Today, in corporate reporting circles, such an approach is called “Transparency” and it occurred to me as I read this article shared by MeetGreen’s twitter feed.  The rest of this post will make more sense of you read the actual article, but at issue is a hotel who earned uncomfortable attention for their ‘green’ initiative to reduce the total guest rooms cleaned each day, thereby ostensibly reducing the energy and water required to support the cleaning.  This initiative has also had the effect of reducing the weekly earning of the housekeeping team, which is where the drama begins.

I feel this train wreck can be a nice example for how organizations often get sustainable business wrong

(in no particular order)

• Stakeholder Engagement. (on a limb here) The organization likely did not engage affected audiences before rolling out the program.  By not providing some background and/or getting their ownership (or at least a notice), they more readily open themselves up to employee backlash.  Perhaps theirs is not a culture where such a discussion/presentation would have been deemed welcome but, as has been proven elsewhere,  employee groups more easily support tough or smart business decisions when they understand the bigger picture or feel a part of the process
• Lack of transparency:  Consumers are more educated/more jaded than ever and when a plan like this gets communicated as being all about the environment it is, to many, offensive.  Is it an important and creative method to partner with customers to reduce costs for mutual benefit? Say that.  Let it be ok that it’s a smart business move which has measurable benefit to eco-efficiency goals if that’s the case.  The biggest benefit to the property, one might gather, is the reduced labor cost.   How that pencils with the reduced room rate would take some study, but it appears to be a successful program to reduce costs.  Why not let that be part of what is measured and reported?  Transparent reporting/communication would have helped to build trust and might even have made this article read differently
• Green. This article raises social responsibility issues which cannot be addressed through the green lens alone.  Businesses which successfully integrate a balanced approach to sustainability, with a measured eye on social and economic indicators as well as those of eco-efficiency, will sooner prosper with a healthy corporate culture in tact.

Many guests are comfortable with the idea of going without getting their sheets and towels changed everyday and might well appreciate a reduced rate as their part of the deal.  Initiatives like these are example of the sort of innovations which bring needed improvement to reducing our impacts on our natural resources.  It’s important that, in pursuit of such initiatives, organizations have clear plans based on triple bottom line considerations, including social elements of the business, and provide transparent reporting on the results of their decisions.  Call a spade a spade and avoid messes like these.

The strategy and stakeholder engagement approaches they developed were so successful, they’ve been captured in two very special reports: The COP15 Sustainable Event Report and, it’s corollary document focused on high level strategy, The Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings Protocol (CSMP). These reports represent the latest, leading example of just how far the meetings industry has come on the journey to more sustainable events.

Webinar Launch!

In honor of Earth Day, the Copenhagen Sustainable Meetings Coalition will officially launch the two reports. In addition, a free webinar (register here) administered by the team that organized COP15 and the Copenhagen city preparations, will provide background and greater detail to sustainable event management strategy as outlined in the CSMP.

Download your copy of the reports here:

Truly a group effort from the entire coalition team, Guy and I are both proud to have participated in this project as authors of both reports. Please share with us your thoughts and ideas for getting these strategies into action throughout the industry.

With lessons learned from the carbon footprint measurement of COP15, Deloitte is providing a list of recommendations for successful carbon footprint measurements for future COP meetings.

1. Establish an effective governance structure

Understanding the most significant GHG sources should be included in the decision-making process for the logistics of the COP meeting in order to achieve the best results and to demonstrate commitment. The governance structure may include a body of representatives from the national government hosting the COP and the UNFCCC to ensure effective planning, coordination and communication.

2. Adopt a step model

The 8-step model described in chapter 2 may apply for measuring the carbon footprint of events. First of all the model makes it possible to focus on the most significant as well as the most uncertain factors; secondly it ensures an effec-tive process; and lastly it provides key messages to communicating in a timely manner during the process. The steps, however, should not necessarily be seen as a sequential process, as they may overlap.

3. Engage with organizers and suppliers on interchange and collection of data

The access to valid data is essential for achieving a credible and applicable result, and most data are collected in collaboration with direct or indirect sup-pliers to the COP meeting. In order to ensure sufficient and timely data collec-tion, the requirement for data should be agreed at an early stage, preferably by the engagement of suppliers.

4. Use acknowledged standards and units of measurement

Standards for organisations (eg. GHG Protocol and ISO 14064) and events (eg. BS 8901 and ISO 20121 in the future) may be deployed at COP meetings, however the standards designed for organisations must be adjusted to suit the purpose.

