data is a catalyst for innovation in sustainability practices and technologies. By analysing patterns and trends, organisations can develop solutions to complex challenges. Designing more efficient supply chains using blockchain for traceability is an example of this.
At Specsavers, we’re undertaking a full life cycle analysis on some of our key products. This will help us understand environmental and social impacts through every stage of the process.
Once this is complete, we can leverage this data to design durable products that minimise waste and promote circular economy principles. A simpler version of this might be to consider whether you can break down down any of your processes to understand what parts are most material so that you can prioritise plans effectively.
Compliance with evolving ESG legislation
Governments and regulatory bodies worldwide are enforcing stricter sustainability requirements. In the European Union, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) requires some companies to disclose detailed sustainability data across environmental, social and governance (ESG) headlines.
The purpose of CSRD is to bring greater transparency and comparability across businesses’ sustainability targets and includes a requirement to make publicly disclosed information machine-readable. It will be phased in, with more businesses becoming eligible for reporting each year.
In the UK, ESG related legislations are also evolving, for example, the Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme, in place since 2014. This is now in phase four of its evolution, with latest builds including an action plan and annual progress report, with high level recommendations required to be publicly disclosed.
From March 2025, new simpler recycling rules in England require businesses and relevant non-domestic premises to separate and arrange for the collection of the core waste streams (except for garden waste), by March 31, 2025.
English businesses will have to separate paper and card from other dry recyclables (plastic, metal and glass). This follows workplace recycling legislation changes in Wales in April 2024. Capturing and storing accurate data at an individual practice level is essential to ensure compliance with these legislative requirements.
Facilitating Collaboration
Sustainability challenges, such as climate change and biodiversity loss, will require collaborative solutions across industries, regions and governments. Data serves as a common language that enables stakeholders to align their efforts. Using standardised data frameworks ensures consistency and comparability of sustainability performance, such as with life cycle analysis, or measuring carbon footprints.
At Specsavers, we’ve validated our targets with the Science Based Targets initiative who, by using data, establish emissions targets in alignment with climate science.
In closing, a major benefit of using data driven insights is that it enables organisations, regardless of size, to focus efforts where the biggest impacts can be made, environmentally and often, financially too.
Organisations that focus on building robust processes and data gathering into ‘business as usual’ activities, and use these insights to drive action, will ultimately be the businesses that create lasting value for people, the planet and the communities in which we live.
- Sarah Koulloutas is head of programme delivery (sustainability) at Specsavers.
