Mandatory Carbon Reporting In Force from September 30th, 2013 – Not April or October

There’s an awful lot of misinformation out there about UK mandatory carbon reporting; namely when it comes into force, which companies are affected and what action they need to take. It’s vital that everyone is clear about when the regulations take effect at the very least, as getting this date wrong could be disastrous for some companies – particularly those who have a September year-end. Since we Ecometricans are in the habit of bringing clarity to matters of environmental uncertainty or ambiguity, I thought I would take it upon myself to do just that.

The draft final guidance that accompanies the regulation states:

“The requirement comes in to place for company reporting years ending on or after 30 September 2013. You will need to check what reporting year your company uses. This refers to the year-end date, not the date of publication of the directors’ report.”

So, if your company’s financial year-end date will be on or after 30th September this year, you will have to include your GHG emissions statement within your next directors’ report. If you are one of these companies, you will need to include data from the year we are currently in, which means you already need to be collecting and compiling your scope one and two emissions data. If you aren’t, I’m afraid the bad news is that you are already behind with your compliance to the mandatory carbon reporting requirements.

Beware of Misinformation

Be wary of this when looking for help with mandatory carbon reporting. Lots of software companies and consultants who claim to have information about mandatory carbon reporting are still discussing April 2013 as the regulation start date – obviously this is not the case, since we are now in May and the regulations have yet to go before Parliament. An earlier draft of the regulation amended the start date to “on or after 1st October 2013”, which is another date that is still being mistakenly reported since the recent revision to 30th September.

If you’re concerned that the mandatory carbon reporting regulations are already getting away from you, never fear – help is at hand. Ecometrica has released versions of Ecometrica Sustainability specifically for the FTSE 350 and Smallcap markets. Better still, Ecometrica Sustainability audit-ready outputs are assured by PwC and fully compliant with the new regulations, removing any risk of non-compliance for your company.

Get in touch with us to find out more about how Ecometrica Sustainability can help you comply with the regulations.