2Sustain

Most companies are tracking some data on their operational environmental performance, but most of that is limited to tracking electricity, according to new survey results from iReuse.

The nationwide Facility and Sustainability Data Management Survey found that:

• 74 percent of those polled are tracking some utility data, with 72 percent of those tracking electricity, 51 percent tracking water, and less than half tracking natural gas and waste diversion.

• Among survey respondents, utility data is tracked by facilities (44 percent), the sustainability department (24 percent) and the accounting department (16 percent).

• 46 percent do not track any other sustainability metrics, such as green purchasing, business travel, employee commute, or a carbon footprint.

• 86 percent currently use Excel to track their utility data, but only 33 percent are satisfied or very satisfied with this tool.

Even though environmental stewardship has moved into the mainstream of business strategy, sustainability metrics continue to evolve and unfortunately, they remain far from an exact science.

iReuse concludes that although there is broad interest for increased tracking of sustainability metrics, companies need to expand the metrics they are tracking in order to achieve their operational efficiency goals  and reduce their environmental impact. The survey results point to a broad opportunity for companies to first, improve their tracking performance and then, integrate this data enterprise-wide, throughout the growing number of departments that are now accountable for environmental performance.

The complete survey results are available here.