UK SECR Reporting: Our new environmental report equips businesses to meet requirements 

The Green Deal framework states that EU member states must report co2 emission data to authorities and provide funding to grow a low-carbon economy. But, of course, to collect this data, they require companies to report on energy use.

Since Brexit, the UK is no longer following the EU’s strategy; instead, businesses must comply with the governments existing Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR). 

As a result, many businesses are trying to navigate their way through the framework.

Below we outline the SECR requirements, how our new reporting function accurately reports on fuel consumption and Co2 emissions and the types of businesses we are working with, from sustainability consultants and partners to the brands and SME’s themselves. 

What does SECR require from businesses?

The SECR industry legislation was introduced in April 2019 and replaced the previous Carbon Reduction Commitment scheme. This strategy underpins the UK’s commitment to being carbon net neural by 2050. 

The legislation requires quoted organisations (those listed on the stock exchange) with over 250 employees, or an annual turnover of £36m or an annual balance sheet of over £18m to report on their global emissions and emissions intensity, as well as global energy usage. Businesses will also be required to provide details of their actions to increase energy efficiency across the company. 

Private businesses that can provide evidence they consume less than 40,000kWH annually are not required to comply with SECR reporting, while public sector organisations are exempt. 

By disclosing these details of carbon emissions and energy use publicly, businesses can identify where they can cut emissions, improve efficiencies and potentially reduce any costs associated with doing so.  

Becoming more sustainable also presents an opportunity to build trust with customers, prospects, and potential investors; businesses that are transparent and accountable for environmental sustainability are known to experience stronger brand loyalty. While from a financial perspective, more funding is being made available to sustainability-focused businesses.

More than 75% of banks have stated their belief that there will be a sustained increase in demand for environmental, social and governance investment options.

Building an effective carbon strategy needs reliable tools and reporting

To build an effective carbon strategy and report accurately, you need consistency. There is no set process for measuring your usage under this new framework. Still, businesses must declare their methodology and continue to use the same metrics in future years to allow for accurate comparisons. 

In order to comply with the requirements, businesses must implement the tools and software that will accurately and reliably collect data with little manual interference. 

Whether you meet the criteria set out in the SECR legislation or are following your own strategy to become more sustainable – ABAX can help businesses form a crucial part of your carbon strategy with our new Environmental Report from ABAX Smart Connect. 

How does our new Environmental Report help?

Scope 1, 2 and some (travel-related) Scope 3 emissions must all be reported, along with associated energy and fuel data. In addition, the legislation covers fuel use in vehicles: both owned and leased by the business and grey fleet - if the company contributes towards the fuel. 

Failure to comply with the reporting can result in hefty fines. 

The new ABAX Environmental Report is a unique platform that enables you to add and analyse all your machinery and vehicles, irrespective of the manufacturer. As long as your assets can be traced from the factory and are connected via ABAX Smart Connect, all the required data points will be retrieved in accordance with ISO Standard 15143-3 (AEMP 2.0).  

The name of the piece of machinery or vehicle will automatically be the name or make we retrieve from the manufacturer. However, giving the machinery in-house names will make it easier to distinguish between and analyse whether digger 1 pollutes more than digger 2 and whether their fuel consumption differs.   

Machinery with ABAX hardware will use the average fuel consumption in their usage log to calculate emissions, which is also a feature of the new environmental report. This ensures a complete environmental report covering all the fleet’s emissions, irrespective of the machinery or vehicle and type of telematics used. 

The report will map the machinery idling both duration and in percentage. In the construction industry idling normally occur around 30 – 40%. A reduction of this KPI can lead to significant savings in fuel, CO2 emission and money. The environment report allow sorting after this KPI and makes it easy to compare machines across different OEMs within the ABAX smart connect solution

Complete overview of the following parameters: 

• DEPARTMENT 

• NAME 

• MAKE 

• MODEL 

• OPERATING HOURS  

• FUEL USED 

• AVERAGE FUEL USED 

• CO2 EMISSION

• IDLING DURATION

• IDLING PERCENTAGE

Who are we working with when it comes to carbon reporting?

The SECR reporting requirements dictate that the report is a section within the standard annual returns that the business makes and files with Companies House. So, by default, our team can work directly with business owners or alongside anyone involved in the preparation and production of these reports, such as accountants, auditors and advisors.  

Many consultancies work in this field, helping businesses align their operations with the SECR requirements – ABAX is well placed to provide the software and platform that can provide the reliable reporting mechanism for vehicle and mixed equipment fleets.  

Whether you need to report on usage or emissions for SECR, tenders or are following your own sustainability agenda – ABAX can help.