5. Keep track of documentation

All data and information sources as well as preliminary results should be tra-ceable. Focus on the ability to revise and compare estimates as they evolve before and after the conference – including the possibility to estimate and doc-ument GHG emission reductions from specific initiatives.

6. Make control calculations by alternative methods

Whenever an alternative source of data or method of calculation is available, it can be used to control the validity of the method applied in the methodology. If large deviations occur, the causes for those deviations may be found and explained, and potential errors may be corrected.

7. Get third party viewpoint

Involve a third party such as an independent research institution, NGO or similar in decisions regarding scope, methodology and data sources. Such involvement may help increase credibility in the results, ensure that special public interests are considered, and – to some extent – prevent criticism from observers. The involvement may be established on an official or ad hoc basis. In addition, the reporting entity may engage an independent auditor to express an opinion on the carbon footprint.

8. Compare and benchmark to similar events

When possible, similar events whose carbon footprint has been measured may be studied to compare and benchmark, and to control the validity of applied calculations. As described in the introduction, some factors may vary greatly and make it challenging to compare. Those factors include the nature of the events’ activities and local conditions such as infrastructure and weather conditions7.

9. Estimate the level of confidence

Quantitative measurements of the level of confidence is a time consuming and costly discipline. Therefore a more simple qualitative consideration of level of confidence may be used to evaluate whether the overall results have a high, medium or low level of confidence, and whether initiatives should be taken to raise confidence levels. If the level of confidence of key data is relatively low due to factors yet unknown, it is recommended to add a buffer to the total estimate. As an example, please see Appendix II – levels of confidence. (comment: VERY IMPORTANT)

10. Utilize results for communication and awareness raising

The results of the pre-conference estimate are suitable for communication and awareness raising during the conference. Using sufficiently plausible numbers for quantifying the effect of participants’ behavior may encourage more people to behavioral changes.

Down load the report: COP15 Carbon Footprint Deloitte 2010.pdf

It highlights the strategy, actions and results of what has been achieved in the first few years of the MCI sustainability journey. There are 2 parts.

1. MCI Corporate Social Responsibility Report
2. MCI Communication on Progress on implementing the United Nations Global Compact principles

Preparing such a report is a daunting task. Collecting the data, creating an engaging format,  editing all of that – it seemed unending and sometimes exasperating. Our goal was to make it objective, driven by the “materiality” of the data (geeky – reporting word), data based and full of individual stories. The result is a nice looking document but it’s admittedly light on measurement data.

Key Learnings from this exercise include:

• Create a measurement strategy and start to collect data a year or more before you need to report on it. In this report we failed to produce an annual carbon footprint of MCI. However it has helped us to drive the implementation of the Green Globe Index – which will provide us that information next year
• You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Eg: It’s almost impossible to set realistic reduction targets if you do not have an idea of your footprint.
• Reporting really makes you review and improve on your strategy. It focuses you to break it down into manageable chunks (ie the plan), set clear objectives and structure how you achieve the goals
• Use GRI to help structure your measureables and reporting. Again we started late and its not shown in this report – but it was fully reviewed and is integrated into the 2010 report strategy.
• Reporting is a superb engagement tool. By asking junior and senior MCI talent to feedback on the report we increased the level of engagement and dialog to the complete MCI CSR strategy. Ask your staff to write a quote for the report.
• Use a good designer who has a lot of patience… With 1000 changes to format, text, style etc you need someone with the patience of Buddha.

Now that its published, we need to share it.  The whole point is to have this report serve as the beginning of a dialogue with our stakeholders, without whom we could not improve.  Please take a few moments to read through this and let us know your thoughts.  It’s but another step in the long journey to a more sustainable MCI.

Today the Climate Disclosure Standards Board in conjunction with the  Carbon Disclosure project and the big 4 accounting firms launched a globally accepted framework, based on existing standards, for corporate reporting on climate change. This will be interesting for your CFOs – http://www.cdsb-global.org/draft-reporting-framework/

Sustainability and carbon reporting will become mandatory in many countries in the near future. It already is in Denmark, the UK, probably will soon be in Norway, Australia and perhaps even in China. The US is not far behind.

The meetings industry will soon be under pressure to measure their emissions. It wont be optional!Perhaps its time for an industry standard way of measure the GHG emissions of the events sector?

Its interesting that some countries have chosen the Global Compact as their reporting standard. Thankfully sector companies such as MCI and Intercontinental Hotels and associations such as MPI, have already signed the compact so will be ahead of the game.

MCI is working towards its footprint measurement implementing the GreenGlobe Index system and will publish its footprint in the next annual report.

For more info on sustainability reporting

http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=6385