From Open Sustainability
Activity: Sustainability Standardization
Objective
Sustainability Standards provide an objective set of structures that are used to ensure consistent implementation of policies throughout the enterprise. They provide guidelines for all the important entities that the organisation needs to effectively run the business. Sustainability standards should provide examples that illustrate good and bad usage. The examples assist users in knowing whether or not they have complied with the standards.
A review and appeal process is established that encourages improvement. Sustainability standards should be defined in a common repository and make available to all users.
Major Deliverables
Sustainability standards can be classified as follows:
- Specification Standards
- Capture Standards
- Reporting Standards
Tasks
Define Specification Standards
Objective:
Specification Standards govern the definition of sustainability policies. Specification standards are used to ensure that definition is consistent and of high quality. High-quality specification standards encompass the enterprise use of data, are managed and enforced by Sustainability Stewards, and provide clarity such that compliance can be assessed.
Specification Standards include:
- Common naming conventions
- Scoping definition
- Presentation standards
Input:
- High Level Sustainability Requirements
- Sustainability Governance Policies
Output:
Define Capture Standards
Objective:
Capture Standards govern the acquisition and update of sustainability information by operational staff. Collection standards are used to ensure that data is accurately captured, that all important data is captured, that data is entered into the right system, and that existing data is maintained for accuracy. High quality capture standards encompass the enterprise use of data, consider all roles involved in data capture, are managed and enforced by business stewards, and are inclusive of both initial capture and ongoing relevance.
Input:
- High Level Sustainability Requirements
- Sustainability Governance Policies
Output:
Data Capture Standards include:
- Scope of Key Metrics
- Verification/validation standards
- Update Standards
Define Reporting Standards
Objective:
Reporting Standards are the baseline standards for end-user data in the reporting environment. The scope of report specifications should include two important components: first the common enterprise reporting definitions, and second the accessibility and appropriateness of about the report itself .
Input:
- High Level Sustainability Requirements
- Sustainability Governance Policies
Output:
Reporting Standards include:
- Common reporting dimensions
- Accessibility
- Timeliness
Core Supporting Assets
Yellow Flags
- Major inconsistency or lack of agreement around standards
- Historical resistance to following established data standards
Key Resource Requirements
