‘Sustainability’ and ‘Environment’ are closely intertwined, often interchangeably used terms. In this blog, we’ll dive into the definitions of the concepts, the key areas of focus for each, and why it’s important for companies to connect their efforts.
Defining Environmental Management and Sustainability
Environmental Management involves the “actual decisions and actions taken to assess, protect, allocate, develop, use, rehabilitate, remediate, and restore resources and the environment.” As a result, the focus is around measuring and reducing the impacts made to the natural world and its resources. For companies, this includes measuring air emissions, waste, water, and chemical usage at the operational level. A definition of Sustainability, coined by the United Nations Brundtland Commission, offers a broader scope, stating that it is “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This encompasses environmental footprints (the ‘E’ in ESG), plus measuring societal and economic impacts. Companies may track GHG emissions in their supply chain or adopt renewable energy. They can also set targets like Net Zero or carbon neutrality.
These definitions showcase how both areas focus on the idea of assessing and minimizing present-day impacts, while ensuring future harm is contained – making them intrinsically linked. Granular environmental data forms a strong foundation for broader sustainability reporting and strategies. This helps highlight opportunities and guide investments. Connecting both efforts gives companies a complete view of their performance and footprint.
Connecting Environmental and Sustainability Efforts
Get A Full View of Emissions
Managing, measuring, and reporting on carbon emissions has become an increased area of interest as companies look to get a more accurate view of their total footprint as an organization. This includes measuring and mapping emissions across Scopes 1-3, which can be owned by different areas of the company.
Scope 1 and 2 emissions, the direct and indirect emissions owned by a company, are tracked by environmental compliance or EHS teams. For example, these include the energy used by factories to manufacture goods that the company sells.
Scope 3 emissions, which occur across the value chain, are tracked by sustainability or ESG teams. Examples here include fuel used for business travel by employees.
However, when separate teams track this data, it can create silos and reporting redundancies and increase the risk of errors. A standardized, consolidated software tool helps unify data, improves organization, and provides team-wide access to metrics. It also boosts collaboration and enables better data-driven decisions.
Better Prepare for Upcoming Regulations
New regulations like the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) require companies to report both environmental and sustainability data. Specifically, this includes carbon emissions, water and waste usage, and energy efficiency.
Consequently, companies with a consolidated database and audit trails can respond proactively rather than reactively. They can also scale their strategy more easily and align with global reporting standards and frameworks like the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and more.
How Technology Can Support
To bridge environmental and sustainability efforts, companies should partner with a software provider that connects both functions in a single platform.
At Cority, we offer an integrated SaaS platform that spans the full spectrum of EHS and ESG. Our dedicated Environmental and Sustainability Cloud solutions offer the ability collect air, water, waste and chemical usage data across operations at the granular level, while also measuring emissions and carbon footprints across the value chain and reporting to mandatory regulations and frameworks – all in one connected ecosystem of solutions.
